THE TEN GREATEST SOPRANOS Heard Live 2 Joan Sutherland

[JERZIGROTOWSKI]

NO niego que las sopranos aquí mencionadas sean tremendas, pero es muy típico de un británico pedorro ensalzar a voces caucásicas y algunas flemáticas. ¿Dónde está Price, Moffo, Tebaldi, Arroyo, Bumbry, Freni, Gruveroba, Caballé...? Además, ¡¿cómo comparas a una soprano dramática con una coloratura o una wagneriana?! ¡Por todos los diablos!

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@JERZIGROTOWSKI All Ten singers are sopranos I really heard live in the opera house or in concert. This is my tribute to them because their performances were for me the most memorable & outstanding. It is a personal choice and never meant as a set of "comparisons". Inevitably there are many fine singers not in my "Ten Greatest" e.g. Tebaldi, whom sadly I never heard live. So why not make your own selection?

[cantorandopera]

I heard Sutherland live in Norma at the Met. But my true love of Sutherland were her early recordings of Handel. It is really perfection. Unfortunately, I never heard her sing Handel live. She was also a charming and modest woman - I had the privilege of meeting her more than once.

[Maripudelmonaco]

RENATA TEBALDI !!!!!

[dendodd2]

I was very, very lucky to hear Sutherland sing live from the 60's up until her last Amercian operatic performance in Dallas in 1988. I saw her Norma probably the most & although she did not give this role the drama that others did, she was vocally thrilling and very, very moving in the final scene. I remember being simply awed at a note perfect Lucia in Philadelphia in the 70s. What a performace! For me, the richness & agility of her voice showed best at the Met & Covent Garden in La Fille.

[CharlotteinWeimar]

@dendodd2 Lovely comment. Please feel free to describe more fully her different performances. I think those of us who were fortunate to hear the greatest singers in live performances can illuminate the impression left by their sound recordings. and give a more complete idea to younger people of what made them so incredible. There truly was not a voice, on its own, to match the young Joan Sutherland's joyful, effortless radiance.

[65attila]

@dendodd2

I live in Philly and saw Joan twice in Dec 71 as Lucia. The recordings do NOT capture the size and claruty of her sound- the last D at the end of Act I of Norma still haunts me. I think Stuarda was as great as anything she did and I heard her twice in 1974 again in Philly.

Regards-John

John

[dendodd2]

@65attila You are so correct that recordings give no real idea of the size of Sutherland's voice; it was very large and plush in its timbre, one could almost describe her voice as "cushy" it was so round and rich. That round, full sound filled the house and didn't just reach one's ears it could reverberate through one's entire body and at times one could feel the entire house vibrate with the sound. This was an experience I had during a descending scale in La Fille at the Met. Also In Norma.

[dendodd2]

@65attila You are so right about the size of the Sutherland voice, it is very difficult get a real impression of it on recording. The sextet in the DVD of Lucia gives some hint. There is no micophone used anywhere in the Met and the way her voice floats above all the others starts to recreate the effect she had in the house particularly with the DTS surround sound.

[65attila]

@dendodd2

Thank yoi for your intelligent and kind response. Joan sang a high D ar rhe end of Act I

in Norma that still boggle my mind. Thr entire scene in Lucia from Sextet to end

was a Niagara of sound,

Regards-John

[dendodd2]

@65attila both you and granten0re have commented on Maria Stuarda - see my comments below...

[dendodd2]

@65attila I corresponded with Ruby Mercer (singer, broadcaster, writer) and she once commented about Stuarda: "Have you ever heard such singing? I've never heard anything like it!!" You are not alone in your assessment of Maria Stuarda. The power in her voice would sometimes actually startle.  Another real eye opener was her Le roi de Lahore in Vancouver, the size and power would make one's jaw drop and all the time that rich, full, plummy sound. A miracle.

[Nacidodelmar]

@dendodd2 WOW! what a privilege seeing her at that time ! her voice here sounds so fresh, extremely pure!

[GoldBezant]

Sensational!

