Marilyn Horne

As a teenager, Horne dubbed in the singing for Dorothy Dandridge's title character in Otto Preminger's film of Carmen Jones (1954). Less than two decades later, she would be acknowledged as one of the foremost Carmens of her time in the title role of the Bizet opera from which the stage and film versions of "Carmen Jones" were adapted.

[on soprano Simone Osborne] Make no mistake, Simone is half athlete and half artist - which you need to be if you want to be an opera star. There's no question about her big talent. I first heard her sing a gorgeous aria from 'The Bartered Bride' in 2007 and, at the end if it, I was sitting with tears in my eyes. She understands that voices need to be brilliant, dark and bright, all at once. She embodies the term 'chiaroscuro'.