Chronological list of operatic sopranos


This is a chronological list of sopranos who have performed in operas from classical music of the Western world. The list spans from operatic sopranos active in the first operas of the late 16th century to singers currently performing. Singers who have recorded opera arias or sung them in concert but have never performed in an opera are not included in this list. Singers are sorted by their year of birth. Those singers whose birth year is unknown are sorted by the first year that they are known to have flourished. This list should not include singers who have never performed in a staged opera with the exception of historic non-white singers who were barred from the opera stage in varying parts of the world due to discrimination prior to the mid-20th century. This list is limited to those whose notability is established by reliable sources in other Wikipedia articles.

Operatic sopranos born in the 15th and 16th centuries

Before 1600

  • Vittoria Archilei
  • Virginia Ramponi-Andreini
  • Caterina Martinelli
  • Settimia Caccini

    1600–1649

  • Margherita Costa
  • Anna Renzi
  • Anne Chabanceau de La Barre

    1650–1699

  • Antonia Coresi
  • Marie Aubry
  • Marie Le Rochois
  • Maria Landini
  • Fanchon Moreau
  • Louison Moreau
  • Vittoria Tarquini
  • Anne Bracegirdle
  • Mary Hodgson
  • Diamante Maria Scarabelli
  • Françoise Journet
  • Giulia Francesca Zuffi
  • Margherita de L'Épine
  • Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti
  • Marie-Louise Desmatins
  • Letitia Cross
  • Margarita Salicola
  • Marianna Bulgarelli
  • Catherine Tofts
  • Santa Stella
  • Marie Antier
  • Johanna Elisabeth Döbricht
  • Anastasia Robinson
  • Rosa Borosini
  • Livia Nannini Costantini
  • Francesca Cuzzoni

    Operatic sopranos born in the 18th century

1700–1739

  • Margherita Durastanti
  • Maria Giustina Turcotti
  • Joanna Maria Lindehleim
  • Maria Gallia
  • Catherine-Nicole Lemaure
  • Marie Pélissier
  • Isabella Girardeau
  • Mademoiselle Petitpas
  • Kitty Clive
  • Maria Manina
  • Cecilia Young
  • Marie Fel
  • Ann Turner Robinson
  • Élisabeth Duparc
  • Elisabeth Lillström
  • Anna Maria Strada
  • Celeste Gismondi
  • Regina Mingotti
  • Teresa Cornelys
  • Christina Maria Avoglio
  • Giulia Frasi
  • Margherita Chimenti
  • Marie-Jeanne Larrivée Lemière
  • Dorothea Wendling
  • Yelizaveta Belogradskaya

    1740s

  • Sophie Arnould
  • Elisabeth Olin
  • Antonia Bernasconi
  • Lucrezia Aguiari
  • Maria Anna Fesemayr
  • Marie-Thérèse Laruette
  • Anna Lucia de Amicis
  • Elisabeth Wendling
  • Maria Anna Braunhofer
  • Franziska Romana Koch
  • Hedvig Wigert
  • Rosalie Levasseur
  • Giovanna Sestini

    1750s

  • Lovisa Augusti
  • Maddalena Allegranti
  • Josepha Duschek
  • Cecilia Davies
  • Antoinette Saint-Huberty
  • Brigida Banti
  • Caterina Bondini
  • Harriett Abrams
  • Marie Louise Marcadet
  • Josepha Weber
  • Adriana Ferrarese del Bene

    1760s

  • Celeste Coltellini
  • Luisa Laschi
  • Aloysia Weber
  • Christina Rahm
  • Teresa Saporiti
  • Christiane Haßloch
  • Jeanne-Charlotte Schroeder
  • Sofia Liljegren
  • Nancy Storace
  • Adélaïde Gavaudan
  • Rose Renaud
  • Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova
  • Julie-Angélique Scio
  • Marianne Willmann

    1770s

  • Marianne Sessi
  • Magdalena Willmann
  • Marianne Müller
  • Antonia Campi
  • Margarete Luise Schick
  • Tatyana Shlykova
  • Therese Rosenbaum
  • Teresa Bertinotti
  • Jane Bianchi
  • Maria Anna Tauber
  • Friederike Vohs

    1780s

  • Alexandrine-Caroline Branchu
  • Margherita Chabran
  • Elisabetta Manfredini-Guarmani
  • Angelica Catalani
  • Joaquina Sitches
  • Alexandrine Marie Agathe Gavaudan-Ducamel
  • Violante Camporesi
  • Charlotte Häser
  • Louise Müller
  • Jeanette Wässelius
  • Isabella Colbran
  • Cécile Duret-Saint-Aubin
  • Anna Milder-Hauptmann
  • Antonia Laucher
  • Antoinette Lemonnier
  • Franziska Sontag
  • Margarethe Carl
  • Cathinka Buchwieser
  • Joséphine Fodor
  • Marie Zinck

