THE ROLE NOT TAKEN.

FORTY-TWO OPERA SINGERS GIVE THEIR VERSION OF DREAM CASTING

It's said that someone asked Birgit Nilsson if she could sing Carmen. "I could," she replied, "but how?"

Nilsson was one artist who always had a sense of herself and her limitations onstage. History is littered with ladies and gentlemen who burned out their singing careers prematurely -- or held themselves up to ridicule -- with unwise choices. Whether pushed by others or by themselves, they ultimately made decisions they lived to regret. Did Elena Suliotis have to sing all those Abigailles on her vocal capital? Was it absolutely necessary for Dame Nellie Melba to attempt Brunnhilde in Siegfried and face vocal damage and public humiliation as a result?

Sometimes the great role is the one that never comes a singer's way, but sometimes it's a road a singer is wise enough not to take. Natalie Dessay once told OPERA NEWS that to sing Butterfly is the great dream of her life but that it's a dream she'll never realize, as she knows it would destroy her light lyric voice. We spoke with more than forty singers, both active and retired, and asked them to discuss the role that has always eluded them. The results were often surprising and usually encouraging -- most of the artists had a keen awareness of their own strengths and capabilities. But then, there was also the occasional answer that left us slack-jawed in disbelief....

LICIA ALBANESE, soprano

The role I really wanted to sing -- to complete my Puccini portraits -- was Minnie in La Fanciulla del West. Mr. Bing called when Dorothy Kirsten cancelled. This was not a role many sopranos had prepared, but since I had sung so many Puccini roles at the house, Mr. Bing was hoping that I knew this one. I was working on this role with my coach at this very time. But how hard it was to say that I didn't feel ready -- and thus I missed this great opportunity.

APRILE MILLO, soprano