Overview
Biography
Lucia Popp(born Lucia Poppová; 12 November 1939 – 16 November 1993) was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette soprano, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Straussand Wagner operas. Her career included performances at Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala. Popp was also a highly regarded recitalist and lieder singer.
Life and career
Lucia Popp was born Lucia Poppová in Záhorská Vesin the Slovak State(later Czechoslovakiaand today Slovakia).
Popp initially entered the BratislavaAcademy to study drama. While she began her vocal lessons during this period as a mezzo-soprano, her voice developed a high upper register to the degree that her professional debut was as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flutein Bratislava, a role she revived in a 1963 recording conducted by Otto Klemperer.
In 1963, Herbert von Karajaninvited her to join the Vienna State Opera, where she debuted as Barbarina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Popp had strong ties to the Vienna State Operathroughout her career, and in 1979 was named an Austrian Kammersängerin. She made her Covent Gardendebut in 1966 as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, and her Metropolitan Operadebut in 1967 as the Queen of the Night (production designed by Marc Chagall).
During the 1970s, Popp turned from coloratura roles to lyric ones. Then, in the 1980s, she added heavier roles to her repertoire, such as Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrinand Eva in the same composer's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. As a result of this vocal progression, Popp sang various roles in the same opera at different stages in her career, including Zdenka and Arabella in Richard Strauss's Arabella; Susanna and the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; Queen of the Night and Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute; Zerlina, Donna Elvira, and later Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni; Adele and Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus; Annchen and Agathe in Weber's Der Freischütz; and Sophie and the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.
She played the role of Tereza in the 1963 Slovak film Jánošík (sk)about the Slovak highwaymanJuraj Jánošík.
Personal life and death
Her first husband was Hungarian pianist and conductor György Fischer.
Popp died of brain cancer in 1993 in Munich, Germany, at the age of 54.She was buried in Cintorín Slávičie údolie, Bratislava. Her second husband, noted German tenor, Peter Seiffert, survived her. In March 2007, on BBC Music magazine's list of the "20 All-time Best Sopranos" based on a poll of 21 British music critics and BBC presenters, Popp placed seventh.
