This is the phenomenon that remains LA STUPENDA, in full flow. I saw her 63 times LIVE in Sydney - including this Lucrezia. Our Joan, definitely remains the voice of the century (as Pavarotti praised it!). The greatest coloratura soprano the planet has known...
she is a soprano whose voice in high notes does not irritate me ..... that is how clean clear and velvety she is.... and I am saying this as a Soprano student... who was obsessed with Callas... I have now converted to the dame. My reasons are because her technique best suits a condition I have in my jaw to be able to continue. and I am just glad to be able to keep singing. In a way that supports my voice and see some one who paved that way 🥺🙏🏻💖
The attacks she gives in DEsso, poTEA, CApo, STRAle folowing the scales and trills are out of this world! Without mention the lower here and the clarity on her voice.
Incredibly thrilling performance! Fearless, unrelentingly dramatic and full-toned singing. This aria gains so much from a voice that is lush and hefty and has a rock solid technique to make it sound as fierce and passionate as it should. Sutherland is the unsurpassed interpreter of this finale, in this performance more than ever.
I was in the audience at her very first performance of this opera - Vancouver 1972. And also at her very first Norma and Merry Widow - also in Vancouver. What memories!
Back in the day, we had subscriptions to the Australian Opera seasons at the Sydney Opera House, and saw Sutherland quite a bit. This (and any other) recording cannot fully present the beauty of her voice, the great range of roles in which she excelled, and her ability in live theatre to sing and act at the same time. She really was outstanding.
I doubt if even Callas could have been more fiery and electric than the great Dame was here. Certainly one of her most incredible displays of power, virtuosity, range, richness, and fullness. The final note is incomparable. No one in the history of opera sounded as spectacular as Sutherland in her prime.
I doubt Sutherland can give the dramatic justice Callas gave to every role she was given. Opera is not all abt being fiery with the notes, it's how you feel those notes, how you give life to the character you're portraying, it's somehow, creating a different world.
@@allenvergara1291 God, you Callas queens are so boringly predictable. Callas had her moments but much of her stuff was ghastly. Now take your heart pills.
I knew people who sang in the Net chorus, and they used to stand just offstage every performance she was in just to hear Sutherland live. They all agreed there was no other soprano they did that for. Speaks volumes.
I saw her in opera and concert more than a dozen times and, yes, her voice was as rich as a Puccini or Wagner voice. And yet she could do absolutely anything with it - the agility, the trills, the high notes. It was an actual physical experience.
Whoa great find and thank you for sharing!....I'm only guessing early 70's....but ya she took this performance full force, incredible. The attacks on the notes, the clarity, the everything, so good! That last note....really?...she had to go and do it...not just a cherry on top...she gave us the entire cherry tree!
Lohengrin O yes. She did some around that time in America. This is not Vancouver as she did not sing it this fast. Every Eb6 was amazing in every rehearsal and performance. I was supposed to be looking straight out during this, and after opening night and the director left town I looked at her. I would never see the like again and I wanted that memory. Can’t fire me now. Ha! 🌹👋
@wotan10950 I totally agree. Lucrezia Borgia definitely tapped into something deep inside Sutherland’s psyche. All her performances of it are riveting, even in her 60s. And anyone who says she couldn’t act obviously never saw her in Lucrezia. Totally different animal than her Lucia, which is unique too. Thank goodness the Covent Garden performance of Lucrezia Borgia is on DVD for our grandchildren to see and hear for themselves.
I think that in our time there have been 3 female voices that have stood way, way above the rest, all for different reasons, and will always be remembered long after the others are forgotten. Callas, Nilsson, and Sutherland ( in alphabetical order so, as not ruffle any feathers)
I admit Callas was a truly great opera singer and could do some amazing things with her voice. But I disagree with all you here - it was from the get go a very flawed instrument. IMO her voice should not be compared to the likes of Sutherland, Ponselle, and Flagstad. Even she did not care for the sound of her voice. Yet as a singer she can be hold her own with anyone.
Penny Altiparmaki She always lacked that one vital quality.Considering she had such a beautiful top voice but lacked chest voice in the middle & lower registers.Here is a good example of what PMS/ menopause can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately men singers did not have that problem. Her early voice the 60s to mid 70s.Here is an exceptional moment in the latter part of her great career.When she took this difficult piece & sang like a DAME 👑💙.Thank you for this rare post my friend. Take care Arnold
Joan Sutherland was a force of nature. Just seeing her on stage was an event. It’s not likely that could ever happen again. All others are dispensable.
