Joan Sutherland's 1959 Lucia in best audio quality (correct pitch): Mad Scene - Il dolce suono

O giusto cielo... Il dolce suono [0:00]
Ohimè! Sorge il tremendo fantasma [3:21]
Sparsa è di rose [4:36]
Ardon gl'incensi [6:32]
Alfin son tua [7:34]
Spargi d'amaro pianto [12:35]

[@johnpickford4222]

Yes it has a clarity which is superb but there’s a vulnerability, and I don’t know if incisiveness is the word along with an interpretation that combined is stunning. I still enjoy her two studio records but when Royal Opera House (ROH) had their own label, this performance was released. “Alfin son tua” indeed!

[@artdanks4846]

Sutherland and Callas are eternally the only Lucias who truly brought this role to life. No others begin to compare. The same can be said for there Normas.

[@MrMin316]

Legendary indeed...Dramatic impact is breathtaking and the voice, what can one say...There are not enough superlatives to describe this singing. La Stupenda!!!

[@rakellcolotta3675]

Joan: I love her at any age. She sounds young here and diction is perfect. Poor little Lucia she breaks my heart.

[@Manu-rp9fg]

Awesome. I never heard a more electrifying Sutherland. Her voice was so beautiful back then! and she definitely could express emotion. What happened later? I find her later recordings kind of mechanical and boring. But here she is just among the very best

[@ktrewin23]

Thank you for this. The sound quality is superb. There is a rawness and passion in the voice, the diction is superb: I love her even more ❤️😍. Thank you again. Is this available commercially?

[@barbaranorthwood]

Yes. it's a wonderful recording and typical of the BBC's expertise, but I listened to it on my old radio with all the attendant crackles. Nevertheless, the quality of the voice shone like a beacon despite the deficiency of my equipment.

[@JoaoVitor-vp1ql]

🥰🥰

[@MrQwerty88]

Interestingly this recording is not from the opening night. It's from a few days later. Many claim it's from THE night, but it's not.

[@johnpickford4222]

MrQwerty88: Yes, you are correct. Like with the Callas NORMA debut in ‘52, newspapers can only describe so much when it comes to some aspects of art. Try explaining the word “orange” to a blind person; how can you. You would have to experience Callas, Sutherland, L. Price or even Gertrude Lawrence to understand their voices and interpretations. So, after the reviews, the BBC set up microphones to give the best sound-unlike LaScala-and that is why we have this to enjoy and marvel over.

[@richardholmesmusic2128]

Much better sound and pitch! The ROH release was absurdly high. Thank you! Fascinating, as always to hear this. There is a trade-off. The spontaneity and attack are amazing-everything is fresh and new. The arpeggios in the big cadenza are almost violent. The trade-off is that there are certainly effects that she soon refined-the scoop from Bb to Cb in Spargi d’amaro is overdone for me, she sounds drunk, not mad! And there are places where the voice sounds breathy and fragile in the middle-absolute unheard of in any later Sutherland performance! But thank God we have this amazing performance, the font from which those 200+ Lucias sprang.
A way of knowing that this was not opening night: at the opening, Ken Neate replaced this tenor (Joao Gibin) as Edgardo, and Enrico was sung by the unmistakable Geraint Evans, not John Shaw, as it is here.

[@ahogbin2644]

Presume this was of the performance the BBC broadcast after the triumph of the first night. Glad it's been put into the correct pitch now. The one I have sounds a little high.

[@Tkimba2]

@@richardholmesmusic2128 you have to remember that the last Lucia was cancelled due to Sutherland having to immediately undergo surgery, without which she was risking being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life... You can imagine the state of her health in those days, and having to sing your big debut a the same time...

[@williammaddox3339]

@@Tkimba2 Her sinuses were going to put her into a wheelchair?