    1790s

  • Carolina Crespi
  • Karoline Seidler-Wranitzky
  • Anna Maria Sessi
  • Anna Sofia Sevelin
  • Augustine Albert
  • Fanny Corri-Paltoni
  • Therese Grünbaum
  • Ester Mombelli
  • Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni
  • Alexandrine Saint-Aubin
  • Justina Casagli
  • Zulmé Dabadie
  • Caroline Grassari
  • Friederike Funk
  • Henriette Widerberg
  • Caroline Willmann
  • Giuditta Pasta
  • Anna Bondra
  • Henriette Méric-Lalande
  • Clara Vespermann

    Operatic sopranos born in the 19th century

1800s

1800
  • Elizabeth Austin
  • Luigia Boccabadati
  • Rosalbina Caradori-Allan
  • Emilie Pohlmann
  • Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis
  • Henriette Spitzeder
  • Karoline Stern
  • Adelaide Tosi
1801
  • Laure Cinti-Damoreau
1802
  • Mary Ann Paton
  • Geneviève-Aimé-Zoë Prévost
1803
  • Emilie da Fonseca
  • Margarethe Stockhausen
1804
  • Wilhelmina Enbom
  • Nanette Schechner
1801
  • Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
1805
  • Caterina Canzi
  • Julie Dorus-Gras
1806
  • Fanny Ayton
  • Caroline Fischer-Achten
  • Anna Fischer-Maraffa
  • Henriette Sontag
1807
  • Giacinta Toso
1808
  • Franziska Cornet
  • Jane Shirreff
  • Eugenia Tadolini
1809
  • Sabine Heinefetter
  • Maria Theresia Löw
  • Nadezhda Repina

    1810s

1810
  • Anna Bishop
  • Konstancja Gładkowska
1811
  • Pauline Decker
  • Giulia Grisi
  • Elisa Orlandi
1812
  • Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani
1813
  • Teresa Brambilla
  • Maria Flécheux
1814
  • Cornélie Falcon
  • Mathilda Gelhaar
1815
  • Anna Bochkoltz-Falconi
  • Rita Gabussi
  • Fanny Salvini-Donatelli
  • Antonietta Marini-Rainieri
  • Mariya Stepanova
  • Giuseppina Strepponi
1816
  • Mademoiselle Monrose
  • Catharine Simonsen
  • Klara Stöckl-Heinefetter
1817
  • Teresa De Giuli Borsi
  • Adelina Catalani
  • Marianna Barbieri-Nini
  • Euphrasie Borghèse
  • Livia Frege
  • Erminia Frezzolini
  • Clara Novello
  • Louise Sahlgreen
1819
  • Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan
  • Wilhelmina Fundin
  • Kathinka Heinefetter
  • Anna Thillon

    1820s

1820
  • Sophie Diez
  • Jenny Lind
  • Mathilde Wildauer
1821
1822
  • Julie Berwald
  • Anna Zerr
1823
  • Louise Lavoye
  • Rosina Penco
  • Paulina Rivoli
1824
  • Eliza Biscaccianti
  • Jenny Bürde-Ney
  • Marietta Gazzaniga
  • Rosine Laborde
1825
  • Therese Braunecker-Schäfer
  • Malvina Garrigues
  • Anna de La Grange
  • Balbina Steffenone
1826
  • Marie Carandini
  • Sophie Cruvelli
  • Mathilda Ebeling
1827
1828
  • Clara M. Brinkerhoff
  • Rebecca Isaacs
  • Caroline Lefebvre
  • Maria Spezia-Aldighieri
1829
  • Luisa Cappiani
  • Lucy Escott
  • Delphine Ugalde

    1830s

1830
  • Caroline Barbot
  • Angiolina Bosio
  • Caroline Girard
  • Louise Michaëli
1831
  • Inez Fabbri
  • Emmy La Grua
  • Luise Meyer-Dustmann
  • Marcella Lotti della Santa
  • Thérèse Tietjens
1832
  • Caroline Duprez
  • Eleonora Ehrenbergová
1833
  • Mathilda Enequist
  • Hortense Schneider
  • Marie Wilt
1834
  • Ottilie Genée
  • Pauline Guéymard-Lauters
  • Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
  • Luise Limbach
  • Angiolina Ortolani-Tiberini
  • Marietta Piccolomini
  • Ema Pukšec
  • Marie Sasse
  • Teresa Stolz
  • Lise Tautin
1835
  • Désirée Artôt
  • Léontine de Maësen
  • Carlotta Marchisio
  • Carlotta Patti
  • Fanny Simonsen
1836
  • Eufrosyne Abrahamson
  • Marie Geistinger
  • Friederike Grün
  • Bernardine Hamaekers
  • Louise Harriers-Wippern
  • Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
  • Fredrika Stenhammar
1837
  • Wilhelmina Gelhaar
  • Signe Hebbe
  • Lucille Tostée
1838
  • Marie Battu
  • Julia Espín y Pérez de Collbrand
  • Adele Passy-Cornet
  • Sophie Stehle
1839
  • Carolina Ferni
  • Anna Henriette Levinsohn
  • Minna Peschka-Leutner