Yes, we must admit that nowadays, alas ! nobody is able to approach such a way of singing: coloraturas in full voice. Wait and see (but with few hope; there is a great lack of good singing teachers and even the conductors do not know anything about the voices; what a pity !).
I’ve been beating myself to find where and when is that from! It must certainly be before the 1980 Covent Garden. Could it be one of the Rome performances though? By the way, could I ask you where did you find that particular picture? It’s certainly from the 1980 Covent Garden curtain calls , but I cannot find it anywhere.😢
It was 1980. But this must be earlier because the cadenza between the two verses changed slightly by her Covent Garden performances. I think this must be a US performance from mid 70s.
Great singer, magnificent voice, impeccable technique and her own way to express, mushy pronunciation though. This flaw was not present at the beginning of her glorious career which I truly enjoyed. Some "experts" have accused Bonynge of forcing her - to preserve her voice longer - to sing in a more covered way focusing on vowels instead of rounding up the words. She never had a real pianissimi nor a developed lower register (chest notes) but was the queen of trills. I love her Lucia (after Calla's); Lucrezia Borgia (as well as Caballe's), Her Turandot recording was a spectacular surprise (Metha made a miracle). Other jewels of her wide repertoire were Rigoletto, Semiramide, Norma, I Puritani, La Sonnambula, Daughter of Regiment, Tales of Hofmann, etc.. Never liked her Violeta in "La Traviata" (despite her brilliant Act I), neither in Maria Stuarda (Sills champions that role). Too late for her Anna Bolena for she lacked a convincing characterization despite some good vocal moments. Suor Angelica and Adriana Lecouvreur were wrong choices. Anyway, she was an icon for nearly 30 years and the opera world misses her statuesque presence as well as her glorious instrument. RIP. The Queen is dead, Long live the Queen!
I like your comment. Not enough people talk about the bad sides of her singing. The words are so important in opera. Of course prononciation becomes difficult in the high register and there is not much a singer can do. But, with a good technique and a good chest voice it is perfectly possible to have a good prononciation in the middle and low passages. This is the chest voice that frees the voice and allows to produce pure vowels and explosive consonants within a good legato. Sutherland had some chest voice when she finished her training but Bonynce ruined her voice when he told her to get rid of the chest voice and always sing with the technique of the top register. When you keep this one register for everything the middle-low notes are very weak, over covered and ugly and you cannot pronounce any words correctly. Basically, you simplify vocalise on one fits-all-pseudo vowel with no consonant. The middle-low notes are as important as the high notes. They bring drama, change the mood and of course are associated with certain words to reinforce the meaning. The composers wrote them because the singers then could sing them. When we cannot understand the words and hear the low notes it becomes so boring to hear the endless waves of high notes forte and low notes piano… simply unbearable. And of course, if you have a good chest voice and keep Somme of it in the high register your top notes become much more powerful. The final note here is very small and weak. Apparently the volume of her high notes was quite loud in the hall but loud does not mean good. The final note is small and weak.
What a difference it makes when sung by an excellent soprano that has an excellent technique. Everything is clear, the middle and low passages are strong and it adds so much to the drama: ua-cam.com/video/zM-tdMh8C1s/v-deo.htmlsi=od7553dcz0x7xmQD
Lady Sutherland only knows how to sing high notes by changing the original version of Maestro Donizetti so that her voice can stand out in front of the choir and orchestra with that unnecessary high end. I have considered Sutherland a great coloratura soprano but she is not suitable for dramatic roles where the register of the mid-low voice is more important than a high end. That is why it was said that Callas was a Sfogato soprano because of his refined technique and wide register (not only high notes) but not only Callas, there are other sopranos who can sing the character Lucrezia much better and faithful to her original version.
![Joan Sutherland's Huge/Enormous BIG Voice (InHouse Recordings) [1959-1989]](/img/n.gif)
Incomparable skill and mastery.
Why couldn't she be this exciting in her studio recordings?
Unequaled in any century!
This is the phenomenon that remains LA STUPENDA, in full flow. I saw her 63 times LIVE in Sydney - including this Lucrezia. Our Joan, definitely remains the voice of the century (as Pavarotti praised it!). The greatest coloratura soprano the planet has known...
