![]() |
![]() |
![]()
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]()
|
Angela Gheorghiu
Then click here to play our Times Classical Divas playlist
20. Katherine Jenkins
Well, what were you expecting? Neath's favourite blonde continues her stranglehold on the UK's classical charts, but Jenkins struggles even for name recognition around the rest of the world. She claims to idolise Callas, but her treacly mezzo (always miked) is a world away from the Greek diva's quintessentially operatic grandeur and immaculate colouring of the words. (Have you ever tried listening to Jenkins in Italian?) And though she gives good face, it's all in the service of Jenkins rather than any characters she might want to bring to life. She will, she says, sing opera when she's ready; our reaction is - don't hold your breath.
Voice: 2
Visuals: 6
Roles: 0
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 5
18/50
Watch Katherine Jenkins sing Calon Lan with the Welsh National Symphony Orchestra
19. Veronique Gens
Big in France, Gens is the ice to Dessay's fire: cool, aristocratic, poised. It's made her the natural choice for period conductors like Rene Jacobs, but that association has also limited her profile and reputation. It also means that she generally sticks to Handel and Mozart - small-scale stuff for a prima donna.
Voice: 7
Visuals: 6
Roles: 4
Back story: 0
Celeb factor: 2
19/50
Watch Véronique Gens sing Ogni vento from Handel's Agrippina
Voice: 8
Visuals: 6
Roles: 3
Back story: 2
Celeb factor: 1
20/50
Watch Elina Garanca singing from Rossini's La Cenerentola
17. Waltraud Meier
Legendary In Germany, elusive elsewhere, Waltraud Meier is a powerhouse mezzo who on a good day will blow your socks off as Isolde or Kundry. Trouble is, it's a small body of roles that her potent dramatic prescence can do justice to, and she is already moving into the character parts that signal a great singer's twilight years. Still a force to be reckoned with, mind - but Meier has no truck with celebrity.
Voice 7
Visuals 9
Roles 4
Back story 1
Celeb factor 1
22/50
Watch Waltraud Meier sing Beethoven's Fidelio
16. Maesha Bruggergosman
How many opera singers look like disco divas? This wonderfully sassy Canadian soprano is a real one-off, so let’s hope she makes the most of it in the years to come. She could start by getting seen further afield than North America, and dipping more of a toe into opera than she’s hitherto managed.
Voice: 6
Visuals: 7
Roles: 1
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 2
22/50
Watch Maesha Brueggergosman sing D'Oreste, d'Ajace from Idomeneo
15. Nicole Cabell
Another voice from the new generation that is already capturing attention: Cabell has exotic roots (including both African-American and South Korean elements) which have produced a smooth, rich soprano of class and sophistication. Now we’re waiting for a breakout performance on stage and something on record that shows that her A&R people know what to do with her.
Voice: 6
Visuals: 6
Roles: 5
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 34
23/50
Watch Nicole Cabell talk about her critically lauded debut recitals in Cardiff
14 Amanda Roocroft
Hugely promoted in the 1990s classical music boom, eventually the bubble burst on Amanda Roocroft - a lyric soprano who never quite delivered the goods on her own spin. But over the last few years she's dusted herself off and come back fighting, winning an Olivier award for her searing Jenufa at English National Opera and impressing with her newfound dramatic skills. A born-again Christian, she's not interested in the big hype of diva-dom, but ENO are lucky to have a house diva as skilled as she is.
Voice: 6
Visuals: 5
Roles: 5
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 3
24/50
Watch Amanda Roocroft sing Come Scoglio from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte
13 Barbara Frittoli
Fading badly since she first came to prominence - not because the silky Italian soprano hasn’t got the vocal goods, but because there’s something frustatingly passive about her career path and demeanour. That Frittoli's favourite part seems to be the frightened soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem tells you everything you need to know: she’ll never be a tigress in the Italian repertoire that should be her birthright.
