Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera Singer, 84
PARIS, 26 OCTOBER 2010 — A little over two weeks ago Joan Sutherland died, yet another of the great singers of my youth to have left us this year. I first heard her in August 1960 when she sang Elvira in Puritani with the Glyndebourne Opera at the Edinburgh Festival, a year after her emergence from obscurity as Donizetti’s Lucia at Covent Garden. As too often in her early years, Sutherland was not entirely surrounded by singers of equal stature (though Ernest Blanc was an exception on this occasion), but it was clear that here was a soprano the likes of which few had experienced. The voice was full, the technique flawless, the trill devastating in its accuracy, and instead of the coloratura sopranos who reigned supreme in a repertory here was a voice that could easily fill the house, only the second of whom that could be said in the years after Maria Callas. Granted she lacked the animal magnetism of Callas, but the voice was far more dependable and would remain so for many years to come.
Sutherland went on to reestablish a number of works to the repertory, particularly of the Italian bel canto school (Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini) but also French 19th century operas (Massenet, Thomas). All of these are represented on CD, almost all worth listening to except for a few very late excursions into the recording studio (Ernani, Anna Bolena, Adriana Lecouvreur, the second Norma). All the recital albums indicate the influence of husband Richard Bonynge in the choice of unusual items or resuscitations, and even before he became her sole conductor his influence in ornamentation and style. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Sutherland had the good fortune to work with conductors other than her husband, and one of my fondest memories is a Donna Anna at the Met (1967) led by Karl Böhm with the unforgettable Cesare Siepi as Don Giovanni, Pilar Lorengar as Elvira and Alfredo Kraus as Ottavio. The droopiness that occasionally took over in Bonynge-led performances was absent, and there was a crispness that recalled the singer’s earlier days....
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Sutherland went on to reestablish a number of works to the repertory, particularly of the Italian bel canto school (Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini) but also French 19th century operas (Massenet, Thomas). All of these are represented on CD, almost all worth listening to except for a few very late excursions into the recording studio (Ernani, Anna Bolena, Adriana Lecouvreur, the second Norma). All the recital albums indicate the influence of husband Richard Bonynge in the choice of unusual items or resuscitations, and even before he became her sole conductor his influence in ornamentation and style. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Sutherland had the good fortune to work with conductors other than her husband, and one of my fondest memories is a Donna Anna at the Met (1967) led by Karl Böhm with the unforgettable Cesare Siepi as Don Giovanni, Pilar Lorengar as Elvira and Alfredo Kraus as Ottavio. The droopiness that occasionally took over in Bonynge-led performances was absent, and there was a crispness that recalled the singer’s earlier days....