    1840s

1840
  • Antonietta Fricci
  • Júlia Gusztinyi
1841
  • Zulma Bouffar
  • Alice Ducasse
  • Pauline Lucca
  • Aglaja Orgeni
  • Yuliya Platonova
1842
  • Clara Louise Kellogg
  • Gabrielle Krauss
  • Melitta Otto-Alvsleben
  • Eugenie Pappenheim
  • Sarah Edith Wynne
1843
  • Marie Cico
  • Anna Deinet
  • Laurence Grivot
  • Elisabeth Kohut-Mannstein
  • Christina Nilsson
  • Adelina Patti
1844
  • Emma Howson
  • Amalie Materna
  • Rosina Palmer
  • Hermine von Siegstädt
1845
  • Teresina Brambilla
  • Lina Frieb
  • Rose Hersee
  • Anna Kaufmann
  • Henriette Müller-Marion
  • Ángela Peralta
  • Therese Vogl
1846
  • Ida Basilier-Magelssen
  • Marie Roze
1847
  • Emma Albani
  • Emma Fursch-Madi
  • Fanny Holland
  • Mathilde Mallinger
  • Alice May
  • Romilda Pantaleoni
  • Adelina Paschalis-Souvestre
  • Julie Rosewald
1848
  • Alice Barth
  • Lona Gyldenkrone
  • Marie Hanfstängl
  • Lilli Lehmann
  • Virginia Naumann-Gungl
  • Alwina Valleria
  • Mathilde Weckerlin
1849
  • Émilie Ambre
  • Mathilde Bauermeister
  • Susan Galton
  • Virginia Ferni Germano
  • Marie Haupt
  • Sallie Holman
  • Alice Oates
  • Marguerite Priola
  • Marie Selika Williams
  • Rosa Sucher

    1850s

1850
  • Emma Abbott
  • Nelly Bromley
  • Sophie Keller
  • Maddalena Mariani Masi
  • Selma Nicklass-Kempner
  • Amalia Riégo
  • Anna Sachse-Hofmeister
  • Clementine von Schuch-Proska
1851
  • Blanche Cole
  • Minnie Hauk
  • Marie Heilbron
  • Giuseppina Pasqua
  • Elise Wiedermann
1852
  • Marguerite Chapuy
  • Mathilda Grabow
  • Jeanne Granier
  • Thekla Hofer
  • Mila Kupfer-Berger
  • Mily-Meyer
  • Dora Wiley
1853
  • Anna D'Angeri
  • Leonora Braham 1853–1931)
  • Carolina Östberg
  • Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann
  • Theresia Singer
1854
  • Marion Hood
  • Adèle Isaac
  • Alma Lund
  • Laura Andrews Rhodes
  • Louise Théo
1855
  • Erminia Borghi-Mamo
  • Abigaille Bruschi-Chiatti
  • Etelka Gerster
  • Katharina Klafsky
  • Augusta Lütken
  • Therese Malten
  • Fanny Moran-Olden
  • Josephine de Reszke
  • Bertha Schwarz
  • Amy Sherwin
  • Marguerite Vaillant-Couturier
1856
  • Ada Adini
  • Marguerite Baux
  • Abbie Carrington
  • Selma Ek
  • Alma Fohström
  • Hermine Galfy
  • Antonie Mielke
1857
  • Olga Björkegren
  • Rose Caron
  • Rose Delaunay
  • Adalgisa Gabbi
  • Conchita Gélabert
  • Lillian Nordica
  • Elena Theodorini
  • Giulia Warwick
1858
  • Emma Calvé
  • Minna Fischer
  • Maria Gelhaar
  • Pauline Horson
  • Marie Ismaël-Garcin
  • Pauline Mailhac
  • Marcella Sembrich
  • Nellie Stewart
  • Zaré Thalberg
  • Marie van Zandt
1859
  • Olimpia Boronat
  • Elvira Colonnese
  • Marie Decca
  • Medea Figner
  • Emma Nevada
  • Ilka Pálmay
  • Carrie Pringle
  • Irma Reichová
  • Pauline Savari
  • Antonie Schläger
  • Pauline Schöller
  • Juliette Simon-Girard