Voice: 7
Visuals: 5
Roles: 7
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 3
25/50
Watch Barbara Frittoli as Desdemona sing the Willow song from Verdi's Otello
12. Kate Royal
Enter said shiny moppet - though that may be a slighty unfair verdict on one of Britain’s big hopes for the future. Armed with a big EMI contract, Royal is getting plenty of moody photoshoots and lush recordings - the continuing question is whether she has the star power to make the clothes fit. In the meantime, nice English girl done good will have to suffice as her USP, though it shouldn’t be the final word.
Voice: 7
Visuals: 7
Roles: 4
Back story: 3
Celeb factor: 4
25/50
Watch Kate Royal sing Delibes's Les filles de Cadix
11. Eva-Maria Westbroek
Even Maria Callas sang Wagner (early on in her career she produced a blinding Isolde), so just because this powerful Dutch soprano is on the road to the big Wagner roles - and already sings an astonishing Sieglinde - doesn’t put her out of the running in the big diva stakes. Still, it’s a handicap: the big German or Russian roles don’t lend themselves to glamour, and Westbroek is already well into the mid-part of her career after many years of setbacks and auditions that went nowhere. She also lacks any support from the record industry, always after the next shiny moppet rather than a survivor like her.
Voice: 9
Visuals: 4
Roles: 4
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 3
26/50
Watch Eva-Maria Westbroek in Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth de Mzensk
10. Joyce DiDonato
A fabulous mezzo who should be better known, Joyce DiDonato really is a complete package. She made something really special out of Covent Garden’s tedious new production of “The Barber of Seville”, producing a Rosina of teasing charm and fabulous vocal assurance. But can a professional, affable mezzo like her really break into the diva big-time? Up against Netrebko and her baby or Gheorghiu and her temper, what she badly needs is a gimmick. Her mildly gossipy blog might be it - if she can be persuaded to be more indiscreet.
Voice: 8
Visuals: 7
Roles: 5
Back story: 2
Celeb factor: 5
27/50
Watch Joyce DiDonato sing and discuss Handel Arias
9. Magdalena Kozena
Mrs Simon Rattle has many things going for her - not least the headline-friendly story of how she lured the frizzy haired maestro away from his second wife. On her own merits, she was already a star before she met him, artfully promoted as a sultry Slav by her record label, DG, on her first album of Czech love songs.
And since? The song recitals have impressed much more than opera, where the mezzo can be gawky and mannered. That's a quandary she hasn't yet resolved - although she's a great vocal actress, it doesn't seem like she's fully harnessed those skills to a great staged production.
Voice: 6
Visuals: 5
Roles: 4
Back story: 7
Celeb factor: 6
28/50
Watch Magdalena Kozena sing Bach's Cantata for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
8. Anna Caterina Antonacci
The Italian sphinx has that all-important Callas flavour: the spice of the unclassifiable. Mezzo? Soprano? She’s never been totally sure, which has kept Antonacci’s voice flitting dangerously (but excitingly) all around the operatic shop. Riveting on stage, the drawback of Antonacci’s odd career is that no-one has ever been able to pin her down. She’s barely known in America, and, pushing 50, time is running out for her to redress the balance. Admittedly remaining aloof in Paris (as Antonacci now mostly does) was Callas’s last trick, but one born more of necessity than artistic achievement.
Voice: 8
Visuals: 9
Roles: 5
Back story: 4
Celeb Factor: 3
29/50
Watch Anna Caterina Antonacci sing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen
7. Cecilia Bartoli
If the world were as obsessed with obscure Baroque operas and bel-canto chansons as Cecilia Bartoli is, the bubbly Italian mezzo would face few rivals for the top slot. But we are aiming for Callas levels of vocal allure, world domination and legendary fame in this chart, and Bartoli’s obscurantism is a hurdle that’s tricky to overcome. So, too, is the slight tendency she’s picked up in recent years to overplay her hand, pouring her powers of vocal expression into the occasional mannerism. She’s still ridiculously picky about performing proper opera on proper world stages, too. That leaves her a glorious one-off: still sellable and charismatic, but arguably reaching something of a mid-career plateau.
