While wracking my brain for the ideal focus of the next vocal-identification quiz, I yelled “Hojotoho!” when it came to me: “O hehrstes wunder” from Wagner’s Die Walküre.

For that ecstatic outburst lasting less than a minute I swiftly gathered up an exaltation of Sieglindes from live performances spanning nearly 80 years. In fact, there were so many I decided to split up the quiz into three parts.

Today’s installment features an easy collection of instantly identifiable voices. On Wednesday there will be a more challenging selection with the final most difficult, ear-teasing octet arriving on Friday.

Final answers for the 24 sopranos must be posted by midnight EDT on Monday May 11.

As Christian has amply demonstrated his complete mastery of all Wagner recordings, I request that he cheer from the sidelines for this one.

Happy guessing!