Joan Sutherland - D'Oreste, d'Aiace! - Idomeneo (Mozart) - 1979

[theCountess385]

Oooohhh! I'm STILL shivering from the chills!

[princessanasthacia]

Was she the only singer who dared to sing that high C in the end? It sounds so perfect!

[AleksandraPlamenac]

I love the high C! I wish Edda Moser did the same

[NEBESHIKU]

would she have dared this in Italy?

[labardina]

БРАВООООООО11!!!!!!

[MrMattsboy]

The photos are of Joan as Elettra in this very production, in Sydney 1979. And I agree about the final high C. You're not, in classical style, supposed to go up at the end of the aria, but isn't it just what one has always wanted. The thing is that most sopranos are puffing so hard by the end of the aria that the idea of an added high C is utterly impossible!

[dfgrbtr]

I'm speechless...

[danawinsor]

Wonderful! I think this is the best performance I've heard of this aria, vocally, musically, & dramatically. Brava Joan!

[rrgallo]

Where are the pics from?



[asdfopera]

@rrgallo

i scanned most of the images from a book called "The Joan Sutherland Album". It was published in 1986.

[rrgallo]

@asdfopera Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!

[OLIVCHEN77]

When you have good high notes- Honey Show them! Brava

[CantoSemper49]

Her head and chest voice sound like two different people.

[FeDuS27]

No por nada era "La Stupenda" Maravilloso Final!

[bmh4d0k3n]

The high C at the end is so wrong but so right.

[CantoSemper49]

@bmh4d0k3n I know!!! Its not written in the music, but it just sounds so neccessary!!

[joserico282]

@bmh4d0k3n Really, did she HAVE to be so amazing as to pull that off?? Could anyone else do that?

[baritonebynight]

@bmh4d0k3n When you're Dame Joan Sutherland you can do whatever you want......

[calaftheeast]

@bmh4d0k3n

Oh I know. It always feels incomplete without it, so I always imagine that note there. And what do you know: The Empress of Opera evidently indulged in it also! I wish we had a studio version of this aria from her greatness...

[calaftheeast]

Brava!!!!!

[formersk8ter]

@bmh4d0k3n I have no doubt that Mozart would have loved the final high C.

[SirDiogoferreira]

@bmh4d0k3n That's why she was (IS, actually) LA STUPENDA, unparalleled, divina! =D

[primohomme]

Truly dramatic!

[longlifeluke]

assolutamente meraviglioso!!!!!

[leprincebeaumont]

Che resa stupefacente!

[MINAGE123456789]

fafulosa su vibrato impecable

[CantoSemper49]

I don't care for her Mozart roles, she belongs in Donizetti.

[moghedien13]

would have been nice to hear this sung in liek 1960 or a little earlier when she still put some excitement into her singing. still this is a pretty friggin awesome portrayal and im sure that voice in the house made a massive difference with dramatic impact.

[65attila]

@moghedien13

I heard Joan in the house and the size ,amplitude and clarity of her voice is only approximated

on any recording media. At least in live stuff - one can't make small voices seem larger so as not

to be inaudible next to Joan.

Regards-John

[MINAGE123456789]

mi  pieza favorita

[MastersoftheOpera]

Sutherland's Donna Anna is by far her best Mozart role & the one she's most known for, particularly her Giulini recording. Her account of Martern Aller Arten from Seraglio is excellent. But I don't care for her Elettra. This role, and this aria, calls for lower notes. Joan doesn't support the lower notes; that is, not very fully and well. She had no chest voice. But she's still a fantastic opera singer and her Mozart repertoire is great

[Hako2004]

@MastersoftheOpera

No chest voice? How can the greatest Lucrezia in recent memory have had no chest voice. She most certainly did have a chest voice, but was careful not to "bash" it, as she used to say, or carry the weight upward when getting out of the chest.

[MastersoftheOpera]

@Hako2004 I'm sorry but Sutherland did not have a solid chest voice when you compare her to Maria Callas, Leontyne Price and Montserrat Caballe. Sutherland was a soprano whose high notes were her best features, but not her lower notes or chest voice. And don't get me wrong; I do like some of Sutherland's roles like I said I like her Mozart and her bel canto operas

[Hako2004]

@MastersoftheOpera

Leontyne had no more chest voice than Dame Joan, and I have never heard her sing any lower than Sutherland. Callas did have a stronger lower register. All sopranos make their careers on the high register, not the low, but the idea that Sutherland had no chest voice is simply untrue. She had one, a decent one, and used it when required. Sutherland could never have won vocal competitions as a mezzo without strength in the low area....which she did.

[lastupendaboy]

Hako,AGain,I agree...a wise one you are.

[Hako2004]

She is incisive and powerful when the music demands it, without fraying the sound. As in the case of her Donna Anna, the added weight of voice creates chilling electricity. She uses her firmness of line and heroic breath capacity to great effect.

Fantastic....thank you.

[LohengrinT]

I also agree about her Donna Anna. Dont forget that it was the "monsterous" Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (monsterous both from a "Mozartian" and a Technical point of view) that was astonished with Joan's Anna and had recommended her to Walter Legge. I also believe that Joan's Donna Anna is the greatest up to today

-And yes yes this is exactly what we call Heroic Coloratura :p

[moghedien13]

its good to hear solid untroubled singing in this role. i think in her earlier years she would have been fantastic in this. if u listen to her non che non sei carpace she sings with such abandonment it would have been awesome to hear that here and in her donn anna.

[operalover42]

Merci !

[SENAFOREVER]

Gracious me, what an artist!

She an Leontyne Price could sing the aria while remaining vocally splendid and not sink into hysteria, which would be unmozartian naturalism.

Big Brava!!!

Thanks for sharing.

[paulostroff99]

One of the 20 th. centuries greatest! TY John

[LohengrinT]

Simply the greatest Elettra I have ever heard and one of the very few late Sutherland recordings where she sings "passionately" at least in terms of the tempo they use (she actually can sing this aria properly fast)

[Klassizismus]

You should listen to Edda Moser - SHE is the greatest Elettra! - IMO^^

[LohengrinT]

well, you know me, not a big Sutherland fan and definitely not of Joan's late years, but this is extraordinary in my opinion. She manages to sing it properly fast while attacking the notes very loudly inside the phrase and without preparing her voice plus without sounding screamy (smth Joan could! do but very rarely did). I haven't heard anyone else singing this so well.

[BeauTenor]

You know, as astonishing as Sutherland's vocalism was when she first became a superstar in the early 60's, a lot of the time I prefer her more mature performances/ recordings, particularly when (as in this case), the tempo is up a bit (the Masnadieri aria she recorded around this time is another great example). There's was a fire here that was just missing from her younger perfomances. Not sure I agree with that last high note though...seems a little out of place in Mozart to me.

[LohengrinT]

- I adore the final note - I disagree with about 90% of Sutherland's ornamentations but not this one I find it fantastic

-Suthrland with time abandoned all drama and sentiment in her singing cause according to Bonynge that was what destroyed Callas' voice

[Hako2004]

I totally agree about the final note.....not for all sopranos, but for Sutherland, in this version, it seems to be a very natural final expression of the music tension. This is Mozart of course, but that interpolated high note really does seem quite correct there....if delivered exactly right, which it was.

[LohengrinT]

Exactly... this note is fantastic and it crowns/accelerates the sentimental tension perfectly. In general Sutherland here grasps the perfect tempo as well -and that is most important- she manages to hit loudly each note which is highly important in order to emphasize the dramatic essence of this unique aria. I am extremely sensitive to bad ornamentation this is truly fantastic from any point of view (musical, dramatic, vocal)