This is STUPENDOUS - even for HER!
1:26-1:29 you manage those chest tones baby! She’s is wonderful form here 😍
Sutherland at her best.Almost unbelievable in its virtuosity.Richness and brilliance combined.She is much missed💞
she is a soprano whose voice in high notes does not irritate me ..... that is how clean clear and velvety she is.... and I am saying this as a Soprano student... who was obsessed with Callas... I have now converted to the dame. My reasons are because her technique best suits a condition I have in my jaw to be able to continue. and I am just glad to be able to keep singing. In a way that supports my voice and see some one who paved that way 🥺🙏🏻💖
The attacks she gives in DEsso, poTEA, CApo, STRAle folowing the scales and trills are out of this world! Without mention the lower here and the clarity on her voice.
Incredibly thrilling performance! Fearless, unrelentingly dramatic and full-toned singing. This aria gains so much from a voice that is lush and hefty and has a rock solid technique to make it sound as fierce and passionate as it should. Sutherland is the unsurpassed interpreter of this finale, in this performance more than ever.
I was in the audience at her very first performance of this opera - Vancouver 1972. And also at her very first Norma and Merry Widow - also in Vancouver. What memories!
I’m so jealous and yet so happy for you.
I mean Holy Shit! She was all in that night!! Just WOW.
Spine tingling, explosive, produced chills down my spine.
Every time someone posts "best" I never agree.
This is the exception. I was blessed to see her
3 times. Everything they say is true.
Back in the day, we had subscriptions to the Australian Opera seasons at the Sydney Opera House, and saw Sutherland quite a bit. This (and any other) recording cannot fully present the beauty of her voice, the great range of roles in which she excelled, and her ability in live theatre to sing and act at the same time. She really was outstanding.
I doubt if even Callas could have been more fiery and electric than the great Dame was here. Certainly one of her most incredible displays of power, virtuosity, range, richness, and fullness. The final note is incomparable. No one in the history of opera sounded as spectacular as Sutherland in her prime.
I doubt Sutherland can give the dramatic justice Callas gave to every role she was given. Opera is not all abt being fiery with the notes, it's how you feel those notes, how you give life to the character you're portraying, it's somehow, creating a different world.
@@allenvergara1291 opera can mean different things to different people, and give different thrills too. No one has a monopoly on what opera is about.
Allen Vergara so true
timsuffolk true as well
@@allenvergara1291 God, you Callas queens are so boringly predictable. Callas had her moments but much of her stuff was ghastly. Now take your heart pills.
No other word than brilliant can describe the perfection of this. Bravaaaaa Joan. Love you. R.I.P
Jesus Christ!!! Nothing less than beyond description!
Everyone says her voice live was colossal. Here we can hear it 😱 The sound is gigantic!
I knew people who sang in the Net chorus, and they used to stand just offstage every performance she was in just to hear Sutherland live. They all agreed there was no other soprano they did that for. Speaks volumes.
I saw her in opera and concert more than a dozen times and, yes, her voice was as rich as a Puccini or Wagner voice. And yet she could do absolutely anything with it - the agility, the trills, the high notes. It was an actual physical experience.
WOW! Where was this energy and passion hiding? Absolutely fantastic!!!
They say that she sang her best when she was angry! She must have been FURIOUS here! 😉
Thanks OperaMyWorld - This is without a doubt one of the greatest live recordings of Joan Sutherland I have ever heard.
Whoa great find and thank you for sharing!....I'm only guessing early 70's....but ya she took this performance full force, incredible. The attacks on the notes, the clarity, the everything, so good! That last note....really?...she had to go and do it...not just a cherry on top...she gave us the entire cherry tree!
This is post 1974 for sure.. the last Eb6 is HUGE
Lohengrin O yes. She did some around that time in America. This is not Vancouver as she did not sing it this fast. Every Eb6 was amazing in every rehearsal and performance. I was supposed to be looking straight out during this, and after opening night and the director left town I looked at her. I would never see the like again and I wanted that memory. Can’t fire me now. Ha! 🌹👋
@@highbaritone omg I love that! I do would’ve done the same 🤣
That last note surprised me.. reminded me of callas actually
Stunning and in great form! Thank you for posting - Joan Sutherland fan from South Africa.
