Mirella Freni was an Italian soprano, one of the great lyric sopranos of the twentieth century. She was especially celebrated in Puccini, Mozart and Verdi.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears in Giulini’s 1961 Covent Garden Falstaff, with Geraint Evans, Luigi Alva, Regina Resnik and Michael Langdon.

Freni’s singing combined freshness, warmth and impeccable line, with a naturalness that made even carefully shaped phrases feel newly spoken.

Her page is essential despite a compact catalogue footprint. Freni brings Italian lyric sunlight to the Verdi shelf.