Lyric Sutherland: Verismo

[noneisbetter]

Joan Sutherland was superb singing anything!!! She was great even forgetting the words. Thank you very much for posting these indeed rare but great recordings.

[bellini7verdi]

sobrenatural.ponga donde la pongas.........este a gusto o no lo este......siempre queda .....la realidad ...de una belleza sobrenatural...esa locura de voz....que lo llena todo......los corazones...las neuronas....y lo mas intimo de nuestras entrañas...de simple smortales........entra en nuestro microcosmo de ideales perdidos....de bellezas deseadas..de sueños insuperables........hermosura a topeeeeeeeeeeee....esmuy fuerte esta mujer para cualquier mortal de a pie corriente..y deseable......loco

[raigekimaru]

joan sutherland's singing is too perfect for verismo. she sounds like a godess in a genre that is supposed to convey true human emotions.

[asdfopera]

I think Joan sang the same roles for too long, so she didn't get to perform operas like this on the stage (except for Adriana later in her career). Luckily she recorded A LOT so we get to hear her in these works she never would have sang complete.

[Homoclassicus]

I agree with you. Sutherland sang marvelous performances in the 80's of roles like Lucia and even recorded another Amina in 1980, but those roles weren't ideal for her thicker, darker voice since the late 70's. I'm glad we got to hear her amazing 80's Lucias or Elviras, but I confess I think she could've developed a new repertoire in heavier, lower roles by Verdi and Verismo, as well as heavier Bel Canto or Classicism (Roberto Devereux or Attila, for instance). :-)

[primohomme]

She didn't have the low register for it though, did you ever hear her Norma or Anna Bolena or Lucrezia Borgia? also Lucia does require good middle-low since Act 2 duetto is quite central and low (for a high coloratura soprano), it is not canary territory. Anyways, these clips are truly beautiful though.

[Homoclassicus]

Lucia truly sounded adequate to her even in the 80's, except for the lighter parts. What I meant is those roles, with a heavier voice, sounded less "easy" than before, while in a Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena or Athalia, which she sang in the 70's/80's, the voice shines much more (also in her amazing later Alcinas).

I do think she had enough low notes for those roles. Her Lucrezia, Esclarmonde and Desdemona (the best example of her potential in spinto repertoire) display excellent low notes.

[asdfopera]

Another good role where Joan displays her lower register is Sita (from Le Roi di Lahore by Massenet). Joan sang it on stage and recorded it in the late 1970s. It's an opera with a very strange libretto so people tend to forget about it, but I think she pulled it off.

[primohomme]

Well, Joan only sang Lucrezia with the low passages once (in Covent Garden), after that she always transposed the key a whole step up and took the low passages up an octave. I think her maitresses in Hoffman is of course exquisite and that required both high coloratura and good lyrical middle voice. Her Lucrezia I found tired and forced on the low register and exquisite in the upper register, and her Bolena...well, they pretty much rewrote and transpossed the role for her.

[Homoclassicus]

Actually, she sang the low passages in all her performances during the 70's and until the 1980 Covent Garden Lucrezia. We can't consider Sutherland's voice based on her very late career. You mention her Hoffmann heroines, but Giulietta is a quite low role and she excels in it - Antonia isn't very high too. As for Bolena, I don't know about this "rewriting". Which parts could you give me as example of higher transposition? AFAIK, she used to transpose DOWN her roles, like Lakmé and later Lucia.

[primohomme]

For me her best roles are: Alcina, Beatrice di Tenda, Esclarmonde, Marie and the maitresses of Hoffman. She always shined best in things with a higher tessitura, coz whenever weight on the low register was required, it was somewhat difficult (even she said it). Esclarmonde though for the most part is terribly middle voice, and she did an excellent job.

[Homoclassicus]

I respect your opinion, which is a very valid one, but I must say I'm a little puzzled with it because according to you some of her best roles are exactly some of those that rely more on the lower middle and low register. Alcina, apart from her (actually, Morgana's) "Tornami a vagheggiar", centers in the middle voice. Ditto for Esclarmonde, Giulietta and Antonia in Hoffmann. Btw, I think no singer could make real impression in a Lucia, Norma or Semiramide without an excellent lower register.

[primohomme]

Esclarmonde, and the maitresses don't go any lower than a D4. So they both fluctuate between dramatic soprano tessitura (which sometimes is similar to that of lyric mezzo) and high coloratura soprano. Looking at the score I can tell you that Lucia's act 2 is a whole step up and the low passages are sung an octave up.

[primohomme]

In Anna Bolena she sang the cabaletta in the mad scene a whole step down so she could crown the end with a top note, but all the passages that require low B's or low Bb's were completely rewritten by Bonynge (and I don't mean sung an octave up, I mean the melody line was completely rewritten) so she avoid the low register all together. I do think her high soprano roles such as Elvira and La Sonnambula were beautifully sung, but I think she did even better interpretations in those I mentioned.

