'Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen'ㅡJoan Sutherland (1962)

[anthonyhenrysmith]

to have heard/seen her live in her early years would have been so amazing equally i feel with pavarotti. though as a young tenor she pointed him in the right direction for learning correct support for his voice

[calaftheeast]

The voice.

[MrNikodemus2]

RIP La Stupenda.

[raigekimaru]

thumbs up if you like this aria BETTER in this key

[abracadabranque]

Bien!

[VivaMariaCallas]

I think some people are being a bit tough on her for the transposition. (Similar to Callas's voice in this sense), Sutherland's voice was very big; it is astonishing that she can sing wonderful high Es, let alone touch a high F (as she does in O zittre nicht ). And of course, the remarkable flexibility of the voice goes without saying. So, I think transposing down half a step in limited circumstances like this one is perfectly acceptable.

[Shahrdad]

@VivaMariaCallas I think people also forget that the pitch has steadily risen in the last 100 years or so, so that the high F that was sung in Mozart's time was closer to our high E.

[violinistx100]

I was devastated when she died :(

[marc75624]

beautiful voice, but i still think Maria callas had a better voice

[flyboytim]

@marc75624 more dramatic, certainly not a better voice, get real man, she was outrageously off most of the time apart form a small part of her career., she was a great tenor. strident but fabuously drammatic maybe but not a scrap on Sutherland.

[raigekimaru]

@flyboytim

actually, in terms of sheer vocal capacity, sutherland was more dramatic. callas sang more dramatically, had more blood and guts and had a darker timbre (a soprano top, mezzo middle and baritone low register) but sutherland had a more dramatic instrument and easily sang wagner and puccini with 0 vocal strain. I love both though, they're both divas and total bad asses =D

[gustopheles]

@flyboytim Callas was outrageously off? Not a scrap on Sutherland? You are deaf.

[SuperZorrolover]

@marc75624 .....

[bellini7verdi]

LO MAS DE LO MAS........IMPRESIONANTEEEEEEE­EE....COMO TODO LO QUE HIZO EN SU LARGUISIMA CARRERA......TODA UNA ENCICLOPEDIA VOCAL PARA USO DEL MUNDO Y PARA SABER LO QUE LA VOZ HUMANA PUEDE SER CAPAZ DE HACER.......DE TODAS FORMAS ...SU VOZ ES UN MILAGRO.....PRECIOSO MILAGRO....LA VIRTUD DE UNA GRAN MUJER........JOAN SUTHERLAND.......

[ChrisStockslager]

I don't really mind the transposition at all, because Sutherland's mammoth voice is so incredible that it sounds amazing in this key anyway. My theory is that she could do it in the F major key, but chose not to, so as not to damage her voice. That voice was no pipsqueak canary . We're talking schoolbus, kids. Anyway, the thing that kills this rendition for me is the incredibly slow tempo. I always want this cabaletta to be at warp-speed -- it is an angry piece of music after all.

[ingerk1]

Her duets with Marilyn Horne are mind blowing

[forlifewelearn]

It's because of the recording. Pre digital, recordings would sound a semitone down from the original. I know, because if I was playing along with a tape, I always had to tune my violin down.

[Akee1990]

May she rest in peace

[Birdizzz]

RIP

[Heytay123]

Rest in peace! :(

[kiketenor]

RIP



[canadianclarke]

ugh. I love her but I hate this aria transposed down. If you cant hit the high Fs then just dont do it. Even those transposed high notes sound forced.

[Rnfile]

Sutherland, was not a caboose, as the others are. To be able to manuever her voice as effortlessly and with such facility, is superhuman. The performance is argueably not her personal best. However what she, as a coloratura could do with the largest coloratura voice ever heard in opera, is nothing short of astonishing. And her's is also remarkably fast, a testament to her spectacular technique and instrument. Because of the size of voice, she must be regarded as the "greatest ever!"

[thriftyscotswoman]

Not impressed. She has a terrible German accent and is flat often. :(

[kgarmaker123]

@thriftyscotswoman You can say that again.. VERY flat, a bunch of times.. NOt a good choice of roles for sure. And with the transposition, a lot of voices could handle this role, one half step down. The challenge is all those staccati and five High F's all in pitch.

[AmericanEvita]

Joan Sutherland's young 1962 voice is golden, rich and lyric. She was singing a hell of a lot at this time including Wagner - Isolde, Senta, Sieglende, etc. For her voice to handle both Mozart and Wagner is a great accomplishment. Her Mozart was very lyric and beautiful, although for the Queen of the Night I prefer a more heavier, intensely powerful and angrier sound. It's a Fury aria and it's best sung by sopranos like Edda Moser, Rita Shane and Christina Deutekom.

