I’m pretty sure these scenes were part of a lengthy interview she gave to Bernard Levin for the BBC. Levin conducted several other interviews with great singers (Sills, Verrett, Cossoto) that also included staged scenes.
I saw her more often than I deserved! Lucia, Puritani, Hoffmann, Trovatore, and various recitals. I can’t imagine how she was able to make that big voice do anything, and the higher it went, the more brilliant it got.
i remember reading or hearing that one of the most important things she learned how to do is to "fall dead" without hurting herself. She's amazing at that.
Thanks for this video. Sutherland - the most spectacular and overwhelming voice of all time. If any recording from the C20 is played in two hundred years, surely it will be Sutherland, & quite possibly the finale from the magnificent 1962 recording of La Sonnambula.
I wish this interview was longer. She comes across so well. And I would have appreciated her singing some other arias which demonstrate her versatility and the glory of that one of a kind voice.
He should do more documentaries about sopranos born in the 1920s. The 40s and 50s seemed like golden times in opera, which were the time when most of these women launched their professional career. There was Virginia Zeani, Leyla Gencer, Rita Streich, Beverly Sills, Victoria de los Angeles, Leonie Rysanek, Regine Crespin, Galina Vishnevskaya just to name a few.
Victoria was still performing beautifully into the 1990s! Longer than any other mentioned. It was a golden age, in general. After the devastation of WWII, the arts flourished. Until technology came in and ruined it.
none Victoria sang publicly until she was in her 70s... when her eldest son died. After that, she sang w friends & according to them she still had her voice until the end at age 81. How I wept. R.I.P.
Joan was utterly extraordinary for her repertoire, in some roles unequaled. One of the largest coloratura voices ever, and one of the greatest coloraturas of all time. If her diction could have been improved, when it became muddled more so during some years and roles, and recordings, then she would have been nearly universally admired by fans of great singing and opera, unfortuanetly some opera fans didn’t like Joans singing or didn’t give her chance due to her sometimes muddled diction.
The only thing I don’t like about Joan Sutherland is she never sang Rosina in Barbiere, but there is an old kinescope where she sings Una voce poco fa”. It’s fabulous!!!❤❤❤❤
She looks so radiant and beautiful in this 1970's interview. Definitely more beautiful than when she used those heavy gowns and huge hair in recitals. LOL
Ygor Coelho In an old People Magazine interview from the 1970s, Bonynge said that he wanted her to look like a great sailing ship as it unfurls! He certainly achieved that, but she tended to look a bit ridiculous. She was much more attractive when she wore simpler gowns.
. R. Bonyne is a jerk . HAD a very good meal ticket. Everyone knew about his closeted life etc. VIVA LA STUPENDA 👑 May she rest in peace, Till that great day 😢 Arnold Bourbon Amaral
+Alexandre Cintra I agree ..... I think he gives a good explanation for the sake of those unfamiliar with opera ..... Where is the Mad Scene clip from?
When did she grow to be over six feet tall? In the older biographies, she is mentioned at being 5' 8". Callas was 5' 81/2", and in photos of Callas and Sutherland standing side by side, they appear about the same height, or if anything, Callas is a bit taller.
Shahrdad She was not six feet tall. I am 6’2”, and when I stood next to her backstage, she was quite a bit shorter - still a tall woman, but closer to 5’8” - 5’9”.
When I met her, she was seated, but looking at the two photos of Callas and Sutherland together, Callas is the taller of the two (of couse we don't know about their shoes). When I googled "How tall Joan Sutherland," it said 6'2", which is utter rubbish.
Callas I believe was slightly shorter than Sutherland; if the photo you are referring to is the one after Joan's dress rehearsal backstage, Callas was in heels and Sutherland was not.
In the first bios of Sutherland, she's referred to as being 5-8. Callas was almost 5-9. In every photo of them together, Callas is about an inch taller. Overall, their height was pretty comparable, though Joan often had the much taller hair.
@@Shahrdad i think she was perceived as "big woman" Also because of her big bones structure, she had big hands, broad shoulders, big head, big jaw, plus her height. Maybe that's why they never mention that about Callas and often about Joan
Does anyone have any idea when and where these clips from lucia are from? Or where I can find them in full? I have never seen them before but they appear to be some of her best early recordings
Nathan Davis I’m pretty sure these scenes were part of a lengthy interview she gave to Bernard Levin for the BBC. Levin conducted several other interviews with great singers (Sills, Verrett, Cossoto) that also included staged scenes.
So much of the notion that Joan was not acceptable in the over the top scale world of opera is nonsense. Everyone bent over backwards to help the statuesque, white, dimpled, nerdy, blue eyed, mousy brunette Jugendlich Dramatischer Sopran. While it was true the lantern jawed Ozzie was not a soubrette, she was seen as a future Wagnerian with great potentials that no one got in the way of. She auditioned too young at the Garden and was rejected for those typical reasons as Wagnerian voices take longer to make sense as they are often orotund and cloudy when starting out and usually begin as mezzo sopranos then transition. Once she got into Handel opera projects with smaller groups her vocal charms emerged as a hoch dramatic and she was quickly engaged. Back then this kind of system was in place in the well funded arts of the UK. Her transition to coloratura was a careful secret study with Bonynge and given the Doll in Hoffman it worked and she was entrusted with a Lucia on a grand scale. Careers like hers do not exist any longer because everyone is in a rush due to lack of funding excessive media image pressures over actual talent quality and the television altering how people are trained for the stage. Also recordings are just not the album base standard any longer. Also many teacher that existed in the 1950’s were Victorians who had educational lines that stretched back to the 19th C . This also included Joan’s own mother who studied with a teacher who was a pupil of Marchesi. Joan already had the runs and flexibility in her head from years of playing with her mother as a child. She was never the reluctant prima donna. She was just awkward and had a blue color voice versus a red or golden Italianate one. She was always going to be a star. Instead it was as a dramatic coloratura versus a Dramatic soprano in the German rep. Either way she would had been a great success.
I think Pappano never heard the LUCIA of the young Renata SCOTTO recorded at the Italian TV or the other Recorded in Japan (Live) , even better then Sutherland !! Pappano, go to listen SCOTTO before talking for nothing !!
