Born in Connecticut in 1897, Rosa Ponzillo made her début at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Caruso in La Forza del Destino, beginning a twenty-season career with the company, and prompting a name change to Rosa Ponselle. The most famed soprano of her day, Ponselle is still adored by many as the greatest female singer of the twentieth century. The warmth and colour of her voice are wonderfully caught in these, her most memorable Verdi recordings, which show-case the splendours of her technique. Three extracts from La Forza del Destino, recorded in 1928, allow us to marvel at the voices of two other great Italians with whom Ponselle regularly appeared, Giovanni Martinelli and Ezio Pinza. Another of the many highlights is O patria mia from Aida, one of Ponselle’s earliest surviving recordings, made exactly two weeks after her Met début.