Joan Sutherland talks about high notes

[MagdaKinsky]

Sutherland is such a down-to-earth person, her and Richard are a perfect team.

[Luiseut59]

@MagdaKinsky You're right and very modest by the way...

[HeidelbergSoprano]

How does one know the right repertoire for their voice?

[deepsoul69]

secondo me la più grande soprano di tutti i tempi. Non paragonabile a nessun'altra, sublime, superlativa, magnifica. L'unica ke può essere messa a confronto è la Callas, che poteva metterla in oscuro SOLO per il fattore visceralità. La sua immensa voce, le note altissime tenute con maestria l'hanno consacrata insieme alla Callas il soprano migliore del mondo. Io la adoro più di tutte le altre.

[SandrineSoprano]

Beutiful video

[goodboybuddy1]

She just seems like a great dame to me. Cool!

[puppetoz]

Richard's remarks were all relevent and spot on. Leave the poor guy alone- his contribution was enormous to Joanies career and withouth him she would have stopped years before she did. 

[sk8412c]

well to be fair Joan and Richard were a team and did have a lot to do with her success she says so in other interviews. thanks for posting this!

[emma41093]

What interview is this from?

[Rattywotin]

he controlled her though, and it worked ..

[OperaSamia]

"Hovercraft" :D

[Chrisanthimum]

I found this completely by chance. It's so remarkably relevant to where I am as a performer today that it almost seemed as if Joan was speaking to me directly.

Rest in Peace La Stupenda, one day you will know what an inspiration you've been to me.

Ogni piacer più grato,

mi fia con te diviso

Del ciel clemente un riso

la vita a noi sarà.

[aarongluzman]

Extraordinary...

La Stupenda o The incomparable...

Her secret...

Effortless, warm, vibrant...

Freely, powerfully, intensely...

Clarity and finesse...

Her voice was so naturally glorious...

Una diva

©...Aronne

[peodigy]

DANG!  Does he have a life? It's her gift - let her talk. Now she's silent forever.

[MsF1Annie]

RIP Joan

Thank you for your fabulous voice

[masettoallegro]

R.I.P.

[emma41093]

Shut up Richard!!!! Joan please!

[missgreeneyes56]

How can coloratura be technique? This is an oxymoron. To be able to sing in a technically perfect way then you can use the music and feel the music and give something that is sublime without taking anything away from the composer's meaning. Anyway, she, for me if the greatest soprano of all time.

[g4thz]

5:04 @Rolando.........

[tenorcarlos]

This is so interesting! Thank you for posting. She is just lovely and fantastic.

[MastersoftheOpera]

She started off a a mezzo ???? That's hard to believe! She is most known for having some of the most secure high notes. She had no chest register; she was very bad in the lower notes which she couldn't support in bel canto. If she did once have a solid chest voice and good lower notes, they were lost in her training as a soprano. Compare her to Maria Callas, Leontyne Price and Montserrat Caballe - they do have great chest voices/lower notes

[mauriciomille]

she is the best soprano in the moment till now isnt?, or one of the best

[leprincebeaumont]

1987?

[Melanie89209]

They shouldn't have invited Richard! I watched this to hear HER talk not HIM!

[AOG93]

Wise words. I wish artist now should whatch this interview everyday until it is stuck in their heads!!

Although it is quite ironic to listen to them saying bel canto should be dramatic when neither of them is known for composing and interpreting a true charachter (Dame Joan) or extracting much drama and pathos from an ensemble (Bonynge). But, they WERE MORE mature at this age.

[hairyeahyeah]

Wonderful interview> Have saved this to my favorites! So true about the center being strong and the extremes will follow !

[Caskader]

Awful comment, but still a bit funny:)

[MrLupo23]

che troia!

[killerbunny123123]

can anyone tell me of which high F# she talks? in which aria does she go that high?

[dynamicstuff73]

think of the queen of the night. she sings F's.

