Julia Varady can lay claim to be the most versatile, committed and technically assured lyric-dramatic soprano of the 20th century’s final quarter. Here are more invaluable examples of her live portrayals from the Bavarian State Opera, where she sang no fewer than 400 times, to confirm that claim.

Elettra’s one happy aria in Idomeneo is evidence of Varady’s vocal beauty pure and simple, sweet in tone, firmly vibrant in line. In Vitellia’s grand Act 2 scene from Clemenza, she accomplishes the coloratura and wide range with certainty, while conveying all of Vitellia’s confusion at that point.

Senta’s ballad from Der fliegende Holländer could hardly be more different, but Varady has both the vocal wherewithal to sing it securely (something of a rarity) and the ability to make Senta’s vision into something felt and interesting through her many shades of meaning and dynamic variations. Then she leads the Meistersinger Quintet, ideally poised, with colleagues of her standing in support – it would be good to have this performance complete.

As for her Verdi, I was present for her Leonora in the Forza performance included here. She captures all of Leonora’s mental anguish in the big aria from Act 2, and the duet outside the monastery is even better. With Kurt Moll as an imposing, warm Padre Guardiano, this is a track to treasure, Verdi singing of the highest level.

The Trovatore aria derives from a complete set on Orfeo (A/03), and the excerpts from Arabella from an EMI set (now on Orfeo, 1/89). The latter is well worth including as a reminder of Varady’s deeply moving, perfectly sung account of the final scene, with her husband Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as her partner and Sawallisch so idiomatic in support. In all these excerpts there is a palpable sense of the superb acoustics of the Munich Nationaltheater.