I heard Sutherland in hundreds recordings (never live hélas) but it's one of the first time her low notes are so much satisfying. Thank you for that!
She is great here!
What can you say, I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Thank you so much for posting.
Sin duda alguna La Mejor Soprano que he escuchado en mi vida!!! Joan Sutherland La Stupenda!!!
Genia y figura hasta la sepultura!!! Diosa al reves de las demas ..ella era fuego en vivo!!!
EMOCIONANTE .............................GRACIAS....................UNA ESTRUCTURA VOCAL..............SOLO POSIBLE POR ELLA........................
Ive always heard that Sutherland sounded much better in-house
Sutherland really owned this role, even more than Lucia.
The woman was criminally talented!
PRECIOSO COMENTARIO.........................................
It sounds as though she really died after singing this! Very beautiful and expressive singing.
@wotan10950 I totally agree. Lucrezia Borgia definitely tapped into something deep inside Sutherland’s psyche. All her performances of it are riveting, even in her 60s. And anyone who says she couldn’t act obviously never saw her in Lucrezia. Totally different animal than her Lucia, which is unique too. Thank goodness the Covent Garden performance of Lucrezia Borgia is on DVD for our grandchildren to see and hear for themselves.
WOW!!!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
FABULOUS! Simply fabulous!
I think that in our time there have been 3 female voices that have stood way, way above the rest, all for different reasons, and will always be remembered long after the others are forgotten. Callas, Nilsson, and Sutherland ( in alphabetical order so, as not ruffle any feathers)
Felix Carvajal For me on the Top 5 is
Callas
Sutherland
Caballe
Nilsson
Milanov
Callas,Caballe,Sutherland,Milanov,Nilson
Para mi Callas , Caballe , Nilsson , Ponselle , Tebaldi , Sutherland .
For me (in alphabetical order) it's:
1. Callas
2. Flagstad
3. Nilsson
4. L. Price
5. Sutherland
I admit Callas was a truly great opera singer and could do some amazing things with her voice. But I disagree with all you here - it was from the get go a very flawed instrument. IMO her voice should not be compared to the likes of Sutherland, Ponselle, and Flagstad. Even she did not care for the sound of her voice. Yet as a singer she can be hold her own with anyone.
Wow! Extraordinary....Amazing.
I just don't have words to describe how beautiful it is, thanks you so much!
Su Lucrezia Borgia la Sutherland non ha rivali, nemmeno Caballé. Chapeau 👍
Ούτε η χρονολογία, ούτε ο τόπος έχουν σημασία. Σημασία έχει μονάζα αυτό που ακούμε κι αυτό είναι υπέροχο.
Ευχαριστώ, αγαπητέ OperaMyWorld.
My educated guess, based on the color and richness of her tone as well as her vibrato puts this at around ‘78-‘79.
Hi! I have compared it to the recordings that I have and I'm pretty sure that is is from 8th April 1975 in Houston.
This is a Joan VERY different from usual J.Sutherland....at last ... Passion in singing....
Penny Altiparmaki She always lacked that one vital quality.Considering she had such a beautiful top voice but lacked chest voice in the middle & lower registers.Here is a good example of what PMS/ menopause can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately men singers did not have that problem. Her early voice the 60s to mid 70s.Here is an exceptional moment in the latter part of her great career.When she took this difficult piece & sang like a DAME 👑💙.Thank you for this rare post my friend. Take care Arnold
FINALLY!
Yes, she is usually so very boring. Great singing...to fall asleep to.
Joan Sutherland was a force of nature. Just seeing her on stage was an event. It’s not likely that could ever happen again. All others are dispensable.
Senza parole per tanta bellezza....
For all those who claim she had no chest voice, here is the finest example of the proper use of chest voice I have ever heard.
Great...!!!
Dame Joan. Fabulous as usual. Period. Singers today belong to the Muppets show.
Yes, we must admit that nowadays, alas ! nobody is able to approach such a way of singing: coloraturas in full voice. Wait and see (but with few hope; there is a great lack of good singing teachers and even the conductors do not know anything about the voices; what a pity !).
La reazione del pubblico dice tutto.
Non riesce nemmeno ad attendere che termini la coda orchestrale...
yikes! That was something special!
Great Divas of the past sang FEARLESSLY, now they all sing CAUTIOUSLY
You'll have to go to Rome 1980 for her greatest Lucrezia.
