The great soprano has died at the age of 90. An iconic figure without whom opera in the 20th century would not have been the same.
I never met her, but when I was a kid, she and her husband Walter Legge lived in the next street from us in Hampstead. The complex of back gardens adjoined. And sometimes, when the weather was fine and all the windows were open, one could hear the sound of singing across the leaves...
UPDATE: Saturday 5 August, 10.25am: read obituary from The Independent here.