Dame Joan Sutherland was one of a kind! There will never be an artist like her, Callas was a Diva, Caballe was divine, but Joan was a complete another universe, a voice and a humble human being sent directly from God in heaven.
This is piling on wonderful memories. Yes, I was there in person... 63 performances in total... at the SOH. Dame Joan's voice became a drug and I still cannot ever get enough of her truly glorious coloratura and exquisite highs. Pure extasy. Indeed she was La Stupenda.
Sydney, you are totally right when you said Joan was like a “drug”. ❤ I should write more, but I would love to read some of your memories, as I’m sure you have attended far more of her performances than I. I’m also a huge fan of the great Birgit Nilsson, with whom I also studied. ❤ My name is Dennis, and I would really like to hear from you. Big HUG ! Prof. Dennis Heath
I was at her very first performances of Norma, Lucrezia and Merry Widow here in Vancouver, as well as Roi de Lahore, 3 Lucia's and several concerts. What memories of the greatest soprano voice in history!
This is a really magnificent compilation of Sutherland’s most famous roles, many of which I was fortunate to be in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles for these operas, some which were during her really TOP performances ! I watched this WHOLE Series last night. If you only have time to watch 2 or 3 in one sitting, do try to find the time to see ALL of them.
Yes - later in her career - but what a voice! And technique! The Lucrezia Borgia especially could be the most difficult piece of music ever written for the soprano voice! What a great compilation this is! The "Fille" is filled with incredible runs and trills and every kind of difficult virtuoso music - and even at her age here she still can do it! She really WAS stupendous!
Great voice. Shoutout to the costume department at the Australian Opera, especially the Norma costumes. And the hair department: those maidens in white with the enormous manes...atmosphere, atmosphere. They did love having their Joan on stage at the Opera House. So nice that the Australian version of the BBC captured these (someone had a sense of history). They used to be able to broadcast in stereo radio and transmit so that it aligned with the TV image (a 'simulcast' which is now impossible/unnecessary in digital era)
The best Lucrezia Borgia ever! This role demands a very great soprano; even some of the greatest soparnos never attempted or got a crack at this Donizetti role that Dame Joan and M. Cabballé really put on the operatic map in the second half of the 29th century.
Amazing technical feats, impeccable musicianship and a very lush and creamy tone even in these later performances, all of them from her declining years (though her 1977 Lucrezia is still pretty much prime Sutherland, her voice was still very fresh by then for these mature dramatic roles, not so much for her Lucias and Aminas, though). Despite the slower vibrato - still not a wobble to my ears, it doesn't disrupt the pitch and the line yet -, I was stunned by the exuberant beauty of her middle and higher middle notes in "'Io son l'umile ancella".
This seems to be what once was called Essential. There she talked with her husband and even Marilyn Horne talked about Joan's way of singing From Santiago of Chile August 2019
I saw her every time she sang in New York (after 1973), not just at the Met, but in out-of-the-way places like Brooklyn and Buffalo. Of course, like any human being, she had a few demerits, but overall, this really was the voice of the century. I've never heard anything like it, before or since. The only one who came close in the bel canto repertoire was June Anderson. I adored Beverly Sills, but they sounded entirely different.
I just rewatched this collection. It reminds me that Dame Joan said, in the later years of her career, “I’m just as happy to dispense with all the agility. But the theatres continue to ask for those roles!”
Spoiler alert. This is far from the best of wonderful Joan Sutherland. Her peak years were roughly 1958 to mid 70’s. While the voice was remarkable by the 80’s there is no denying it was past the best era. RU-vid has rare uploads of some of Joan’s live earlier performances and they are a revelation. La Stupenda indeed she was. Forget the often poor recording quality listen to the artist in full glory. One of her legendary 1959 performances at the ROH of Lucia is a must, absolutely incredible.😊
It's spectacular singing, no idea what you're trying to say. Her line and the limpidity is beyond compare. I WILL give you that the final e flat is not great, but after that incredibly difficult aria, it's not surprising that she had trouble with it; in fact, even in early performances, such as in Dallas, she had trouble with that note.
OGrauMusic :: In order to appreciate her singing, you would have to hear her when she was very young. I don't think her voice "aged" well ... even when still young. The tunnel-like sound in her middle voice ; the mushy, cloudy & murky quality of her voice ... she was always better in the upper-part of her voice. Now that you mention it, I think marketing did have a lot to do with her promotion and having a husband-conductor who knew her voice ... who knows what he was hiding ... You are also spot-on about the lack of dynamics & variation elsewhere ... her virtuosity was never as good as Horne's. _( After all of that, you have to hear her Vissi d'arte, it was beautiful ! )_
Open and forced high notes (Modern swing technique, with forced and distressing vibrato, dull bass without soul, without shine, typical of current technique) but decent coloratura for its age in this recording. The low middle register is absent and poor, poor diction (it seems that she eats gum when she sings) She is a decent soprano if we compare current sopranos, but with vocal and interpretative failures (very linear and flat, her voice does not modulate, does not vary, always in the same dynamic, without nuance) this should not be a reference interpretation, I can understand the fanaticism for her, but her singing was neither orthodox nor exemplary for someone expert, of course she had excellent marketing that survives to this day today.
I appreciate the training, the effort. But this is just unpleasant noise to me. If opera disappeared magically altogether, I would not miss it one bit. Eighty percent of my music collection is classical, symphonic. I do not own one single operatic selection.
