Lucia Popp made her stage debut as a singer at age 23 at the Bratislava Opera singing the role of Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. In 1963 Herbert von Karajan heard her sing and engaged her on the spot to sing with the Vienna State Opera company. Her first appearances were so successful that before long she was offered a three-year contract with the Vienna State Opera. She started her engagement there in 1963, and became famous overnight singing the Queen of the Night, a role in which she was considered unsurpassed.
Lucia Popp made her debut at Covent Garden Opera in London in 1966 as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, and she has since performed there regularly. She sang the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the first time in February 1967, in Marc Chagall’s production of Die Zauberflöte.
The audience at La Scala in Milan discovered her in 1976 in the role of Sophie in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Carlos Kleiber. In 1983 she performed for the first time the title role in Arabella under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch. She created a sensation in her first appearance as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in 1985, and then had a triumphant success in the role of the Countess in Caoriccio in Salzburg in 1987.
But Lucia Popp realised that sustained fame would depend on more than just one role. So over the next ten years, while she continued singing the Queen of the Night, she also systematically prepared other lyric soprano roles.
Here is Lucia Popp singing the Aria from Mozart’s “Zauberfloete” in which Pamina sings of her loss of Tamino’s love:
