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Prima Donna from Point Piper: Joan Sutherland interview – archive, 1960

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From the classical archive: February 1959 - Joan Sutherland’s tour de force as Lucia

Her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on 26 November , when she sang Lucia. After a total of performances in a number of different operas, [10] her last appearance there was a concert on 12 March The opera house management then declined to stage the operetta The Merry Widow especially for her, as requested; subsequently, she did not perform at the Met during that time at all, even though a production of Rossini 's Semiramide had also been planned, but later she returned there to sing in other operas.

During the s, Sutherland had added the greatest heroines of bel canto "beautiful singing" to her repertoire: Accompanying her was a young tenor named Luciano Pavarotti , and the tour proved to be a major milestone in Pavarotti's career. Every performance featuring Sutherland sold out. During the s, Sutherland strove to improve her diction, which had often been criticised, [ citation needed ] and increase the expressiveness of her interpretations. She continued to add dramatic bel canto roles to her repertoire, such as Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucrezia Borgia , as well as Massenet 's extremely difficult Esclarmonde , a role that few sopranos attempt.

From the classical archive: February 1959 - Joan Sutherland’s tour de force as Lucia

In she sang the title role in the world premiere of Eugene Goosen's Judith at the Sydney Conservatiorium. Since she has worked almost exclusively with her husband, the conductor Richard Bonynge, under whose stylistically expert direction her career has been planned with exemplary care. This remastered Klemperer recording from the Royal Opera House reveals some first-night nerves, but also some very fine and authoritative singing. In , at the Royal Opera House, after singing "Let the bright Seraphim" from Handel's oratorio Samson , she earned a ten-minute-long standing ovation. Although she is generally described as a dramatic coloratura soprano , "categorizing Sutherland's voice has always been extremely difficult, both the size and the sound present definitional problems [ The highlight of the performance was the mad scene, when Lucia, having been forced into an arranged marriage, murders her husband, loses her reason and dies.

With Pavarotti she made a very successful studio-recording of Turandot in under the baton of Zubin Mehta , though she never performed the role on stage. Sutherland's early recordings show her to be possessed of a crystal-clear voice and excellent diction. However, by the early s her voice lost some of this clarity in the middle register, and she often came under fire for having unclear diction.

Some have attributed this to sinus surgery; however, her major sinus surgery was done in , immediately after her breakthrough Lucia at Covent Garden. Her husband Richard Bonynge stated in an interview that her "mushy diction" occurred while striving to achieve perfect legato.

According to him, it is because she earlier had a very Germanic "un-legato" way of singing. In the late s, Sutherland's voice started to decline and her vibrato loosened to an intrusive extent. However, thanks to her vocal agility and solid technique, she continued singing the most difficult roles amazingly well. As her vocal security to some extent lessened, paradoxically her dramatic grasp of the theatrical moment heightened. According to her own words, given in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in , [16] her biggest achievement was to sing the title role in Esclarmonde.

Joan Sutherland

She considered those performances and recordings her best. After retirement, Sutherland made relatively few public appearances, preferring a quiet life at her home in Les Avants , Switzerland. One exception was her address at a lunch organised by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. In that address, she made remarks about having to be interviewed by a clerk of Chinese or Indian background when applying to renew her Australian passport.

Her comments caused controversy. Sutherland had a leading role as Mother Rudd in the comedy film Dad and Dave: In , she published an autobiography, A Prima Donna's Progress. It received mixed reviews for its literary merits. Opera superstar Dame Joan Sutherland gives an exhaustive account of her performing and recording career over four decades. From her early years in Australia and with the Covent Garden company in London, to her daunting schedule at most of the major opera houses of the world, we read endlessly of where, when, and with whom she sang which roles.

Bella Figlia DellAmore Sutherland and Pavarotti Rigoletto Quartet

We're shown a sensible woman and a hard-working artist, with a healthy ego tempered by a sense of humor that is often self-deprecating. Her official biography, Joan Sutherland: In , she appeared at a dinner in London to accept the Royal Philharmonic Society 's gold medal.

Joan Sutherland

She gave an interview to The Guardian in which she lamented the lack of technique in young opera singers and the dearth of good teachers. She began her regular involvement with the event in , serving on the jury five consecutive times and later, in , becoming its patron. On 3 July , she fell and broke both of her legs while gardening at her home in Switzerland. On 11 October , Sutherland's family announced that she had died at her home at Les Avants in Switzerland the previous day of cardiopulmonary failure — "the heart just gave out When it came to the point that she physically couldn't do anything, she didn't want to live any more.