[musikphantom1881]

@dynamicstuff73 I believe i read that she transposed it down so that she was singing E's instead

[irishy186]

In the interview she explains that she didn't perform an F# only an F. She got frustrated with her husband and "shrieked an F# to prove that she couldn't" Watch from 2:14 to hear the story. :-)

[LadyOlivia35]

The F# above high C. So, that's two octaves above middle C, and then the F# above that C. Like the previous comment, I know Queen of the Night gets up there.

[killerbunny123123]

@LadyOlivia35

basically the queen of the night goes as high as a High F above soprano high C....i also noticed that in Joan's occasion they lowered the key a semitone so she sang a high E instead of F

[donaldrose]

Bonynge's knowledge is awesome.

I am advising a young (15 y.o.) tenor and am firstly keeping him at and around the tenor clef with nothing above G. I keep encouraging him to sing and develop the baritonal part of his voice. I believe that will give depth, richness and character to his still lightish temor.

[LohengrinT]

at the age Bonynge is depicted in this clip his knowledge is awesome yes... 20 years earlier Bonynge believed that all bel canto needed was top notes and he was comparing Joan to Giudita Pasta whose voice was enormously strong at low chest register plus timbrically heterogenous. This clip proves how a gay person slowly passes from the hysterical love for the top notes to the true meaning of Bel Canto music which always lies in the middle voice. The reported though is in his first gay youth :)

[vergoti20]

You are very ill,mentally very ill. The incredible thing is you work with people health and you are so ill, your message sucks.

Did you read everything you write in internet over the years ? You are an homosexual and still you haven't realized the sad spectacolo you are doing, you are pathetic and very ignorant person as well

[CHOADIVA]

I think is way more ill to be cyber stalking someone and following their online activities and trying to figure out who they are and what they do outside of the internet. Anyone can be mean and nasty to someone, but cyber stalking...that requires a pathology.

[rodlarocque]

There will never be another Sutherland, period. I wish her husband would shut up and let her talk more.

[FIRSTENOR18]

lol

[minkoss]

I know.... I hought the same! Just shup up!!! I heard he was gay and that she was lesbian... I don't even know why I am writing that??? Anyway she was great Cantatrice!

[musicmanm2005]

@rodlarocque I agree to disagree, my reasoning is: although it is true that there will never be another Joan Sutherland, but there is one out there in this universe either born or unborn that will to continue to expand the universe through the inspiratation to become the what is greatness of Joan....

[saydso]

The only good thing about a Sutherland performance was her power, when she got going her characterizations weren't half bad either. And of course she's such a down to earth person once she loses the Dame thing. Funny how Ricky finally realized (as he got older) that there is more to bel canto than a beautiful voice. Passion. Joan was anything but. The reason why Callas recordings are a must.

[raigekimaru]

he's absolutely right about the middle voice. if your middle is in good shape, your top and bottom will be too as long as you sing appropriate repetoire.

[mizerella]

I love what they say about the middle voice

[sagagossard]

stupid bitch

[alonsoab1983]

High notes? Check out YMA SUMAC, she is the best voice ever.

[NEBESHIKU]

Ymac Sumac is just a lounge music singer. She is a third class voice. She has an extreme vocal range but nothing more, just a side sjow freak show.

[hiyadroogs]

NEBESHIKU, in your defence of Joan, you have been very disingenous about Yma. They were of course performers in very different fields indeed. But that doesn't negate the immense vocal abilities of either woman. Neither could have performed each others repertoire. Yma had 5 usable octaves, which is an incredible level of sheer technique, however quirky the repertoire she chose to sing, - & in no way shape or form makes her anything but a vocal phenomenon in her own right..

[NEBESHIKU]

Vocal range is something tha that you are born with, technique is something else. Joan was too busy following Maria Callas in the Bel Canto revival, they would never bother with YMAC's repertoire since it was under them. Please direct me to any video on youtube were YMAC sings Lucia's Mad scence, Norma's Casta Diva, or Armida's amor al dolce imperio, Lakme's Bell Song or anything that requieres real coloratura and not just a simple freek show using a wide voice.

