Fritz Kortner. Vocal qualities She had a powerful chest register linked to a flexible upper voice that could cope easily with florid passages, allied to a musicianship of great individuality and infectious flair. Her voice is not without its critics; a pronounced vibrato that in the lower part of the voice became almost a machine-gun rattle, ‘as strong as the rattle of ice in a glass, or dice in a box’, in a comment attributed to the British critic, Philip Hope-Wallace. Many who heard her in the flesh have said that this vibrato was more evident on records than on the stage – an example of the microphone exaggerating a singer's faults. In the 1920s Supervía sang at La Scala as Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel but, strangely, she never sang the Rossini roles or Carmen at La Scala though she sang there in every season until 1929. Death Later, during her career, pregnancy forced her to cancel her planned appearances in the autumn of 1935. On 29 March 1936 she entered a London clinic to await the birth of her baby, which was stillborn on 30 March; a few hours later she herself died. She was buried with her baby daughter, in a grave designed by Edwin Lutyens, in the Liberal Jewish Cemetery in Willesden, northwest London. The grave, which had fallen into disrepair, was refurbished by a group of admirers and re-consecrated in October 2006. References Notes Sources Appolonia, Georgio (1992), Le voci di Rossini, Torino: EDA. pp. 414–419. Steane, J. B. (1983), The Grand Tradition: Seventy Years of Singing on Record. Amadeus Press. . Steane, J.B., (2003), "Singers of the Century" Vol II". External links Conchita Supervía at Basso Cantante Conchita Supervía - includes a digitally restored vinyl copy of her recording of "Il Était un Roi de Thulé" (1932) Conchita Supervia's discography can be searched at the Library of Catalonia 1895 births 1936 deaths Operatic mezzo-sopranos Opera singers from Catalonia Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu alumni Singers from Barcelona Fonotipia Records artists Burials at Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden 20th-century Spanish women opera singers Deaths in childbirth