[kgarmaker123]

Someone else mentioned she started her career as a mezzo.. I really question the categorization of her voice then, or her subesquent training/ coaching which i believe taught her to lighten up and not sing into her bottom and middle to keep the top sounding as fresh and a bloomy as possible. you cannot underestimate the influence of Bonynge...

[primohomme]

Tons of sopranos start singing arias in a middle-low tessitura. That does not make 'em mezzos in anyway. Even Sumi Jo claimed she started as a mezzo :-p A real mezzo body to the voice would have a darker color...for example Callas, Galvany, Varady, etc...even Gencer to a certain extent.

[kgarmaker123]

The voice is based on the middle. Sopranos frequently do not have bottoms, and they are taught by vocal teachers not to sing into the low notes, as a way of preserving the top notes. Sutherland was a follower of that approach. On the other hand, Callas who had a low and middle voice, and really had three octaves of range, where most are lucky to have two, did not last, and I think some of that belting she did in the lower register was partly at least to blame.

[primohomme]

Well I think Sutherland excelled in high soprano roles. Maria Callas' voice did not fail, she NEVER lost her upper range, what she lost was her breathe support and her bravado..that's why the wobble appeared, but as she said it herself, she has a high E till the end.

[kgarmaker123]

Agreed> Callas, somewhere lost her way with support, because the wobble was directly related to that, and to pushing with throat muscles when it should have been supported with a column of air. I think Maria, could have retrieved her voice. She needed a different suppport system than she had. Her friends enabled some self destructive behaviors, rather than helped her move away from them. It was a tragedy for sure.

[primohomme]

Well the people around her didn't know how to be friends, she was left alone in her last years, her dogs died, her voice lost shape after more than a year without practice, etc...It's sad, a huge tragedy. Joan at least was lucky that she had someone by her side who was at least a best friend.

[kgarmaker123]

Some were too busy trying to make some money, others were just too weak themselves.. I just can;t believe that a healthy 53 yr old woman, who was still beautiful and talented had to die. Such a waste. Joan yes, had Richard.. that was indeed good for both of them.

[primohomme]

The only roles she sang that truly require weight in the low register are; Norma (in which she found the lower passages uncomfortable) but she was the best in casta diva/ah bello, totally the best. Lucrezia Borgia (in which she sounded uncomfortable in the low register) but again, wonderful in the high coloratura, and Anna Bolena, in which things were rewritten so she would avoid the low register. Overall she preferred things with a higher tessitura, it's where her voice was the best of them all

[Homoclassicus]

The best part of Sutherland's voice was the higher middle and high registers, but I still can't agree she had a "weak" lower register, unless we are comparing it with her unsurpassable top. However, while she didn't have the most resonant lower register, I know she could - and did - sing a Low A or B in many operas and they sounded effective. Thanks for the information on the transpositions, but what I still don't get why you think her Lucrezia sounds uncomfortable in the low parts.

[primohomme]

well, for me low is below Eb4 or D4, and she did have those notes. She even had low Ab (such as in the cadenza in "Sovra il sen" in her 1980 Sonnambula and her Trovatore with Pavarotti), but those were rather weak (compared to her upper register of course) she has said herself she left her chest voice rather underdeveloped. So when Norma or Lucrezia Borgia require weight (like a mezzo) on the low register, it wasn't comfortable for her. The upper register however, was always EXCELLENT.

[65attila]

@primohomme

Why not listen to some of Suhterland's live performances form London in Wagner and Weber pre - Lucia and then talk about her weak ? low register,

[primohomme]

@65attila

I have. She never had a strong low register. Only in a couple of recordings she has projected decently in the low register, such as in "Ocean, thou mighty monster" and "Santo di Patria".

[Hako2004]

Thank you for these wonderful samples of Dame Joan's rare excursions into Verismo. Personally, I always wished she would have performed La Gioconda, which is full of magnificent music. Even though her career was long, it wasn't long enough for her to explore all her operatic possibilities.

[andreasscholl]

There were plans for Gioconda...but the production never came through.

Who knows maybe there are some pirate recording from La Stupenda studying the role?

She had the middle register...although some say the hadnt.

Starting of as a mezzo gave her the time to grow it!

Turandot....woooouw!!!!!

Pitty she didnt sang more orchestral music...Mahler 4, Strauss Letzte Lieder....etc.

Verdi Requiem!

Splendid.

L'Oracolo, Esclarmonde...Roy de Lahor!

Music suited for her.

[SirEdgardo]

As always Sutherland's sound is beautiful on whatever she is singing

[andreasscholl]

Thanx for this comment!!!!

Cant agree more on that.