THE TEN GREATEST SOPRANOS Heard Live 2 Joan Sutherland

This is a selection of videos of the Ten Greatest Sopranos I had the joy to hear in live performance. The order is simply when I first heard them. They are all from my impressionable student days, chosen because every one of these great singers gave performances as vivid to me now as when I first heard them. Every one was more than just a voice and they all sang, in their very different ways, so as to move, excite and enchant.

Joan Sutherland was a principal "House" soprano at Covent Garden, on the modest salary of £60 [$90] a week, when I first heard her.

She sang Desdemona in Verdi's Otello opposite Ramon Vinay, ideally cast, vocally and dramatically, as the innocent heroine. At the age of twenty nine one reviewer wrote "Joan rises to Desdemona". She was highly thought of, but had not yet become a star.

The following year Handel's oratorio Samson was staged for Covent Garden's dramatic tenor Jon VIckers. He made a powerful, tragic figure as the blinded hero. After the destruction of the temple, his body was brought in on a bier, to the solemn strains of the Dead March from Saul. It was very dignified and very moving.

But suddenly the gloom laden mood was lifted, as an Israelite woman stepped forward from the crowd. It was Joan Sutherland singing "Let the bright seraphim". People could scarcely believe what they were hearing as they were showered with cascades of brilliant runs and scales, sweet, full and effortless, culminating in an unbelievably ringing, beautiful top D. Here surely, within the ranks of the regular company, was a singer of international quality.

For some time RIchard Bonynge, Sutherland's husband, accompanist and coach had been trying to persuade Covent Garden to mount Lucia di Lammermoor as a vehicle for his wife. But a visiting touring company from Italy beat them to it by including the long neglected "old warhorse" in their repertoire. They presented Lucia, in a very basic staging, in Oscar Hammerstein's London Opera House, the vast Stoll Theatre.

Had those performances not been so well received, Joan Sutherland's international career might well have had a rather different start. But the Italians brought their own star soprano, the young Romanian, Virginia Zeani. Thanks to her beautifully sung, dramatic interpretation, Lucia was a great success. Covent Garden delayed their venture for a year and then mounted their superb production, tailor made for Sutherland by Franco Zeffirelli.

Following her Lucia triumph, Joan Sutherland was quickly in demand in the world's great opera houses. But for some time she still sang frequently with the Covent Garden company in roles as diverse as Violetta, the Queen of the Night and the Woodbird in Siegfried.

For me hers was the voice of joy, of innocence touched with pathos. As an instrument it was huge but soft edged, sweet, effortless, soaring, and exhilarating. Her technical agility was in a class of its own yet she was also beguiling in simple, unadorned pieces such as "How beautiful are the feet" from Messiah. Without any doubt, hers were the best of all top notes.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ten
• Greatest
• Sopranos
• Live
• 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?

[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.

[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. :-)

[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

[dendodd2]

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

[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 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.

[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.

[Nacidodelmar]

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



[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]

@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.