Born: May 31, 1931; died: November 5, 2010

There is – was (it has dwindled latterly, though not disappeared) – a line of outstanding mezzo sopranos who dominated their eras as far as the core operatic repertoire of Italian opera (usually with some digressions into French and other areas) was concerned. The great Fedora Barbieri was followed by, from Italy, Fiorenza Cossotto, and from America Grace Bumbry and Shirley Verrett. These latter two contemporaries and rivals both electrified the opera world, both broke social and professional barriers in terms of their skin colour, and both ended up taking somewhat controversial leaps into soprano territory.

Verrett, who has died aged 79, was championed early on by the conductor Leopold Stokowski, who defied racist attitudes to black singers by showcasing her with the Philadelphia Orchestra and elsewhere. She herself refused to sing to segregated audiences in the deep American south. Her heyday came in the 1970s with a famous Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s opera at La Scala, which was followed by Claudio Abbado’s celebrated recording. That same decade she sang both leading ladies in Berlioz’s Les Troyens opposite Jon Vickers, to wild acclaim. And although she remained best known for her Italian opera work (alongside Lady Macbeth, her Azucena (Il trovatore), Amneris (Aida) and Eboli (Don Carlo) were much in demand) she made regular excursions (in fact her operatic debut had been in a British opera – Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia).

Her soprano outings were not always so well received (though a televised Metropolitan Opera Tosca opposite Luciano Pavarotti and Cornell MacNeil is available on a Decca DVD), though some have attributed the sometimes erratic nature of her later career to health problems. Her last role was in 1994, when she took to the Broadway stage as Nettie in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Thereafter she turned to teaching, at the University of Michigan School of Music.

She made plenty of commercial recordings, including Lady Macbeth and Azucena, but many more are enshrined in off-the-air performances – not least Carmen and Les Troyens.  Her autobiography, written with Richard Brooks, is entitled I Never Walked Alone.

James Inverne