Your favourite opera singer

In a moment of madness I announced to Opera-L that I am conducting a poll of the favourite opera singers singing today, and, furthermore, I would promulgate this on blog and Twitter.

What I actually wrote was:

As an experiment/illustration, I will ask list members to nominate their favourite five singers currently singing. Post in the comments, or just send to me privately at blogcomments@btinternet.com*. You have until 31 October - Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere. I will publish the top twenty by votes and provide a link to a list of more detailed breakdown of all votes cast (anonymised, of course). Hopefully, I will be able to process the results within a week or so after.

To kick things off, my current five favourites currently performing are Plácido Domingo, Iestyn Davies, Gerald Finley, Jonas Kaufmann, and Carolyn Sampson.

This list excludes people who are currently 'off sick' or I haven't heard for at least a couple of years, and it excludes singers who I like almost as much. I reserve the right to change my mind next week next month or next year! And I accept that I might end up not liking the final result!

The more people vote, the more 'valid' the results. Although, of course, the results will only illustrate who is the most popular from a self-selected electorate. Oh, and any entries that include 'Kathryn Jenkins', or 'Paul Potts' or anyone else who cannot claim to be a professional opera singer will be wholly disqualified.

* the sharp-eyed will notice a slight difference from the contact details on Opera-L

Comments

[Faye xx]

That's a very interesting experiment and I'm happy to take part. My 5 nominations are: (in no particular order)

Bryn Terfel
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Sarah Connolly
Roberto Alagna
David Daniels

[AJ]

Apart from a handful of typical names, I see this as being a one-vote-per-opera-singer type of outcome, plus a few disqualifications. It's just too varied.

If you'd asked for a favorite operatic work or something like that, I could see writing about what I like, along with a reason why. But as it is, I think people concentrate too much on performers anyway, and have for decades, at the expense of composers, other musicians, and even actual operas.

[Nonie]

Here's my list:
Placido Domingo
Nina Stemme
Jonas Kaufman
Rolando Villazon
Carolyn Sampson

[White Rabbit]

5 - it is either too much or too little :-)

Placido Domingo
Juan Diego Florez
Waltraud Meier
Sondra Radvanovsky
Joseph Calleja

[Peter]

Here are Mine -

Juan Diego Florez
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Christine Schaefer
Angela Gheorghiu
Anne Sofie von Otter

[Gert]

Thanks for the contributions, please keep them coming.

AJ, part of what I'm trying to do is to look at the raw data and see if there is any meaning in it. I don't suppose anyone will correctly predict the outcome, although it will be interesting to see if the choice of any individual coincides with the top 5 in popularity.

[Mark Berry]

Here goes:

Jonas Kaufmann
Waltraud Meier
Simon Keenlyside
Thomas Allen
Erwin Schrott

[Steven Rowland]

Placido Domingo
Karita Mattila
Juan Diego Florez
Joyce DiDonato
Renee Fleming

(I'm excluding Villazon on the grounds that I take it you did: that he's currently "off sick". I'm also excluding Cecilia Bartoli oddly on similar grounds to those for excluding Jenkins and Potts - in that while she is indubitably an opera singer I have never seen her perform in an opera, only in concert.)

[Amelia]

Probably too many

Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann
Juan Diego Florez
And to name a woman:
Natalie Dessay

I guess I’m disqualified with my triple vote :-)

[Christine Linke]

My list:

Plácido Domingo
Leo Nucci
Ana María Martínez
René Pape
Anja Harteros

[Stelucia]

My List:
Angela Gheorghiu
Annick Massis
Piotr Beczala
Laszlo Polgar
Jonas Kaufmann

[Mary Victor]

My List

Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Jonas Kaufmann
Sondra Radvanovsky
Rene Pappe
Raymon Vargas

[Jane Clay]

My favourites are

Placido Domingo
Sondra Radvanovsky
Ana Maria Martinez
Juan Diego Florez
Dmitri Hvorostovsky

[Kenderina]

Here it is mine :

Jonas Kaufmann
Simon Keenlyside
Juan Diego Florez
Joyce diDonato
Kyle Ketelsen

[Laura]

My list of favourites:
Placido Domingo
Rene Pape
Waltraud Meier
Bryn Terfel
Juan Diego Florez

[Melissa Houle]

My favorites:
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Rolando Villazon (Since I hope he'll be back singing soon.)
Anna Netrebko
Stephanie Blythe
Marcelo Alvarez

Five is not enough! =o)I'm sorry Bryn Terfel and Thomas Hampson--you didn't quite make the cut

[Jan]

Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Sondra Radvanovsky
Renee Flemiing
Jonas Kaufmann
Waltraud Meier

[Bella Napoli]

My list:

Placido Domingo
Daniela Dessi'
Ildebrando d'Arcangelo
Anna Netrebko
Stephen Costello

[Robin Gosnall]

Patricia Petibon
Miah Persson
Joyce DiDonato
Renée Fleming
Anja Silja

[Silverfin]

To make it easier, have discounted anyone I haven't heard live, in an opera, in the last year. And I'll probably still disagree with myself tomorrow.

Gerald Finley
Brindley Sherratt
Simon Keenlyside
Stephanie Blythe
Bryn Terfel
(in no particular order)

Oops no tenors :-)

[AlisonC]

Sarah Connolly
Nina Stemme - there's the recency effect for you
Simon Keenlyside
Gerald Finley
Mark Padmore
John Mark Ainsley...oops, five definitely isn't enough, can't decide between the last two but will drop Padmore if pushed as he doesn't do much actual opera

[Jane Ennis]

Thomas Hampson
Karita Mattila
Sarah Connolly
Philip Langridge (hope you don't think this is an odd choice...I am going to his 70th birthday recital soon!)
Nina Stemme

[Miriam]

Ruggero Raimondi
Marcelo Alvarez
Juan Diego Florez
Elina Garanca
Alessandro Corbelli

[Michael]

Juan Diego Florez
Natalie Dessay
Rolando Villazon
Alessandro Corbelli
Joyce diDonato

This was harder than it sounded actually! Elina Garanca was sooo close!

[Karen]

I'll play along too...... in no particular order:

Joyce DiDonato
Joseph Calleja
Elina Garanca
Placido Domingo
Colin Lee

I was recently introduced to Colin Lee and have found that I actually prefer Colin Lee as a "whole package" over Florez and Brownlee. But there are SO many singers; I could add another 20 in an instant so had to give it some thought!

Thanks for the fun idea!