The voice of the light soprano has enchanted listeners for centuries. Its appeal, as this programme of arias from French, German, Italian and even American opera demonstrates, is international. The earliest aria on the disc is by Handel, but he did not invent the voice, for the light soprano, well-trained in the florid style, was heard in the music of Lully and Rameau, Purcell and Scarlatti, Cavalli and Monteverdi.The national schools and individual teachers have preferred different degrees of brightness and mellowness, but largely the type has conformed to certain ideals. Freshness and purity of tone come first. Sheer volume is less important, though a distinction is generally observed between the light soprano and the soubrette.

With the lightness comes flexibility and the two together usually facilitate the development of an extended upper range. In this, the light (or leggiero) soprano differs from what we think of as the lyric type, who may indeed have some or possibly all of these qualities but whose appeal lies more within a medium vocal range and who will normally have fuller reserves of power within that range. What all of these soprano types (the soubrette, the leggiero and the lyric) have in common is that, for the listener, they represent the voice of youth.