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
- Laure Cinti-Damoreau
- Mary Ann Paton
- Geneviève-Aimé-Zoë Prévost
- Emilie da Fonseca
- Margarethe Stockhausen
- Wilhelmina Enbom
- Nanette Schechner
- Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
- Caterina Canzi
- Julie Dorus-Gras
- Fanny Ayton
- Caroline Fischer-Achten
- Anna Fischer-Maraffa
- Henriette Sontag
- Giacinta Toso
- Franziska Cornet
- Jane Shirreff
- Eugenia Tadolini
- Sabine Heinefetter
- Maria Theresia Löw
- Nadezhda Repina
1810s
- Anna Bishop
- Konstancja Gładkowska
- Pauline Decker
- Giulia Grisi
- Elisa Orlandi
- Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani
- Teresa Brambilla
- Maria Flécheux
- Cornélie Falcon
- Mathilda Gelhaar
- Anna Bochkoltz-Falconi
- Rita Gabussi
- Fanny Salvini-Donatelli
- Antonietta Marini-Rainieri
- Mariya Stepanova
- Giuseppina Strepponi
- Mademoiselle Monrose
- Catharine Simonsen
- Klara Stöckl-Heinefetter
- Teresa De Giuli Borsi
- Adelina Catalani
- Marianna Barbieri-Nini
- Euphrasie Borghèse
- Livia Frege
- Erminia Frezzolini
- Clara Novello
- Louise Sahlgreen
- Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan
- Wilhelmina Fundin
- Kathinka Heinefetter
- Anna Thillon
1820s
- Sophie Diez
- Jenny Lind
- Mathilde Wildauer
1822
- Julie Berwald
- Anna Zerr
- Louise Lavoye
- Rosina Penco
- Paulina Rivoli
- Eliza Biscaccianti
- Jenny Bürde-Ney
- Marietta Gazzaniga
- Rosine Laborde
- Therese Braunecker-Schäfer
- Malvina Garrigues
- Anna de La Grange
- Balbina Steffenone
- Marie Carandini
- Sophie Cruvelli
- Mathilda Ebeling
- Marie Cabel
- Rosa von Milde
- Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho
- Teresa Parodi
- Margherita Zenoni
- Clara M. Brinkerhoff
- Rebecca Isaacs
- Caroline Lefebvre
- Maria Spezia-Aldighieri
- Luisa Cappiani
- Lucy Escott
- Delphine Ugalde
1830s
- Caroline Barbot
- Angiolina Bosio
- Caroline Girard
- Louise Michaëli
- Inez Fabbri
- Emmy La Grua
- Luise Meyer-Dustmann
- Marcella Lotti della Santa
- Thérèse Tietjens
- Caroline Duprez
- Eleonora Ehrenbergová
- Mathilda Enequist
- Hortense Schneider
- Marie Wilt
- Ottilie Genée
- Pauline Guéymard-Lauters
- Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
- Luise Limbach
- Angiolina Ortolani-Tiberini
- Marietta Piccolomini
- Ema Pukšec
- Marie Sasse
- Teresa Stolz
- Lise Tautin
- Désirée Artôt
- Léontine de Maësen
- Carlotta Marchisio
- Carlotta Patti
- Fanny Simonsen
- Eufrosyne Abrahamson
- Marie Geistinger
- Friederike Grün
- Bernardine Hamaekers
- Louise Harriers-Wippern
- Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa
- Fredrika Stenhammar
- Wilhelmina Gelhaar
- Signe Hebbe
- Lucille Tostée
- Marie Battu
- Julia Espín y Pérez de Collbrand
- Adele Passy-Cornet
- Sophie Stehle
- Carolina Ferni
- Anna Henriette Levinsohn
- Minna Peschka-Leutner
1840s
- Antonietta Fricci
- Júlia Gusztinyi
- Zulma Bouffar
- Alice Ducasse
- Pauline Lucca
- Aglaja Orgeni
- Yuliya Platonova
- Clara Louise Kellogg
- Gabrielle Krauss
- Melitta Otto-Alvsleben
- Eugenie Pappenheim
- Sarah Edith Wynne
- Marie Cico
- Anna Deinet
- Laurence Grivot
- Elisabeth Kohut-Mannstein
- Christina Nilsson
- Adelina Patti
- Emma Howson
- Amalie Materna
- Rosina Palmer
- Hermine von Siegstädt
- Teresina Brambilla
- Lina Frieb
- Rose Hersee
- Anna Kaufmann
- Henriette Müller-Marion
- Ángela Peralta
- Therese Vogl
- Ida Basilier-Magelssen
- Marie Roze
- Emma Albani
- Emma Fursch-Madi
- Fanny Holland
- Mathilde Mallinger
- Alice May
- Romilda Pantaleoni
- Adelina Paschalis-Souvestre
- Julie Rosewald
- Alice Barth
- Lona Gyldenkrone
- Marie Hanfstängl
- Lilli Lehmann
- Virginia Naumann-Gungl
- Alwina Valleria
- Mathilde Weckerlin
- Émilie Ambre
- Mathilde Bauermeister
- Susan Galton
- Virginia Ferni Germano
- Marie Haupt
- Sallie Holman
- Alice Oates
- Marguerite Priola
- Marie Selika Williams
- Rosa Sucher
1850s
- Emma Abbott
- Nelly Bromley
- Sophie Keller
- Maddalena Mariani Masi
- Selma Nicklass-Kempner
- Amalia Riégo
- Anna Sachse-Hofmeister
- Clementine von Schuch-Proska
- Blanche Cole
- Minnie Hauk
- Marie Heilbron
- Giuseppina Pasqua
- Elise Wiedermann
- Marguerite Chapuy
- Mathilda Grabow
- Jeanne Granier
- Thekla Hofer
- Mila Kupfer-Berger
- Mily-Meyer
- Dora Wiley
- Anna D'Angeri
- Leonora Braham 1853–1931)
- Carolina Östberg
- Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann
- Theresia Singer
- Marion Hood
- Adèle Isaac
- Alma Lund
- Laura Andrews Rhodes
- Louise Théo
- 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
- Ada Adini
- Marguerite Baux
- Abbie Carrington
- Selma Ek
- Alma Fohström
- Hermine Galfy
- Antonie Mielke
- Olga Björkegren
- Rose Caron
- Rose Delaunay
- Adalgisa Gabbi
- Conchita Gélabert
- Lillian Nordica
- Elena Theodorini
- Giulia Warwick
- Emma Calvé
- Minna Fischer
- Maria Gelhaar
- Pauline Horson
- Marie Ismaël-Garcin
- Pauline Mailhac
- Marcella Sembrich
- Nellie Stewart
- Zaré Thalberg
- Marie van Zandt
- 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