Renata Scotto

By broad consent, the 1950s through to the late ’70s was a golden era for opera in which charismatic singers made glamorous careers and legendary recordings. At its centre was Renata Scotto, the lyric-coloratura soprano from Italy who reigned over the New York Met, partnered Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo in their prime, and was a young contender for the crown of Maria Callas. Born in 1934, she came to prominence as a teenager, making a notable 1952 debut and going on to sing in opera houses across Italy. But it was substituting for Callas at a 1957 Edinburgh performance of Bellini’s La sonnambula that brought international attention. She was 23 and a formidable bel canto voice, with definition and intensity that served her well in florid music. But for many listeners she was at her best in Verdi and Puccini: a first-choice for La traviata and Madama Butterfly—especially at the Met where she appeared more than 300 times between 1965 and 1987, becoming its effective “house” soprano. Never a conventionally lovely or particularly big voice, it had concentrated tone and focus that projected, and a sense of drama that eclipsed the limitations. As she said, “I prefer to have one unbeautiful note than perfection that doesn’t mean anything.” And the pursuit of meaning meant that after a 40-year singing career, she reinvented herself as a stage director. She died in 2023, aged 89.