Leyla Gencer

Leyla Gencer had a major career on the world's operatic stages, singing a wide variety of soprano roles from Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni to Renata in Prokofiev's very difficult The Fiery Angel. She was most closely associated, however, with the operas of Donizetti (Belisario, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, and Lucrezia Borgia), as well as a number by Verdi and Bellini. Born to a Polish mother and wealthy Turkish father on October 10, 1928 (according to Gencer; some sources place the date earlier), Gencer received the finest education in her childhood and teens. She exhi...