Voice: 9
Visuals: 7
Roles: 4
Back story: 4
Celeb factor: 8
32/50
Watch Cecilia Bartoli sing the final section of Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate
6. Danielle de Niese
The youngest kid on the block, and they don’t come more fully-formed than de Niese. Aussie born (of Dutch-Sri Lankan extraction), but Californa-raised, de Niese has been performing for most her life, whether at stage school or on the opera stage. As a result, she’s got the theatrical panache that many of her contemporaries lack - highlighted most obviously by her stellar turn as a scantily-clad Cleopatra in David McVicar’s “Giulio Cesare” at Glyndebourne.
She’s really one to track for the future, though: having a catalogue of characters that’s mostly Handel and Mozart doesn’t really give her much opportunity for red-blooded fervour. Also she’s just announced that she’s marrying the man who owns the Glyndebourne estate and (ultimately) runs the festival. Whiffs of nepotism may grow as the nuptials approach - not necessarily to her disadvantage.
Voice: 7
Visuals: 9
Roles: 5
Back story: 2
Celeb Factor: 6
33-50
Watch Danielle de Niese sing Handel Arias
5. Renee Fleming
Waving the flag for America, Renee Fleming has arguably never been more a more polished performer than she is now. New York’s prima donna assoluta for at least a decade, she sells out nearly everything she sings there, and her first stab at a London Traviata this summer is hugely anticipated.
It’s not that we need a huge strop to improve Fleming’s diva rating. It’s just that her slim pickings on the scandal front are indicative of a wider problem: the curse of the bland. She lacks that Callas-like fire and fury that truly sets a diva apart from the pack. And it’s a problem that doesn’t just afflict her public image, but also her glossy, rather generalised vocal and dramatic style.
Voice: 8
Visuals: 7
Roles: 8
Back story: 4
Celeb factor: 7
34/50
Watch Renee Fleming sing Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello
4. Karita Mattila
The great maverick of diva-dom, the Finnish soprano has the X factor on stage - but has she always used it right? Like Cecilia Bartoli, Mattila has always done things her way, choosing offbeat projects (new works by fellow Finn Kaija Saariaho) and hugely disparate stage roles (try Janacek, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky for range) instead of the obvious. She is still a must-see and a must-hear, whatever she does. And stripping off in Strauss’s Salome (albeit briefly) in the New York Met production added some background juice. But at 49 years old her lustre may now never reach megawatt brilliance, and she lacks a big champion in her (niche) record label, Ondine.
Voice: 9
Visuals: 9
Roles: 6
Back story: 5
Celeb factor: 5
34/50
Watch Karita Mattila sing Rusalka's Song to the Moon with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
3. Natalie Dessay
Unquestionably the finest actress on the list, a blazing Dessay performance makes Netrebko look like a clockwork doll. She idolises Callas and arguably comes closer than any other opera singer to realising her fusion of drama and music into one gesture, one thought.
She’s edgy, too, though not necessarily to her own benefit. She has spats with directors and in the past has been less than kind about the histrionic flair of some of her colleagues. The difficulty is that this gives her less of a populist touch than some of her rivals - take her as you find her, but don’t expect her to make nice for the PR benefits. And, although her light lyric voice has grown weightier over the years, she’ll never sing the meat and potatoes Italian roles that Netrebko has already set her eyes on.
Voice: 8
Visuals: 10
Roles: 6
Back story: 6
Celeb factor: 5
35/50
Watch Natalie Dessay sing Où va la jeune hindoue from Delibes's Lakmé
2. Angela Gheorghiu
The obvious choice pre-Netrebko, but the Romanian continues to lose ground. The main difficulty now is choosing the right rep: Gheorghiu is so picky, and her voice still on the light side - leaving limited opportunities beyond those delicate flowers such as Mimi in La Boheme, Magda in La rondine and Violetta in La traviata. Trouble is, all those women are supposed to be considerably younger than Gheorghiu now is. The scandal-o-meter, meanwhile, is ticking over nicely (she was recently fired from Chicago Lyric Opera for another no-show at rehearsals) but eventually she may have to realise that there are younger models out there who are considerably more willing to please.