[bellini7verdi]

ELLA ES LA GLORIA.......PARA IR A TRABAJAR........PARA IR DE ASADEROS....PARA IR DE MARCHA......DE LO QUE SEA..........LA PONES Y TU TE PONES LAS PILAS........COMO SI FUERAS UN MUÑECO........ES UNA BOMBA ATOMICA....O MAS BIEN ES EL ESTALLIDO DEL VESUBIO.........QUE ENTERRO DOS CIUDADES.....POMPEYA Y HERCULANO.....ESTA MUJER ES LA HOSTIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[mwatkins33]

Thank you for sharing these. I never had opportunity to hear her in person, but have listened to many albums since I was age 3, am now 68. I heard her with other artists when Met was played on radio before TV came into homes.

[AprilDancer58]

RIP to the Grand Dame Joan Sutherland. Your beautiful voice will charm generations to come.

[raigekimaru]

my top 10 sopranos, yes, I do have a bias toward dramatic voices =) 1) sutherland 2) flagstad 3) Moser 4) Callas 5) Price 6 and 7) tie: Bumbry and Verret 7) Nilsson 8) Eva Marton 9) Sills 10) Frida Leider PS: if you consider Callas, Bumbry or Verret to be mezzos, the next 3 are Varnay, June Anderson and Caballe

[rawdonqueen]

I saw Dame Joan sing Lucia in Detroit in 1964. I remember her voice as being huge and rich. Her early recordings make her sound voice brilliant, but thinner than it was. She was also a striking figure, dashing about the stage, while singing the mad scene.

[SENAFOREVER]

These pictures are so mooving...

[kimcoreit]

Thank you for posting. I've heard Joan over 30 times live covering a 20-year period. These performances being at San Francisco Opera House. Those memories are to be treasured.

[granten0re]

@kimcoreit

I was in the chorus of the San Francisco Opera from 1971 through 1990. My first year, 1991, was Maria Stuarda. Of all the things she sang, and there were many, this was the most incredible I ever experienced anyone, and I heard Callas live. Her Anna Bolena in 1984 was exquisite, even though she found it necessary to transpose both the beginning and finale down a whole tone. Still, magnificent. I stood directly in front of her in the confrontation scene of Anna Bolena. God!!

[nornsnornsnorns]

Roberto Devereux opened this years Holland Park opera last night. Bonynge conducted, and Dame Joan was in the audience. Frail but feisty, she received a standing ovation from the audience as she took her seat after the interval. Majella Cullagh must have been inspired, and gave a superb performance as Queen Elisabeth

[CharlotteinWeimar]

Dear norns,  Great comment, thank you!!!

[Homoclassicus]

Thanks for the video with the beautiful photo of Sutherland in Samson and particularly for your comments on your experience with her career. I totally agree when you say "hers was the voice of joy, of innocence touched with pathos". Some people regard her voice as cold, what I have never understood, for it sounds to me deeply touching and subtle. Perhaps some people are just expecting too much effects and can't be moved by innocence, pathos and sublety. :-)

[CharlotteinWeimar]

Yours is a lovely comment, Nobody who heard Joan live could possibly say she had other than a warm edged and human, albeit spectacular, voice. Recordings are like photographs and can be misleading, which is why I have started this set of "live memories". I hope people will join in with their own precious recollections.

[nornsnornsnorns]

Thank you Charlotte. I saw Sutherland several times, and the physical sensation of her voice heard in the theatre was immensely thrilling. Her voice really seemed to fill the place and surround one. The final Lucias in 1985 with Bergonzi were amazing. Having also had the privilege of meeting her, the fact that Joan is such a lovely and unassuming no-nonsense lady made me love her even more

[CharlotteinWeimar]

Thank you norns for your splendid and informative comment.

[CharlotteinWeimar]

If you heard this singer live please post a description.

[He2s2sp2]

Beautiful video. Sutherland is my favorite soprano of all time.

[essereverbo2]

Splendide

Thank you for sharing this treasures wits us!

[bestcornishcat]

I love this!

[corellithebest]

Thank you for sharing this with us! Did you say you missed Callas' Norma? It's such a pity!