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Diana Damrau
A female voice can be tough to properly record and reproduce, yet a great vocalist can transcend the technology. Opera star, singer/songwriter, jazz chanteuse, punk icon—who is your favorite female vocalist?
Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano. She was radiant and expressive in everything she recorded. I saw her give master classes a few years ago and she was teaching the students how to sing lyrically while conveying the meaning of the words. A rare gift!
Anne Sofie von Otter. (Followed by Kari Bremnes—closely followed by Mari Boine). Yes, I seem to have this thing about voices from the North. Anne Sofie von Otter's "Scherza, infida," from Handel's Ariodante, epitomizes for me the ultimate transcendence: forget the art, forget the craft, experience pure music. But the most tearing, most irresistibly moving of her performances may be the skeletally simple lullaby from her Terezin programme, about music in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. There is blood in her voice.
Only one? Are you crazy? Well, if I have to choose only one,that would be Tori Amos and at close second, Natalie Merchant. Opera: Netrebko, Leontyne Price. Jazz: Eva Cassidy, Katie Melua, Norah Jones, Diana Krall. Pop: Sara McLachlan, Christina Aguilera. Audiophile recording: Jheena Lodwick. Suffering woman: Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday. Punk icon: Nina Hagen. ... and hundreds of others.
Holly Cole would be my hands-down fave. She is a 64-color box of crayons in a lead-pencil world. Her choice of material is excellent and her recordings always sound superb. I've never heard her live, but I would crawl 500 miles on my hands and knees through deserts and over mountains for the privilege. Okay, maybe I'm stretching it a bit, but you get the picture.