Julia Varady doesn't seem to have received as much attention as she should have. She has an unusual voice, full-bodied with quite a strong break between the chest and the rest, which makes her best-suited to the more fiery roles - she is one of the few sopranos to bother with the role of the Composer these days, and she is very good at it. Sometimes her natural temperament can be a bit overpowering for the role she is singing - her Sieglinde under Sawallisch, for example, is rather fierce-sounding. Her most complimented recording is probably that of the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, a role she hadn't taken on stage when she recorded it for Georg Solti in the late eighties (she's the best thing on it - generally it's rather overpraised I think). She is excellent on it, offering intensity in the Rysanek mould, but with a very different (more attractive?) tone.

Varady has recently retired from the operatic stage although, theoretically, she still sings on the concert platform. Unfortunately she has a reputation for frequent cancellations - both times I have tried to see her she has failed to turn up.

Other roles she has sung include Alceste, Donna Elvira, Vitellia, Countess Almaviva, Violetta, Tatyana, Butterfly, Arabella, Aida and Senta. Unfortunately in many of her recordings she is saddled with her aging husband, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, which rarely does her any favours.