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I began listening to live opera in the 70s and am in no doubt that I had access to far more great voices of a volume and beauty exceeding most of those today. Most of these I heard in London and New York (where I lived for four years) but I have lived elsewhere and travelled a fair bit, so have heard others elsewhere, too. My selection is inevitably random and subjective, but I especially recall Dame Janet Baker, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Montserrat Caballé, Mirella Freni, Valerie Masterson, Carol Neblett, José Carreras, Yuri Masurok, Fiorenza Cossotto, Tatiana Troyanos, Plácido Domingo - but in his prime! - Jessye Norman, Jon Frederic West et al; I also heard Boris Christoff in Oxford and Teresa Żylis-Gara in Orange both in concert, Piero Cappuccilli in Pretoria, South Africa and José van Dam in Liège. There are many more but I can categorically assert that they had greater vocal presence than most more recent singers. That is not to say that I have not heard some superb voices in more recent years but th