Lucia Popp bust is installed at Vienna Opera

Lucia Popp bust is installed at Vienna Opera

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norman lebrecht

June 20, 2017

The lustrous Slovak soprano, unforgettable to all who heard her, has been lastingly commemorated at the Vienna State Opera with a bust in the public lobby.

‘I am convinced that something from her is still present here, in the Vienna State Opera,’ said director Dominique Meyer. The late Georg Solti said: ‘I am convinced there will never be another Sophie or Susanna like her.’

Lucia Popp (1939-1993)

 

photo: Marek Velček/TASR

Comments

  • Olassus says:

    I was just going to post the SAME video! — an unsurpassable performance at the 1980 reopening of Zurich Opera House.

    She’s also wonderful in this:

    https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B0007Z1C4G/

  • Alexander says:

    very nice of lovely Vienna

  • Fritz Curzon says:

    I wonder if at the age of nine or ten she was taken to hear my mother’s (Maria Cebotari) last Susanna in Vienna- she would have been too young to hear her Sophie in Berlin. Sadly I was far too young even for that Susanna. Regrettably only ever heard the wonderful Lucia Popp on air/records.

  • Lawrence Kershaw says:

    Divine lady…. Reaching for my Mahler 4 and Strauss Four Last Songs right now!

    • Olassus says:

      I heard her once: Vier letzte Lieder — at Jones Hall, of all places.

      [doffs his Stetson]

    • Sue says:

      Same. I have her singing these works with Klaus Tennstedt. Beautiful singer, fabulous voice and died much too young of that horrific brain cancer. She was Kleiber’s lover at one stage and apparently her death hit him quite badly. The rest of us were shocked too. Great news for Wiener Staatsoper putting her on a pedestal where she belongs.

  • Bill Worley says:

    Her Arabella at Covent Garden in 1986 with a stunning cast that included Marie McLaughlin as Zdenka, Helga Dernesch and Walter Berry as Adalaide and Count Waldner remains in the memory.

  • AndrewB says:

    Lucia Popp was the most lovely human being as well as a superb singer. I was in a production of Der Rosenkavalier with her in Nice. By then ( just a year or two before her death) she had graduated from Sophie to the Marschallin. I was tackling various small roles in my first year of opera. It was fantastic to stand in the wings and listen as she launched the great trio. A unique artist who merits this tribute from the Vienna State Opera.

  • John Borstlap says:

    A truly wonderful singer, unforgettable. I’m sure also her bust will be very popular.

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