Sondra Radvanovsky's Met Future

Op.123 said:

Radvanovsky has never been a favourite but I've never hated her either. That said, after seeing some clips of her Medea on YouTube... it's truly horrible. In fairness, it's an exceptionally difficult role and few have sung it well, and only one has sung it masterfully, but Radvanovsky's voice is uncentered and unclear in the middle and practically inaudible at the bottom. How can anyone think to sing Medea without chest voice? Hard pass on this one.

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I just watched a clip of her sing the last few moments of the finale and whew. She-who-must-not-be-named sounded more focused and solid down low even when her voice was in shreds in 1961. What bothers me even more than the lack of chest voice though is the pervasive gnattish (her words) quality of Sondra's voice that utterly destroys any sort of grace, elegance, and vocal coloring she might otherwise have access to. In an effort to shed some positivity, I will say she's the best we can hope for in this role nowadays.