Joan Sutherland – Soprano

The online opera guide to Joan Sutherland

Read the short biography of Joan Sutherland and listen to Highlights of her carreer. Sutherland was one of the greatest singers of the second half of the 20th century.

The ascent

Sutherland was born November 7, 1926 in Sydney. Her mother was a gifted singer and trained her at a young age. Her education led her to England where she tried twice in vain to get a contract at the Convent Garden opera house and finally succeeded at the third try. At this time the collaboration with the then young Australian pianist Richard Bonynge began. He had developed a great passion for the bel canto repertoire of the late 18th and early 19th century and he identified the voice of Sutherland  as the chance to fill this repertoire again with life. (Fischer). Bonynge helped her (who was classified as a mezzo-soprano by her mother at a young age!) to find her way to the top notes (an anecdote to this can be found in the blog post on Lucia di Lammermoor). Bonynge was without doubt for Sutherland what Legge was for Schwarzkopf (Fischer).

Her career developed rapidly at the beginning of the sixties and the breakthrough came with her debut on the Met with Lucia (where the audience applauded ecstatically for 12 minutes) and a Scala performance of Les Huguenots with Franco Corelli, of which a live recording exists.

Together with Luciano Pavarotti she has recorded countless records with a focus on Bellini-Donizetti-Verdi. She has become the leading interpreter of Donizetti’s and Bellini’s bel canto operas.

O beau pays de la Touraine (Les Huguenots)

 

Rivalry with Maria Callas

Sutherland and Callas were stylized as great competitors in the Bellini/Donizetti Repertoire (Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma) . In fact, the two singers could not be more different musicalwise or in personality. On the one side the soft voice of Sutherland and on the other side de sharpness and penetrating power of Callas’ voice. While Callas was the dramatic theatre maniac, Sutherland was described as a nightingale (Kesting: “intoxicatingly beautiful and at the same time irritating – because it is the singing of an outstanding impersonality”).

Ah non giunge (La sonnambula)

 

Finally, the secluded private life of the Sutherland was in no way comparable to the shrill life of the Callas.

Prendi: l’anel ti dono (La sonnambula) – Sutherland / Pavarotti / Bonynge

 

Her voice

Her voice was soft and yet it had the ability for dramatic expression. She was agile in height and excellently suited for coloratura singing. Sutherland captivated with her fantastic agility and excellent thriller and staccato technique (Kesting).

 

Significance

Sutherland was one of the greatest singers of the second half of the 20th century. She got the nickname la stupenda. Together with Luciano Pavarotti and her husband she created a revival of the operas of Donizetti and Bellini.

 

More highlights of Sutherland’s recordings (to be continued)

 

Olympia is the lifelike mechanical doll of Spalanzani. Hoffmann looks at her through the glasses of Coppelius and does not realize that she is not a living woman. She sings and dances for him in «Les oiseaux dans la charmille». This passage is a unique piece of opera literature. The singing machine Olympia is on stage for half an hour and says just «oui» for a long time. In the end, Olympia awakens and begins to sing and to dance. The aria is virtuosically peppered with many coloraturas and at the same time, the singer must imitate the dance movement of a puppet.  Hear the aria of Olympia from Les contes d’Hoffmann

Les oiseaux dans la charmille

 

Whoever is looking for the technical qualities of singing will enjoy this Duett with Pavarotti. Sutherland  became world famous with this role in 1959.

Verrano a te sull’aure  –  Sutherland / Pavarotti

 

Her voice «is the happy combination of the fullness of a dramatic soprano voice (but without the penetrating power of a highly dramatic voice) with the certainty of high notes and coloratura fluency of a soprano d’agilità» (Fischer, grosse Stimmen). The great heights, however, were not God-given, she had to work for them, at the beginning of her vocal training she was regarded as a mezzo-soprano. Her husband, the pianist and conductor Richard Bonynge, realized that she had the potential for the high notes and «unlike her, he had the perfekt pitch, and so he could deceive her by driving her voice up, asserting that she sang a third lower than she actually sang; so in her private work she did things she would not have dared to do in public » (Fischer, grosse Stimmen). Sutherland was a gifted singer, but not a great actress. This earned her the nickname «Nightingale». Hear a duett from Lucia di Lammermoor.

