Death of a soaring coloratura, 84

Death of a soaring coloratura, 84

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norman lebrecht

December 17, 2018

The death is reported of  Sylvia Geszty, a Hungarian soprano who was East Berlin’s go-to Queen of the Night in the late 1960s.

She went west in 1970, joining Stuttgart Opera and guesting frequently in Munich.

Internationally, she was seen and heard in Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Amsterdam and Glyndebourne.

Sylvia was 84.

Comments

  • Pedro says:

    She was a great Sophie in Rosenkavalier. I remember a superb performance with Evelyn Lear, Tatiana Troyanos and Walter Berry in 1974.

  • Edgar says:

    I cherish her radiant performance as Zerbinetta in the legendary recording under Rudolf Kempe, trying to cheer up Gundula Janowitz’ equally superb Ariadne. The recording is one of many testaments of the exceedingly high quality of music making in the German Democratic Republic, not only in Berlin, Leipzig or Dresden (where the recording was made0, but pretty much all over the country at that time.

  • Her Mozart Konzertarien CD is divine.

  • Maximien says:

    My Gilda, Mimi, Queen of the Night, all 4 Hoffmann ladies (and many more) and the best Zerbinetta I ever heard in my life in Stuttgart. A really great singer. RIP

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