[hiyadroogs]

NEBESHIKU, Firstly, without technique, whether by nature or by tuition, there is no 'voice'. None whatsoever. There is no significant difference between the larynx of Joan, or Yma, & Joe Bloggs. ALL of the difference is in technique. If I gave you a Stradivarius violin, & you don't play the instrument, then all you will extract from it will be screechy scatchy notes. But the potential of the instrument to make beautiful sound, remains the same. It 's ALL in the playing. Con't

[hiyadroogs]

secondly, Yes, there is a difference between the music that Joan performed, & the singing & vocal effects that Yma specialised in. As I said in my reply to you, NEITHER one could sing the others repertoire, because EACH one is so highly specialised. Just as Yma could not perform the arias you listed without tuition in that field, so too, Joan could NEVER have created the huge degree of vocal sounds that was Yma's forte, because Yma had been doing those things all her life. con't

[hiyadroogs]

There is a difference between the length of the vocal folds, which determine to an extent the tessitura that the voice will most comfortably fall into. But allow me to use personal experience here. Before I learned bel canto technique, I had an octave & a half. I couldn't sing many Elvis songs because they were too high for me. Afterwards, I had from bottom C of the bass to B flat above tenor high C, WITHOUT resorting to falsetto. Just shy of 4 octaves. It was because technique freed the voice.

[hiyadroogs]

You say that Joan & Maria would never 'bother' attempting Yma's repertoire because it was beneath them. Wrong word. It was beyond them.

there was no reason why they should have considered it anyway, Yma was top in her own field, & Joan & Maria pre-eminent in their own. Singing is not a competition, there is room for eveybody. My point was simply that Yma was just as vocally gifted as Joan in her own right & style. No one has been able to follow Yma in the same field. They have followed Joan.

[NEBESHIKU]

yes, they were busy making important things, Callas showing what a sfogato was and reviving the belcanto repertoire and Joan as well bringing back bel canto. U r one of the few that has giving me an intelligent anwser and not started an insult fest. You have the right to your opinion as i do, to me YMA is just a freak show lacking any artistic value.

[hiyadroogs]

Thank you, NEBESHIKU. I don't believe in insulting anybody simply because we disagree. I am only expressing my opinion too, after all. I have enormous respect for any vocalist in any field who is capable of extraordinary things, - Joan was of course quite incredible. however, I cannot agree on Yma having no artistic value. Music is not about dots & squiggles on a page, it's about pleasure & communication & beauty. I don't like jazz, but who am I to say that it has no merit to those who enjoy it?

[NEBESHIKU]

Cool! I guess Yma just doesn't do it for me. I also don't like jazz and avoid it.

[hiyadroogs]

Great! We've managed to find common ground that we CAN agree on! lol

[NekoHime1994]

Yma cant really even be compared to Callas or Sutherland. She was in a class of her own... dont get me wrong i love Opera, but yma made it exotic and fun.

Shes very under rated.

[NekoHime1994]

@NEBESHIKU Im sorry but your comment is stupid. It is one thing to have your own Opinion, but to completly shun Yma's tallent has proven to me that your a total Imbecille. Yma has sang in Italy , and made many of their stars jelous. She was able to sing those arias. She once even sang the intrumental of the magic flute. Saying she lacks artistic value is very ignorant. She was far from being stale, she was VERY

interesting,Mysterious,Beautif­ul, and Talented!

[NekoHime1994]

@hiyadroogs Not to mention, Yma stayed in Style with the time, She was far from being a stale artist, she was very Egnomatic, Intresting, Mysterious, and Very Talented!

[Janibeva]

ay que hombre! que no deja hablar a joan, ggrrr, que se calleeeeeeee

[cantanteporsiempre]

haha si es cierto, de hecho el esposo siempre fue criticado por meterse demasiado en la carrera de la cantante. Aunque ella nunca se quejó, la verdad yo como cantante, ya quisiera tener un marido asi hahahaha

[Feisenbach]

F sharp?! Come on, if her high notes were so amazing, why did she transpose one aria after the other?

[PETEYHEYHEYHEY]

you vile pig.

