Lily Pons is a French lyric-coloratura soprano who rose to prominence at the time when radio broadcasts came into the mainstream, being one of the first opera singers to capitalize on this new medium to forward her career. She did not have a big voice, but a uniquely distinctive one and all but charmed audiences with her very attractive figure and exotic facial features, unique among a profession of frequently plump women.Bel Canto opera was not in great fashion during her time as it is now. Operas on com..
Lily Pons succeeded Amelita Galli-Curci as the reigning coloratura soprano at the Met. While this CD has a scratchy sound, that's par for the course for recordings from 1928-1939 (the time frame of Pons' career covered by this CD). This work shows Pons' technique very nicely. It is a different style of singing from Sutherland on to Dessay, whose work I prefer, but Pons' approach has its own virtues.Some illustrative cuts include the following, about which I'll briefly comment.From "The Magic Flute," Pons..