Looking at her schedule for 2026, it’s hard to believe that Sondra Radvanovsky once seemed like the Verdi soprano of our time.
“While we do have a few adept Verdi sopranos,” wrote Valmont in a review for Parterre Box back in 2010, articulating a frequently heard prediction that never quite reached fruition, “the one most promising for ‘Legendary’ status is Sondra Radvanovsky, whose new album
Verdi Arias all but seals her status as a leader in the crowd of Verdi specialists.”
“Ms. Radvanovsky’s position as one of the Metropolitan Opera’s top Verdi sopranos is now secure,” Vivian Schewitzer similarly declared in a New York Times profile from around the same time that also includes lines like “Ms. Radvanovsky, who lives in Toronto, is encouraged in her dieting and operatic endeavors by her husband[.]” Peter Gelb also piped in to say, “It’s always been a rarity to have a great Verdi soprano and we need her in these roles. Her voice is distinctive, and that is part of what makes her so attractive — as you know it’s her when you hear her.”
Radvanovsky’s performances in big Verdi roles at the Met go back to tour performances as the Trovatore Leonora at Staten Island’s Miller Field in 1998, though 2004 performances as the Vespri Elena put her on the map. Of course, you will also remember that Radvanovsky only joined the cast of the David Alden Ballo in maschera in 2012 after Karita Mattila dropped out. Reviewing that performance for Parterre, Leontyne’s Weave made yet another premature conclusion that “[her] ascension to the position of reigning Verdi soprano at the MET has proven to be one of the few unequivocal artistic glories of the tumultuous Gelb administration.”
But we now see that the inability to consistently engage high-profile singers like Radvanovsky — or Benjamin Bernheim or Xabier Anduaga or, until recently, Lisette Oropesa — in any repertoire at all, not least Verdi, is one of the Gelb era’s most notable shortcomings; one wonders why, other than her own artistic interests, this “indispensable” Verdi soprano was essentially overlooked for every new production of a Verdi opera since the 2009 McVicar Trovatore that she premiered.
Even if her massive repertoire has at some point or another included the leading soprano roles in at least Don Carlo, Vespri, Ernani, Trovatore, Aïda, Ballo, Stiffelio, Forza, Attila, and Luisa Miller, Verdi has figured more minimally into her schedule over the past five years and next season, there is no Verdi on her calendar at all; in fact, it’s Puccini — Turandot, Manon Lescaut, and Minnie — nearly all the way.
Today’s performance, a clip from Attila recorded in Madrid a year ago this month, was Radvanovsky’s most recent performance of a complete Verdi role (and only her second outing with this score) and her first one since Forza in London in fall 2023. Radvanovsky, who was recently announced as an “Artistic Advisor” at her hometown Lyric Opera of Chicago, has said that she intends to start limiting the roles she adds to her repertoire; one wonders if, implicit in that, is the decision to leave Verdi behind for good?
Verdi: Attila, “Liberamente or piangi…”
Sondra Radvanovsky
Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Teatro Real, Madrid
In-house
17 May 2025
