Maria Ewing

And while we are on the subject, there is an opera singer who has built a meteoric career around performing the sexiest roles, namely the title roles in these operas:

Carmen
L'Incoronazione di Poppea
Salome

All of these performances are available on video. Opera is such a great entertainment form.

The Salome is especially noteworthy. Maria Ewing has spoiled it for every other soprano by performing a spectacular striptease worthy of a porn house. I saw this production in San Francisco, where anything goes, where it was received to great acclaim.

It isn't a great sung Salome, but it isn't bad either. Her Salome is wonderfully perverse--Oscar Wilde, whose play this is, would have loved it. I think it has shortened her career to sing this, but it has also bought her immortality.