HMV, 1937-38 · Great 78 ProjectThe Queen of the Night on our 1937 discs, recorded when she was nearly forty and still gleaming above high F. Born in a village outside Dresden, she sang from the Semperoper to the Met and taught a whole generation of sopranos.
At forty-nine, when most coloraturas retire the role, she made her Met debut and kept the top notes for six more seasons. Then she taught: her most famous student, Rita Streich, became the next great Queen of the Night, which is about as direct as inheritance gets in opera.