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In my opinion Eva Turner's voice, despite it's Grand Canyon size and scope, is the best recorded voice of the 20's. None of the blowing out of the recording equipment like the great Ponselle was subject to. I knew of her In Questa Reggia, which may be the best ever, but didn't know she was so versatile. My estimation of her has really taken off of late. Of course La Nilsson excelled at Turandot, but I can't imagine Nilsson singing "D'amor sull'ali rosee" with the Bel Canto aplomb that Turner delivered :
. She not only sang gently up top but had trills that were the equal of Sutherland. She prepared for Norma but WWII put an end to those plans. I would love to hear what she could have done with Casta Diva. She also could sing Suicidio with powerful low notes that sound completely of one piece with the rest of her voice. She was also a huge success at Wagner, but never tackled Kundry or Gotterdammerung Brunhilde, the later being too taxing in her opinion for her voice. She sang Turandot 200 times and still had a great voice with no ill effects. An interesting thing about her is that despite having one of the biggest singing voices of all time, it was also incredibly beautiful and she did all of that with a very normal size figure.
She had a very long singing career and went on to become one of the greatest British vocal coaches. A plus for her students was her German and Italian were impeccible. Her most famous student is Gwyneth Jones. I read a piece on her and the author said she was the happiest person he had ever met. If you haven't checked her out I encourage you to acquaint yourself with the gorgeous, unbelievable powerful yet versatile voice of Dame Eva Turner.