If only all the mezzos and sopranos can possess a trill like Joan….or they should not be hired until they can trill!!
The last note reminds me of callas’ aida e flat!!!
I’ve been beating myself to find where and when is that from! It must certainly be before the 1980 Covent Garden. Could it be one of the Rome performances though? By the way, could I ask you where did you find that particular picture? It’s certainly from the 1980 Covent Garden curtain calls , but I cannot find it anywhere.😢
I don’t remember where I found the image…
Está extraordinaria , y a mi no me gusta Sutherland . La fuerza , seguridad y la manera de atacar las notas es electrizante .
I'm sure this is from the Royal Opera House in 1979. The low notes were better at that time, and I watched it on the TV in the UK at the time!
It was 1980. But this must be earlier because the cadenza between the two verses changed slightly by her Covent Garden performances. I think this must be a US performance from mid 70s.
Great singer, magnificent voice, impeccable technique and her own way to express, mushy pronunciation though. This flaw was not present at the beginning of her glorious career which I truly enjoyed. Some "experts" have accused Bonynge of forcing her - to preserve her voice longer - to sing in a more covered way focusing on vowels instead of rounding up the words. She never had a real pianissimi nor a developed lower register (chest notes) but was the queen of trills. I love her Lucia (after Calla's); Lucrezia Borgia (as well as Caballe's), Her Turandot recording was a spectacular surprise (Metha made a miracle). Other jewels of her wide repertoire were Rigoletto, Semiramide, Norma, I Puritani, La Sonnambula, Daughter of Regiment, Tales of Hofmann, etc.. Never liked her Violeta in "La Traviata" (despite her brilliant Act I), neither in Maria Stuarda (Sills champions that role). Too late for her Anna Bolena for she lacked a convincing characterization despite some good vocal moments. Suor Angelica and Adriana Lecouvreur were wrong choices. Anyway, she was an icon for nearly 30 years and the opera world misses her statuesque presence as well as her glorious instrument. RIP. The Queen is dead, Long live the Queen!
I like your comment. Not enough people talk about the bad sides of her singing. The words are so important in opera. Of course prononciation becomes difficult in the high register and there is not much a singer can do. But, with a good technique and a good chest voice it is perfectly possible to have a good prononciation in the middle and low passages. This is the chest voice that frees the voice and allows to produce pure vowels and explosive consonants within a good legato. Sutherland had some chest voice when she finished her training but Bonynce ruined her voice when he told her to get rid of the chest voice and always sing with the technique of the top register. When you keep this one register for everything the middle-low notes are very weak, over covered and ugly and you cannot pronounce any words correctly. Basically, you simplify vocalise on one fits-all-pseudo vowel with no consonant. The middle-low notes are as important as the high notes. They bring drama, change the mood and of course are associated with certain words to reinforce the meaning. The composers wrote them because the singers then could sing them. When we cannot understand the words and hear the low notes it becomes so boring to hear the endless waves of high notes forte and low notes piano… simply unbearable. And of course, if you have a good chest voice and keep Somme of it in the high register your top notes become much more powerful. The final note here is very small and weak. Apparently the volume of her high notes was quite loud in the hall but loud does not mean good. The final note is small and weak.
Ces aigüs stridents sont loin du velours de ceux de la SUPERBA
What a difference it makes when sung by an excellent soprano that has an excellent technique. Everything is clear, the middle and low passages are strong and it adds so much to the drama: ua-cam.com/video/zM-tdMh8C1s/v-deo.htmlsi=od7553dcz0x7xmQD
Gencer….with no trills, no high notes, flat notes and ugly glotal attacks! Maybe one of the worst techniqual sopranos ever!!
@@OperaMyWorld Another excellent artist who has a fully developed voice: ua-cam.com/video/S1OIQHoKhu8/v-deo.htmlsi=y2t2MsxKi-x_07cF
Lady Sutherland only knows how to sing high notes by changing the original version of Maestro Donizetti so that her voice can stand out in front of the choir and orchestra with that unnecessary high end. I have considered Sutherland a great coloratura soprano but she is not suitable for dramatic roles where the register of the mid-low voice is more important than a high end.
That is why it was said that Callas was a Sfogato soprano because of his refined technique and wide register (not only high notes) but not only Callas, there are other sopranos who can sing the character Lucrezia much better and faithful to her original version.