Emmy Destinn (1878 - 1930)

Destinn made her London debut at Covent Garden on 2 May 1904 in Don Giovanni singing Donna Anna to Renaud’s elegant Don. Hermann Klein, that doyen of London critics, commented that "another rich soprano of the Tietjens and Lucca type; Destinn is an actress of consummate ability, a splendid Mozart singer, in a word, the admirable, very nearly perfect Donna Anna, and with no lack of ‘freshness’ in her round and penetrating Tones". (Tietjens and Lucca were two of the greatest singers of a previous generation).