Lyric Sutherland: Baroque

I'm uploading videos showing the lyric side of Sutherland's career, which, unfortunately, is sometimes underestimated. Even if Joan Sutherland was indeed a legendary coloratura phenomenon, she was also a supreme singer in lyric roles and lyric arias in other roles, always demonstrating a very subtle, elegant and expressive phrasing and her lush and rounded middle register.

In this video the "Koloraturwunder" shows off her ability to sing long vocal lines and beautiful variations with a most delicate, effortless and elegiac singing in Baroque operas and pieces. As I said before, I doubt anyone who listen to this could still think of her as a "mere" coloratura phenomenon or an insufficiently expressive singer. The excerpts are from:

1) "As when the dove laments" from Händel's Acis and Galatea [1959, studio]
2) "Mi restano le lagrime" from Alcina [1962, studio]
3) "Se pietà di me non senti" from Giulio Cesare [1963, live from London Sadlers Wells Theatre]
4) "Softest sounds no more can ease me" from Athalia [1985, studio]
5) "With plaintive note" from Samson [1963, studio]
6) "Tra i perigli, i timori, e le morti" from Scarlatti's Mitridate Eupatore [1957, broadcast performance]
7) "Ombre piante" from Rodelinda, in English [1959, live]
8) "Troppo è il dolore" from Bononcini's Griselda [1971, studio]
9) "Bereite dir Jesu", from Bach's Cantata BWV 147 [1957, studio]

Category:

Music

Tags:

• opera
• lyric
• joan
• sutherland
• handel
• scarlatti
• bach
• stupenda
• alcina
• rodelinda
• giulio
• cesare
• athalia

[LohengrinT]

It is of extreme interest why Sutherland's middle sounded so well supported and not hooded in Handel while in Bel Canto sometimes it sounded as if being suppressed.

One possible explanation I have been given for this phenomenon by a musician friend is the possibility that the transition to her top register was placed higher than most singers, thus making the slightly higher middle tessitura of Handel roles sounding more comfortable

[Homoclassicus]

That's an interesting explanation. I also notice Sutherland's middle sounds freer and lusher in Baroque music (that doesn't mean the middle sounds uncomfortable in Bel Canto, but only not as perfectly placed as in Baroque arias). In fact, some of the very best examples of how amazing Sutherland's middle was are in her recordings, and that applies even to her recordings from the 80's, where even with the wobble it sounded just ideal (as in Athalia or later Alcinas).

[grandadpoppyable]

HER Bel Canto Ideal partner was undoubtedly Pavarotti. And her Ideal handel partner should have been Kenneth Makellar. The best male tenor interpreter of Handel I have ever heard, mainly on ecordings. I dunno wether or not he could act out an opera though.

[PIPZZZ02]

There's a melancholy edge to Sutherland's tone which imbues these pieces with

real feeling.

A beautiful selection. Many thanks.

[bellini7verdi]

la voz de las voces.....................

[ganjasolly]

dis da best shit rite hurrr

[asdfopera]

Well, I enjoy some of Sills work and I think she was an intelligent musician and business woman. But some of the ornaments were excessive and they make Sutherland's sound tame, but I still marvel at them.

[asdfopera]

Lohengrin, compared to Sills, Sutherland's ornaments were modest. I mean, VERY modest and conservative.

[LohengrinT]

I have avoided up to now her Athalia because of the middle voice voice wobble and the little sample you posted here is the first one I ever heard and if the rest of the recording is of the same quality I think I will buy the entire opera.

I sincerely believe that Sutherland's entire musical existence was Ideal for Handel (timbre, voice and her love for excessive ornaments)