When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made his first visit to Italy, at 14, he heard a soprano called La Bastardella sing an "unbelievable" C in altissimo, an octave above the C in alt (high C) which is the difficult top of many a soprano's reach. Later in his Magic Flute, Mozart wrote for the Queen of Nightone of the most difficult coloratura soprano roles sung todaynothing higher than F in alt, or three and one-half tones below C in altissimo. Less than a century after Mozart's death, Jenny Lind produced effortless C's above...
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