It seems we've lost a great singer to the world . . .

The music world has lost a great singer that I had not heard of until her passing: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. I seem to be the only vocal-choral person on the planet that did not know her, at least from the measure of the blog posts that mourn her passing. I'll be checking into her singing and will most likely download some of her music from Itunes.

She must have been something special, both as a singer and person. They are calling her "a diva that wasn't" and many mention their profound experiences in her concerts. Here's one tribute to her.

I've really been astonished at the response on the blogs that I follow. This person captures it well:

Anyone who ever experienced Hunt Lieberson's magic knows what all the fuss was about. Whether she was singing Mahler's great paean to life and sorrow, Das Lied von der Erde, or some of his fragilely beautiful art songs, the world itself seemed to pause and listen. When she sang Lieberson's Five Rilke Songs at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in 2001, it was as if pearl had been given sound -- a voice, as I wrote then, with a 'rich, violalike lower register and clear upper voice,' one that 'practically spanned a planetary system' in some of the far-reaching melodic lines. And when she embodied a character onstage, as in Ashoka's Dream, it was hard to imagine anyone else ever doing it as well.