[raigekimaru]

@AmericanEvita

agreed, Edda Moser is the undisputed Queen of Queens in this aria. her singing is nasty, vicious and dramatic

[ikklemikkle]

They sound fine to me! Some saddo probably has some equipment that will tell us who the best is, but for now, Dame Joan is La Stupenda.

[vonFalkenstein77]

Joan Sutherland is the greates ever soprano, although I think her voice was best in the later 1970s, the voice had darkened a little by then and so her singing sounded more dramatic, for example her Mozart and especially the Wagner recordings from 1978 .

[crazycellist973]

La Stupenda IS one of my two favorite sopranos, but this performance was dreadful. I mean, she's not known for her diction, but the pitches.....sloppy. Thank you very much for this video.

In case there are any due hard Dame Joan Sutherland fans that are reading this (like "Scalatti" on the Renee Fleming video pages always looking for a fight), Sutherland is STILL one of my two favorite sopranos ever (the other being Fleming). This video does not change that.

[violinistx100]

Do you have the 1st aria?

[Deadlysoprano16]

What is really interesting about this is that even though it is transposed down a half step it is actually more like it would have sounded when mozart wrote it because over time the A that orchestras use to tune has gone up. We use A 440 but the A they used was actually somewhat lower than that. There are some orchestras now that tune at 460! can you even imagine what it would be like to sing queen of the night at that?

[beckylink]

With such a BIG voice, it is not surprising that she might prefer to bring it down a tad. I don't have a problem with it. Mozart may have, but then again, if he heard the instrument...

I have sung the F's but I have a light lyric coloratura voice like a lot of coloraturas. Her voice is massive. I saw her perform when I was a kid and will NEVER forget it.

To take a dramatic voice up that high is just crazy amazing anyway!!!

[JamieMinns]

she didn't sing an f or f sharp the top note she sings here is tranposed to an E natural

[lucianapb10]

This is not for her !!! It doesn't fit ... Sorry for saying that

[jmiller05]

Didn't Joan have a bit of a phobia about singing in F sharp? This performance proves it a little.

Her voice is still pure, but this role betrays her coloratura.

[mariadragoni]

Bellissima questa regina della notte

[sagaluke]

The Queen was not her best item in the first aria she even had problems

but every diva does have a role she probably better did not sing.

Her other Queen ( Stuarda) was superb

[ChrisStockslager]

Does anyone else think Joan looks downright beautiful as the Queen?

[durgaaa]

@ChrisStockslager with a strong face and huge square jaw, how could she not look powerful ?

[DazFromOz]

I think she does a fine job of this, although the Queen really wasn't Sutherland's "thing"... but let's be fair, ANYONE who can sing this deserves a medal!!!

[Patriciad50]

@DazFromOz Oh come on, she was amazing!

[raigekimaru]

it almost fits the character better in this key. it sounds like an actual aria and less like a tweety bird squeak fest.

[babycatcher2004]

Shocking! Thank God she didn't persue that role.

[65attila]

ShakespeareAndOpera

Your musical opinions aside - what do the costumes have to do with anything important- do you have a hearing problem? since you spend almost as much time thtalking about dresses as this difficult piece of music.

I love Sytherland's heft and ease here and she has a voice suited to the role even with transpositions.

[RobNYNY1957]

I think this performance is pretty uncharacteristic for Sutherland. It's not a good role for her, and even transposed down a half step, it lies just beyond her range.

[SPACETIMEBEAUTY]

@RobNYNY1957  WHAT BS!

[skitzo429]

definitely not her role.

[tneprescintr]

Though i love Sutherland, Moser tottaly owns this part...

[SENAFOREVER]

She is close to the orginal of Mozart's time diapason, which was lower.

Most people here ought to think twice before writing such comments.

It was never meant to be sung by a leggiero. My favourite queen of the night.

Thanks for sharing.

[laddo79]

omg horrible June Anderson a way better

[shaun20483]

Sounds funny in c minor

[DesAbends]

it's actually c# minor

[tetrazzinifan]

Tetrazzini transposed it down a half step as well - just goes to show that perfect technique can only take you so far - one must have the voice suited for the role as well - not all fantastic phenomenal soprano voices are meant for Queen of the Night even if they are coloraturas. This role didn't flatter Tetrazzini either. I'm a Deutekom worshipper when it comes to this role - it was at her fingertips :-)

[ShakespeareAndOpera]

It might be that they transposed the Fs down, but her high notes...Whatever they are, they sound flat. I'm sorry to say this, but from all I've heard about Joan Sutherland, this isn't that impressive. I read about her in the comments on Natalie Dessay vids, and I can't say that she beats Natalie like everyone says. I love the costume design though! I know that's a strange thing to say, but it's much better than that turquoise monstrosity they put Dessay into.

