On this day in 1991 soprano Renée Fleming made her impromptu Metropolitan Opera stage debut as Countess Almaviva.

Allan Kozinn in The New York Times:

Mozart’s music creates instant sympathy for the Countess, who sings the touching lament “Porgi amor” in her first moments on the stage. But the music cannot do the work alone, and in Ms. Fleming the Met has a lyric soprano who engages the listener immediately. Her timbre is pure and fresh, and she endowed the Countess’s arias with the combination of dignity and emotional depth that is the essence of the role.

Her responsive portrayal did not rely solely on the Countess’s desolation, but also captured the role’s playfulness, anger and, in the end, the Countess’s especially graceful form of forgiveness.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKG3BnHae_o

Happy 91st birthday mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFoK9RfDSrs

Happy 84th birthday mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV5Vl9IAV4M