favorite SOPRANO?

Gaudio eek, I agree about Milanov's "Pace pace mio Dio" (the old mono one), a great recording. In her prime she could float a high pianissimo like no one else. Her 1952 mono "Il Trovatore" with Bjoerling, Warren, and Barbieri (still the best one) has more of these ravishing, floated high pianissimos.

Kiri Te Kanawa is missing, Andrea Rost among contemporary spranos also as beatuful voice. Cecilia Bartoli is mezzo-soprano, but still has a beautiful voice. Her vivaldi album is fantastic.

Freni
Miricioiu
High Pitch Eric

I go with Callas.
She has unique sense of drama and passion that infuses her vocals that others just cannot match. Although technically not greatest vocal range compared to someone like Sutherland, he voice in the 1950's was magnificent and can be heard on quality mono recordings during this period. The stereo work from early 1960's is still pretty good but best years behind her. One of the best collections is "La Divina" 3CD set which contains some prime mono era work........many many more good collections also available.

Although most of Cecilia Bartoli's work is with Rossini and Mozart, she is in her real element with the rare Vivaldi and Gluck collections. Comes packaged in cool hardbound book format

Dawn Upshaw gets my vote. She may not have the most "gorgeous" soprano voice but she has an intelligence to her musicality that's amazing.