Soprano Mirella Freni, an amazing Italian Opera singer for nearly 50 years, died on Sunday at her home in Modena, in north-central Italy. She was 84.
She died after a long degenerative illness and a series of strokes.
In the late 20th century, when opera was becoming increasingly internationalized, Ms. Freni was hailed as a last exponent of the great Italian operatic heritage.
“That tradition is ending,” Plácido Domingo was quoted as saying in a 1997 New York Times article about Ms. Freni. “Mirella is the end of a chain. After that you cannot see who really follows her.”
I heard her sing an Aria from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”; just listen:
