Gundula Janowitz, Supreme Soprano

There must be a hundred factors, physiology, intellect, musical talent, training, situation, etc., that, like a "perfect storm", come together to make an exceptionally great voice. And if one could place onto a statistical graph the relative quality of the wide vaiety of known singers, we would find a bell curve, with the majority of the singers somewhere in the middle, some whose voices are less than satisfying, and on the opposite end those few whose qualities are so great that they amaze the discerning ear. Soprano Gundula Janowitz is one of the rare few whose voice transcends the terms of "great, well known, popular, or favorite." She truly is at the superlative end of the bell curve.

The reason that a female soprano is added to Male Sopranos and Altos is that many of the qualities of her voice and technique exemplify preferred qualities of castrati, male sopranos and altos, and countertenors: pure voices with controlled or very limited vibrato, precise technique without scooping, sliding, or neglect of target notes, etc. Her tone is rich and golden. Her high notes are strong and clear. Her breath control is amazing, singing long, soaring lines in long, connected breaths rather than chopping them up with snatch-breaths, as so many female singers must do. And she has power to spare. Without even appearing to try hard, her golden voice can soar beyond the combined sound of a full orchestra. A visual aspect of her singing also is that she does not need to employ bodily or facial contortions to produce dramatic singing, in contrast to some singers today who appear to be chewing tough leather or suffering from St. Vitus' Dance.

Placing those natural male sopranos available to us today on a bell curve of quality would be somewhat a matter of conjecture in relationship to the great opera castrati. In the centuries during which the world population was far smaller than today, Italy and other countires were producing as many as 5000 castrati per year. Statistically therefore, one would have a much greater chance of producing a "Farinelli". In trying to imagine the sound of a great opera castrato, the strong, golden voice of Gundula Janowitz also should be taken into consideration.

Gundula Janowitz was born in 1938 in Berlin. Her Austrian parents came form near the Hungarian boarder. Once discovered in her early twenties, her fame spread quickly, becoming the soprano of choice by many European conductors. As human perfection is impossible, they regarded her as close to perfection with a voice of "unearthly beauty and purity." Although she sang a variety of roles, she became most noted for her Mozart and Richard Strauss, performances that are considered to be unmatached.

Inexplicably, she was overlooked (as were Maria Cristina Kiehr and the superlative countertenor Andreas Scholl) when the soundtrack was made for the film "Farinelli" in 1994. My guess is that the producers knew more about computer technology of the time than voices and that they were looking for voices that sounded similar to each other, rather than similar to the authentic sound and technique of castrati. She retired from the stage in 1990 but continues to teach.
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