All ben te’tuoi qual vittima  –  Sutherland/Siepi

 

The madness cadenza added interpreted by Nellie Melba became the most famous part of the opera from Lucia di Lammermoor and is faithfully reproduced to this day by most sopranos. Listen to the famous Joan Sutherland with the mad aria (and the cadenza shortly before 9:00).

Il dolce suono riso 

 

Next we hear an melancholic aria from Donizettis Elisir d’amore  “prendi, per me sei libero”.

We listen to “prendi, per me sei libero”.  It is captivating how she masters the coloratura of this piece.

Per me sei libero  –  Sutherland

 

Listen to this great duet with Luciano Pavarotti from the Bonynge recording from 1970.

Dell elisir mirabile  –  Sutherland / Pavarotti

 

You hear 23-year-old Joan Sutherland in this legendary 1959 Giulini-recording of Don Giovanni.

Or sai chi l’onore – Sutherland

 

You hear the Terzetto of the three Masks from Don Giovanni sung by the dream cast Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Joan Sutherland and Luigi Alva from the Giulini recording.

Protegga il giusto Cor  –  Schwarzkopf / Sutherland / Luigi Alva

 

Joan Sutherland’s Gilda in the Bonynge Rigoletto recording of 1971.

Tutte le feste al tempio 

 

A technically and vocally perfect interpretation of this aria from Rigoletto.

Caro nome / Sutherland

 

The greatest Norma after the time of Callas was probably Joan Sutherland. She was the first to rediscover the original key and sang the aria in higher G major one tone higher.

Casta Diva  –  Sutherland

 

We hear a congenial couple in the recording of Marylin Horne and Joan Sutherland in this duet in Norma. John Steane, the famous English critic, commented on the two: “The Horne-Sutherland partnership is the most brilliant in record history.” Kesting commented on the recording: “In the parallel voice lines, we experience a virtuosity that is unparalleled after the war”. Listen, for example, to the ending at 5:14!

Mira, o Norma  –  Sutherland / Horne

 

The greatest Norma after the time of Callas was probably Joan Sutherland. She was the first to rediscover the original key of the famous “Casta diva” and sang the aria in higher G major.

Casta Diva

 

We hear a congenial couple in the recording of Marylin Horne and Joan Sutherland from Bellini’s Norma. John Steane, the famous English critic, commented on the two: “The Horne-Sutherland partnership is the most brilliant in record history.” Kesting commented on the recording: “In the parallel voice lines, we experience a virtuosity that is unparalleled after the war”. Listen, for example, to the ending at 5:14!

Mira, o Norma  –  Sutherland / Horne

 

Sutherland’s voice in this Mozart Aria has an almost icy clarity and the high notes are like chiseled and the trills are perfect.

Martern aller Arten  –  Sutherland

 

A duett from “la fille du régiment” with Sutherland and Pavarotti. Bonynge took a slower tempo and gave Joan Sutherland the opportunity for a moving elegy.

Je suis soldat… Il faut partir… – Sutherland

 

This scene has a well-known model, Rosina’s  singing lesson from the Barber of Siviglia. Donizetti was of course familiar with this work but created an independent piece.  As in Barbiere, Marie has to sing an old-fashioned aria (“Le jour naissait dans le bocage”) with languishing trills and roulades , which the marquise accompanies with almost grotesque and simple chords on the piano. Sulpice sabotages it with Rataplan interjections. Marie willingly begins the song, but soon, to the Marquise’s horror, she returns to the military with a cascade of scales and arpeggios and sings the regimental song. The Marquise is dismayed about the relapse after 1 year of education.

We hear a great Belcantist version with Joan Sutherland, who with her great technique really turned this singing lesson into a singing lesson.

Le jour naissait dans le bocage – Sutherland / Malas / Sinclair

 

 

Peter Lutz, opera-inside, the online opera guide to Joan Sutherland, Soprano