[preppybeast6293]

I feel badly, because Joan Sutherland is the greatest soprano to live, and the recordings that she has available of this aria aren't her best. She just tops everyone else. Out of question, Joan Sutherland is the best.

[RoOodOoOloOmeg]

I would name Beverly sills as her partner, but I agree, she's great, though I'm not the greatest fan of her.

[Royalorgans]

@preppybeast6293  I agree with you. Joan Is the best

[baritonebynight]

@preppybeast6293 That's why she fulfilled her obligation to the company and never sang the role again. Don't feel bad for her, because she made LOTS and LOTS of money singing for a very long time and made so many people very happy with her art.

[MadonnaImperia]

@preppybeast6293 Deutekom's Queen wasn't bad either.

[SAMARA3365]

@preppybeast6293 no in this part she is not. it is edda Moser without any question. she has the voice, the impetus and the language. but of course in other roles she was the greatest!

[33blueberries]

What I wouldn't give to go back and hear that in the house!!

[viafilodrammatici]

Were those Fs? I doubt that very much.

[AmorediPazzia]

It is E natural.

She transposed it down.

[dougbalt]

@AmorediPazzia Yeah, I tried plucking them out on the piano. It's hard to tell, but I think they're E naturals. You're probably right. She also rushes on the "alle Bande" sequence and has some intonation problems during the staccato. She was never at home in Mozart and fared far better with Bellini and Donizetti.

[peduzzi89]

@AmorediPazzia she didn't transpose it down....entire operas are never transposed down for the sake of the singer...plus Joan is one of the greatest sopranos of our lifetime. It's just because it's an old recording.

[CaptFitzbattleaxe]

@peduzzi89 I don't think the whole opera would have to be transposed down to get one aria in a lower key, esp. when the opera has dialogue (no jarring key changes). The recording is from 1962, which isn't *that* old.

That a soprano cut out for Wagner could EVER sing The Queen of the Night's music is pretty much amazing.

[peduzzi89]

@CaptFitzbattleaxe You're right it wasn't transposed like I said lol. That could be old enough for it to have just been played a little too slowly or something and that to make a difference. She didn't really sing much Wagner though...lol

[CaptFitzbattleaxe]

@peduzzi89 Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant to explain that this aria *was* transposed, but without any change in the rest of the opera. I'm pretty sure that the recording speed is fine: the two companies that have released this recording are always very careful to get the speed right. (Unlike some companies...but I digress.)

Right, she didn't sing much Wagner, thanks to Bonynge. She and her husband later said that her career would have been 20 years shorter had she gone into Wagner! :-O

[peduzzi89]

@CaptFitzbattleaxe oh you think it was I didn't know that I didn't know that she ever would have done that? But yes her career would have been shorter because Wagner just didn't write much for her voice type.

[CaptFitzbattleaxe]

@peduzzi89 She did that quite a bit, especially later on in her career (e.g. Lakmé Bell Song, from E to E-flat;, later Lucrezia Borgia finales, from E-flat to D or D-flat; all Beatrice di Tenda finales, UP from F to A-flat.) It went both ways. Bonynge said it was permissible in bel canto. It probably preserved Joan's voice too.

At first, I was very sad to learn that JS transposed the bell song for her 1967 recording, but it's probably for the best since she sang the transposition SO well.

[Rattywotin]

@AmorediPazzia nonsense

[Archidi1996]

@AmorediPazzia she would….



[theoperagoddess]

That makes sense. For her very large dramatic coloratura voice, the Fs would have been very difficult to consistently have. I would much rather hear it transposed than squawked out. Plus, when Mozart wrote it, tuning was such that E natural is more where it would have sat. Thank you for sharing this; it's a real gem.

[1violaplayr]

@AmorediPazzia And it's still not quite in tune up there even transposed.

[1401JSC]

@viafilodrammatici

Yes. As the F would have sounded lower in Mozart's day.

[didoipod]

mmm... she was a good soprano, but this is not the best interpretation of the queen of the night... I don't want to sound as an asshole, I say that because is what I hear, not because I think I know everything... really.

[Pavarotti4eva]

she has a distinctive sound, and an intrinsic ability to give character to the voice, but this aria is not the best showcase of her abilities.

[didoipod]

I know, her voice it's like Beverly Sills's voice.

both voices have some distinctive sounds, both were great sopranos (Sutherland is already retired) and I preffer to Sills, but still loving Sutherland's voice, but again, this is not her best interpretation of an aria.

[64marc64]

Big,wonderful voice! She was the best!

[Jabe88]

seems like our recording is the same!

Which means the version posted by onegin65 is slower and transposed

[AmorediPazzia]

Yes!! :-)

[andreasscholl]

She had the firework for this part!!!!

Wonderfull.