Birgit Nilsson Surviving Excerpts from Turandot in New Orleans 1966 

Yes, Sutherland's interpretation made this role iconic in her career, considering the bel canto, baroque repertoire she sang.

You are absolutely right.

Absolutely. I heard her several times across 26 years in most of her great roles and the voice was stupendous but always rounder in the theater. The cutting edge was there when demanded but it was much more effective because of how it contrasted with the warmth of her tone. Recordings tend to thin out her voice so that contrast is lessened.

If you’re now limp and wasted, what condition were you before?

Brava, Schuh!

Hahaha I just adore these moments when Kraken Nilsson drowns everything with her voice!

@@JoanSutherlandFan , anche io.

I believe this woman was a phenomenon!

Arnold Asshole: And what does our voice sound like? What do you, in your egotistical, negative opinion unsupported by fact, believe is a good voice for this role? How ‘bout Kati’s Riccarelli on the DG/Karajan recording? A girl sent to do a woman’s job and failing miserably.

@@johnpickford4222 Actually Anne Roselle was the ideal Turandot, not Nilsson. The Chinese princess is not a middle-aged Gorgon shrieking like an ambulance siren; if she were, Calaf could never have fallen in love with her. She is a frightened, vulnerable girl who tries to hide her vulnerability beneath a veneer of cold bloodthirstiness, and who, we later discover, has been in love with Calaf all along. Contrary to canary-fanciers' opinion, Turandot is a complex role comprised of many dramatic dimensions, dimensions that Nilsson signally failed to explore, for all her vaunted expertise on high. Roselle, on the other hand, possessed a bright, clear, penetrating voice capable of riding the orchestra and also of projecting both the youth and warm femininity which any successful Turandot must possess. Even considered purely from a vocal standpoint Nilsson's Turandot is not extraordinary. Compared with Gertrude Grob-Prandl, for instance, Nilsson's Turandot is unsteady of line, wobbly of timbre, and never really sings in tune.

How sill you are

@@jasonhurd4379 It is important to remember that strong, heroic men can only fall in love with frightened vulnerable girls. I agree that the role can be seen as more complex than many artists have explored, yet Nilsson is far from unloveable.