Thank you so much for recognizing Shirley Verrett at the time of her passing. It was once said that she possessed the most beautiful mezzo-soprano voice in the world. Thinking about sheer beauty of timbre, a good argument can be made for this position. And--Oh!--she could put a hurt on a phrase. Thanks again.

And thanks for that wonderful image about putting 'a hurt on a phrase.' TIM

I love her voice, and I know that she absolutely opened doors and inspired many African American opera singers. I wish I could have seen her live, but never had the chance. The richness of her voice and her life are missed.

Another great singer lost to death, sad day...

Shirley Verrett was a great singer, but I must disagree with the comment that she "moved into the soprano realm with equal success". She had some success as a soprano, but she was one of her generation's greatest mezzos and it as a mezzo that she will be best remembered. Certainly her Norma and Tosca were successful, but many of her performances in the mezzo repertoire were on a higher level altogether and could stand comparison with any mezzo of the century. Her Eboli recording under Giulini was incredible (although bested, in my opinion, by her live performance recorded in Vienna with Correlli and Ghiaurov), and her two video recordings as Dalila (one with Vickers, one with Domingo) are, IMHO, unsurpassed.
One of the greatest Carmen recordings I know features Verrett with Domingo, Te Kanawa and Van Dam under Solti, live from Covent Garden. And she enjoyed one of the greatest personal triumphs in Met history when, at the Met premiere of Berlioz' Les Troyens, due to the illness of the scheduled Dido, she performed both that role and her scheduled Cassandre. Alan Rich wrote in New York Magazine "Shirley Verrett, who sings both the Cassandra and, ... Dido, has for herself a stunning triumph in both roles. She is glorious to behold, and her luscious, pliant voice is at this moment in prime estate. The range of moods she must encompass during the long evening, the flaming passion in the melodic lines Berlioz invented for both of his heroines: these are incredible challenges, and Verrett has met them in a way that has to rank as one of the great personal "tours de force" in the company's 90-year history."
She also triumphed as Azucena in Il Trovatore (a broadcast from the Met with Mc Cracken and Scotto is especially treasurable), was a fine Adalgisa to Sills (on record) and Caballe (at the Met) before, only a month after her final performance of a run with Caballe, she assumed the title role on the Met Tour. Not to mention her triumphs in The Siege of Corinth and La Favorita Probably her finest soprano role, Tosca, was captured on a Met telecast opposite Pavarotti, just recently released on DVD. There really has been no one, IMHO, of her quality who has stepped up to the roles of Eboli, Carmen and Dalila in the current generation (although Zajick has been a fine successor as Azucena). May she rest in peace.