Voice: 7
Visuals: 8
Roles: 6
Back story: 10
Celeb factor: 6
37/50
Watch Angela Gheorghiu sing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen
1. Anna Netrebko
The Russian soprano continues her domination of the operatic globe - even though it’s less than a year since the birth of her first child. But why would that stop her? Even the new baby son (whose father is the hunky Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott) added to her star quotient. Netrebko sings a higher concentration of “Callas parts” than any other singer on our list. She cancels just enough performances to add the all-important notes of controversy (a recent no-show at Covent Garden was another smart move). And, most importantly, any vocal deficiences - some bumpiness in the bel-canto rep, diffident diction - are neatly overcome by her theatrical daring and film-star looks. Currently untouchable on all counts, and doesn’t her record label know it.
Voice: 8
Visuals: 10
Roles: 9
Back story: 9
Celeb factor: 9
45/50
Watch Anna Netrebko sing Puccini's O soave fanciulla with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon
A scene from Otto Schenk’s production of “Das Rheingold,” at the Metropolitan Opera.
In recent years impassioned buffs at the Metropolitan Opera have grown bolder about booing directors of high-concept or otherwise modernistic new productions. But there was a nostalgic love fest on Wednesday night when the Viennese director Otto Schenk, 78, took a curtain call for the Met’s first performance of Wagner’s “Rheingold” this season and received a lusty ovation.
Ezio Flagello, a bass with a rich voice and wide range who sang 528 performances at the Metropolitan Opera as part of an international career, died on Thursday at his home in Palm Bay, Fla. He was 78.
Ezio Flagello playing Falstaff.
The cause was heart failure, said his daughter Genoveffa Flagello.
Mr. Flagello, a son of Italian immigrants in New York City, sang at major opera houses like La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. But it was the Met that he made perhaps his most distinguished mark.
His wide-ranging career there included basso cantante roles like Rodolfo in “La Sonnambula,” Wagnerian characters like Pogner in “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” comic roles in Mozart and Rossini operas and major Verdi roles like King Philip in “Don Carlo.”Plácido Domingo cannot see himself retiring the way many opera stars do: by announcing a farewell tour and going from company to company, accepting tributes. “Rather,” he said, reflecting on his astonishingly long career during an interview in the tiny press office at the Metropolitan Opera, “I think it will be one evening, after a performance, to say, ‘That’s it.’ ”
O que é científico e o que não é científico? Os parâmetros para decidir essa questão não são estabelecidos pelo próprio homem? Quem não quer saber nada de Deus tentará negar Sua existência usando a ciência. Mas é justamente a ciência que chega aos seus limites diante da grandeza de Deus.
![]() |
“...o que de Deus se pode conhecer é manifesto entre eles, porque Deus lhes manifestou. Porque os atributos invisíveis de Deus, assim o seu eterno poder, como também a sua própria divindade, claramente se reconhecem, desde o princípio do mundo, sendo percebidos por meio das coisas que foram criadas. Tais homens são, por isso, indesculpáveis” (Rm 1.19-20). |
O homem cria sua própria imagem de Deus por não aceitar o Deus da Bíblia, pois este o acusa de pecado e não minimiza os erros humanos. Em uma edição da Schweizerische Kirchenzeitung (Jornal Eclesiástico Suíço), o teólogo Bernd Ruhe manifesta sua irritação com a certeza de salvação dos crentes e sua “maneira anticientífica de lidar com a Bíblia”. Sua “concepção dualista sobre o homem e o mundo” andaria de mãos dadas com uma “visão de Deus francamente monstruosa e repugnante”: para eles, Deus seria tão grande porque consideram o homem muito pequeno. Assim, Jesus seria o guia em um mundo “perdido”, “escuro” e “confuso”, onde o diabo dita as regras.
