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!

 

Christopher Corwin

Christopher Corwin began writing for parterre box in 2011 under the pen name “DeCaffarrelli.” His work has also appeared in , The New York Times, Musical America, The Observer, San Francisco Classical Voice and BAMNotes. Like many, he came to opera via the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts which he began listening to at age 11. His particular enthusiasm is 17th and 18th century opera. Since 2015 he has curated the weekly podcast Trove Thursday on parterre box presenting live recordings.

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