Sutherland’s “Santo di patria,” Baltsa’s barnstorming Eboli, Callas’s peerless ’57 Ballo Amelia, Dame Kiri wistful and plangent in the Willow Song… and I could go on and on, given that nearly every major star has excelled in one role or another from Italian opera’s arguably most significant composer. But I thought I might as well go with where it all started with CKurwenal’s opera queen origin story.

I’ve said before that opera first sucked me in after I saw an hour-long program from the BBC’s ‘Omnibus’ series of documentaries that covered diverse subjects within the arts over many years, when they chose to focus on opera divas. Many of them are on YouTube, but not, as far as I can tell, this one. I loved everything in it but the part that made the biggest impression was the clip from Dame Gwyneth’s immolation scene, obviously from the Chereau/Bayreuth production that was filmed in I think ’80 or ’82.

After that, I raided my parents CD collection, desperately hoping to find something from Dame Gwyneth among them. Happily, she was represented, but only by this one track on a compilation they had called The World of Verdi. I still think it’s up there with the best recordings of this aria from anyone, exhibiting beauty, power, control and passion. I played it over and over with the kind of obsession only a teenager can muster.