É lamentável que afirmações como essas partam de um teólogo, que deveria conduzir as pessoas às verdades da Bíblia ao invés de impedi-las de se aprofundar no que o Senhor ensina. Afinal, o que é científico e o que não é? Será que é científico não crer na segurança da salvação, que a Bíblia ensina tão claramente? Na Primeira Epístola de João lemos: “Estas coisas vos escrevi, a fim de saberdes que tendes a vida eterna, a vós outros que credes em o nome do Filho de Deus” (1 Jo 5.13). Devemos nos relacionar com a Bíblia cientificamente ou através da fé? Até agora a ciência séria sempre teve de dar razão à Bíblia; a verdade bíblica, porém, não cai por terra ou se mantém por causa da aprovação da ciência. Será anticientífico Deus ser tão grande e o homem tão pequeno? Ou a ciência alcança seus limites com tanta freqüência justamente porque Deus e Sua obra são tão grandes?
É anticientífico Jesus ser o Guia para um mundo que vive na escuridão, um mundo perdido e confuso, em que o diabo domina os homens? O pecado no coração humano, sua tendência ao egoísmo e para o mal podem ser explicados cientificamente? E a morte, a ressurreição e a ascenção de Jesus? Elas são científicas, anticientíficas ou simplesmente divinas? O homem busca desculpas pseudocientíficas para esconder-se por trás delas, pois teme a Palavra de Deus. Nesse sentido, nada mudou desde o primeiro casal de seres humanos no Éden. Pois Adão já disse a Deus: “Ouvi a tua voz no jardim, e, porque estava nu, tive medo, e me escondi” (Gn 3.10).
Louis Pasteur, notável médico e cientista francês, reconheceu justamente através da ciência que a Bíblia tem razão. Ele escreveu: “É em nome da ciência que proclamo a Jesus Cristo como Filho de Deus. Minha concepção de ciência, que valoriza muito a relação entre causa e efeito, simplesmente me obriga a reconhecê-lO. Minha necessidade de adorar encontra em Jesus sua mais plena satisfação” (Nimm dir einen Augenblick Zeit, H. Bruns).
![]() |
Louis Pasteur: “É em nome da ciência que proclamo a Jesus Cristo como Filho de Deus”. |
A ciência, corretamente aplicada, pode servir a Deus. Mas quando é usada contra Deus ela prejudica os seres humanos. Pois é a Bíblia que produz o verdadeiro conhecimento. Há milênios as profecias bíblicas cumprem-se com exatidão única. Por exemplo, a criação de um novo Estado de Israel foi cumprimento de profecias bíblicas. Hoje podemos ver e acompanhar a realização das profecias de Jesus sobre o restabelecimento do Estado de Israel, sobre Sua volta e os sinais a ela relacionados. Os alegados “erros científicos” da Bíblia acabam sendo revisados constantemente e passam a ser considerados corretos. Muitos foram, na verdade, antecipações de descobertas que o homem só veio a fazer mais tarde. Foi o que aconteceu, por exemplo, com o reconhecimento de que a terra está suspensa no espaço. A respeito, já lemos no livro de Jó: “Ele estende o norte sobre o vazio e faz pairar a terra sobre o nada” (Jó 26.7). Os resultados das pesquisas arqueológicas e históricas também confirmam continuamente as declarações bíblicas.
Por fim, há ainda o misterioso poder que a Bíblia exerce sobre as pessoas. Quem atende ao que as Sagradas Escrituras ensinam é transformado totalmente, sendo renovado de maneira completa. Lemos na Primeira Epístola de Pedro: “Pois fostes regenerados não de semente corruptível, mas da incorruptível, mediante a Palavra de Deus, a qual vive e é permanente” (1 Pe 1.23). Apenas aqueles que não crêem no que a Bíblia diz em seu texto original, inspirado por Deus, é que lidam de maneira realmente anticientífica com a Palavra do Eterno! (Norbert Lieth - http://www.chamada.com.br)
Ouça trechos da obra de Bidu Sayão, com comentários de João Luiz Sampaio