Helen Donath is one of the greatly admired lyric sopranos of her age, noted for her pure timbre and interpretive powers, as well as her vocal longevity. She is equally adept on the opera stage, in recital, and in oratorios. Like many singers of her generation, she fell in love with opera through the Mario Lanza movie The Great Caruso. She first studied music at Del Mar College in her hometown of Corpus Christi at the age of 14 and later in New York with Paola Novikova, where she made her concert debut in 1958. After auditioning for an agent who sent her to the Cologne Opera, s...