Sutherland - Gedda - Gobbi - Lucia Sextet - plus interview

[billcarr54]

Great voices, but the bass and tenor might be having a little fight to upstage the other, methinks.......beautiful nevertheless, thanks for posting this.

[mstrsims2]

quite pretty, charming, and a lady! We miss you Joan Sutherland !

[Tenorbravo]

This Sextet form Lucia really rocks. It is magnifique, original and unique. Wonderful interpretarion. Love it. I sure miss them. Thank you for sharing it.

[fullbuck50]

JS, once again, wiping the floor with everyone else. It's all the more thrilling because it's genius delivered in the most unassuming package. It's a kind of magic - this perfect combination of the everyday and the transcendent.

[deen48]

wow, nobody can sing this like Joan, she is supreme. I have been listening to various versions and the soprano always lets it down - but not Joan. She is amazing. Beautiful, no, but the most glorious voice ever. I saw her in Lucia when I was about 12ish at The Royal Opera House (my father was principal percussion there, Reginald Barker). It was incredible.

[EricRogg]

The bass is badly flat at 3:06...

[TomBarristerX]

That's about what it's supposed to sound like, except the tenor should be more prominent. Donizetti wrote some "dissonance" into this work.

[tehen162]

@EricRogg The bass does not sing at 3:06.

[rovingdesertfox]

@EricRogg it's the baritone, but you are absolutely right.

[MastersoftheOpera]

Funny. Beverly Sills also mentions "looney ladies" like Lucia in her autobiography. In her 1st, she has a whole chapter on "going mad around the world" and talks about singing Lucia at La Scala.

[TomBarristerX]

The host is Donald Voorhees, who was also the longtime conductor for the Bell Telephone Hour. Voorhees joined the show on radio a couple of years after its inception in 1942, took it through the transition to television in 1959, and stayed until the show left the air in 1968.

[tneprescintr]

A very fine host too...

[castodivo]

She's getting in trouble for saying "I love to play those loony dames!" How ridiculously funny! And just a decade earlier, she and Bonyge found the need to include that statement in "Art of the Prima Donna" about how the album honors the original singers and isn't trying to show-them-up. Such a different time.

[GermanOperaSinger]

Wow, Charles Anthony. First time I've seen him on video. Too bad we don't get more of his singing, but I'm not really sure how he sounded. He never really sang any lead roles at the Met did he?

[crwv]

Gobbi doesn't sound his best here...

also, is that Hines?

[tneprescintr]

Gedda rocks...

[saverioorlando]

Ensemble very bad:the conductor? Joan of course is stupenda.

[janicesoprano]

OMG, looking at her beautiful face, the most beautiful face in the world! When I saw her in the interview, I was swooning, she is so beautiful! And put her beautiful face along side of her voice.

[OrpheuCe]

legends

[mjmacmtenor]

Sutherland was magnificent in this role (was else?). Gedda was a revelation; he is not recognized enought for his skill in bel canto rep. Gobbi was a bit of disappointment. I know he sang this role a number of times, but his voice seemed unimpressive (too late in career?)and he did not balance well (tone or rhythm) with Gedda (too little rehearsal?).

[tklogan11809]

Good to see good old Charles Anthony, who's still active at the MET.

And Sutherland! ahhhhhh what a pleasure.