Joan Sutherland - Al tuo seno fortunato (1967) Haydn, L'anima del Filosofo

Joan, in amazing voice, singing an extremely difficult castrati aria written by Haydn, from his opera "L'anima del filosofo" or "Orfeo ed Euridice".
In her memoirs she said this aria gave her a great deal of trouble and she never felt she mastered it. What do you think?

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• sutherland
• castrati
• haydn
• castrato
• l'anima
• del
• filosofo
• ordeo
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• euridice
• bel
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• classical
• opera

[nectenorboi09]

They actually did they same thing in Boston recently - Sarah Coburn sang Eurydice (gloriously) and they gave her this aria. I believe she also sang the rest of the character's part - it's kinda a walkon role anyway. Fantastic singing!

[Breniznit]

@asdfopera I agree and actually in an interview @primohomme posted recently she commented that she did not to do so as pulling from a low to a high damages the voice.

She still sounds nice though of course

[asdfopera]

sutherland sang the lead soprano role in this opera, but she had no big arias and in the 3rd act she was completely silent so they gave her this aria, which was supposed to be sung by another character, the castrato. i think she had difficulties with the extreme high-low shifts in range. i don't think the agility, trills, and coloratura were a problem though.maybe bartoli sings it better if you want to hear a closer approximation of what the castrato may have sounded like.

[ChrisStockslager]

@HM0880 Agreed. But I think her Salt Lake City performance of this is even more polished.

[HM0880]

Hmm, I gotta disagree with Dame Joan on this one... it sounds pretty "mastered" to me! :D