[scotsw12]

give us the benefit of your wisdom Oprah and share the details of your singing career...you are talking about someone who was at the top of her profession for well over than 30 years..and "idiot savant"...learn grammar...do you know what an oxymoron is?

[tenor220]

you just berated someone on their grammar and spelling yet you mispelled opera. OPRAH IS A PERSON!!

[andigrim007]

Very interesting !

Thank you for posting this.

[miguelborrallo]

Wonderful Soprano and a Wonderful Artist... amazing singing... Is a pleasure to see this Video. All this Stupid people saying all this horrible things... please respect one of the most famous singers of the 20th century. Joan... I love you... hope you have long years with good health. Hope life join us once somewhere... Would love to meet you and thank you personally for all your wonderful career. :) Thanks for being so great!

[puppetoz]

Vicious vacuous bitch that you are.

[puppetoz]

Excuse us- are you looking in a mirror? If there's an idiot around its YOU!

[luiscar89]

I just love her face and the tone she uses when she says " You just don't know".

That's my Joanie. That's why she's my favorite opera singer together with Leyla Gencer.

Brava Joanie I love you!!!

[helloimapianist]

shut up richard

[forallyouknow]

can't agree more! he's such a presumptious, little... GRR.

[Drelnis]

God, why is Richard cutting out Joan on every sentence? Is he the one doing to god-damn singin? We wanna hear Joan!

[RossiniSoprano]

He is the one who trained her and realized where her true fach lay. We would not have had the wonders of Sutherland without him.

[sirenadellopera]

Excellent video! Thank you.

[wolkowy1]

This is very interesting. Dame Joan has really a lot to advice to young singers. Thanks for uploading.

[SopranoKayla1992]

I don't understand all the big oprea words they're using. Someone explain.

[Janibeva]

There's somewhere a book written by them about singing technic? I would like have it.But in spanish pls, cause i'm mexican :)

[LaMostraESopra]

GOD, Richard can you please just SHUT THE HELL UP and let poor Joanie speak?!

[distefano13069609]

@LaMostraESopra I hate him in these interviews... He thinks he MADE her.. HE would be nothing without her! Brava La Stupenda!

[fll7181]

@distefano13069609 honestly, i think it's a codependent thing. hadn't she been presented to Tullio Serafin as a soprano, but rather as a mezzo, he may not have pursued expanding her repertoire. and vice versa, what if Richard had married a simple Soprano and not a dramatic coloratura soprano, he'd not be anyone. no doubt Richard would have pursued this goal of training a bel canto singer, but would be sadly disappointed hadn't he had the fortune of meeting Joan.

[JessyeNormanFan]

Can Coloraturafan please upload the rest of the interview. Thanks

[cleanears]

that's bob jacobson...

[cleanears]

that's bob jacobson...

[Sadiesexy]

I adore this woman!

[nikolaimedtner]

me too!!

[agnellodei]

I wish Joan and Richard would come out with a book on training for bel canto!

[EmilyGreene1984]

I agree, I wish I had known alot of these healthy and wise tips about vocal health and how to protect and train your voice when I was younger. Joan Sutherland is truly an inspiration to aspiring and training young singers (and singers to be) and I look to her advice alot more during my training.

[Elisabetta611]

What a doll! She seems to be very sweet!

[marioegorga]

Joan and Richard are Masters of "The Art of Singing", so many people should stop and listen to what they have to say.They both have been my Gurus for ever.I have learnt so much from them.Joan for ever humble and charming about her Art and that amazing voice.I thank you both.

[AlexiouValenti]

Creating living chracters!!! He said that!! Wow they actually think of that!!!

[Liwah]

Will he shut up and let her speak?

[yglygl4545]

Richard??

[Liwah]

Yes, he may have been a huge factor in her being an opera star and he may be famous in his own right but you can clearly see that Joan is getting frustrated with him cutting her off and answering almost everything for her.

[lahire22]

Joan the spiritualized person! Human! Terrestrial with a unearthly voice!

[songbirdwatcher]

A charming, smart, talented couple.

[Jabe88]

Isn't she awesome?