She wanted to go, she was happy to go, and in the end she died very, very peacefully.

She had a phenomenal range, size and quality of voice. We simply don't hear that any more. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, "She was of course one of the great opera voices of the 20th century," adding that Dame Joan showed a lot of "quintessential Australian values. She was described as down to earth despite her status as a diva. On behalf of all Australians I would like to extend my condolences to her husband Richard and son Adam and their extended family at this difficult time.

I know many Australians will be reflecting on her life's work today. Described as "fresh," "silvery" and "bell-like" until , [35] Joan Sutherland's voice later became "golden" and "warm"; [3] music critic John Yohalem writes it was like "molten honey caressing the line. In , Time writes an article comparing Sutherland and Beverly Sills ,. Originally bright and youthful-sounding, her voice darkened as she transformed herself into a coloratura.

There is a suggestion of Callas' famous middle register in Sutherland's vocal center—a tone that sounds as if the singer were singing into the neck of a resonant bottle. Today the Sutherland voice towers like a natural wonder, unique as Niagara or Mount Everest. Sills' voice is made of more ordinary stuff; what she shares with Callas is an abandon in hurling herself into fiery emotional music and a willingness to sacrifice vocal beauty for dramatic effect. Sutherland deals in vocal velvet, Sills in emotional dynamite. Sutherland's voice is much larger, but its plush monochrome robs it of carrying power in dramatic moments.

Sills' multicolored voice, though smaller, projects better and has a cutting edge that can slice through the largest orchestra and chorus. Sometimes, indeed, it verges on shrillness. Sills' diction in English, French and Italian is superb; Sutherland's vocal placement produces mushy diction in any language, but makes possible an even more seamless beauty of tone than is available to Sills.

Ella Fitzgerald had a blue voice, but Billie Holiday had a blues voice, which is very different. Diana Damrau is blue. Mirella Freni is blue-ish. Karita Mattila is ice blue. Sutherland was true blue like the Garter ribbon. There is a coolness here that can take on the passion in the music but does not inject passion where the music lacks it, could possibly use it. Although she is generally described as a dramatic coloratura soprano , "categorizing Sutherland's voice has always been extremely difficult, both the size and the sound present definitional problems [ In a profile in The New York Times Magazine , Sutherland said she initially had "a big rather wild voice" that was not heavy enough for Wagner, although she did not realise this until she heard "Wagner sung as it should be.

Regarding the size of Sutherland's voice, Opera Britannia praise "a voice of truly heroic dimensions singing bel canto. It is doubtful if any soprano in this repertoire has fielded quite so much power and tone as Dame Joan, and this includes Callas and Tetrazzini. The contrast with other sopranos who sing the same roles is appropriately enough stupendous, with rival prima donnas producing small pin points of sound as compared to Sutherland's seemingly endless cascades of full tone.

During her career and after, Sutherland received many honours and awards. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 9 June , she was in the first group of people to be named Companions of the Order of Australia AC the order had been created only in February In January she received the Australia Post Australian Legends Award which honours Australians who have contributed to the Australian identity and culture.

Two stamps featuring Joan Sutherland were issued on Australia Day to mark the award. Later in , she received a Kennedy Center Honor for her outstanding achievement throughout her career.

Williamson 's to support young Australian performing artists in the UK. Sutherland visited the centre for its opening and again in In , Sutherland was voted into the first Hall of Fame of the magazine Gramophone. The daughter of a gifted singer, she studied piano and voice with her mother until , when she won a vocal competition and began studying voice with John and Aida Dickens. Cash prizes from several vocal competitions made it possible for her to move to London and begin study with Clive Carey at the Royal College of Music.

Her accompanist and vocal coach, Richard Bonynge, who had worked with her in Sydney, was convinced that her future lay in the florid coloratura repertoire even though Covent Garden was training her as a dramatic Wagnerian soprano. In she married Bonynge, and with his help and encouragement she began to develop her higher range. Her performance in this difficult title role won international recognition and established her as the leading coloratura of the 20th century. She also had an impressive concert career and can be heard on many highly acclaimed recordings. Sutherland retired from performing in We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.

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Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Nov 3, See Article History. Dame Joan Alston Sutherland. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: The soprano Joan Sutherland emulated Melba with her superb coloratura voice. Art exhibitions and cultural festivals much enriched Australian life, most substantially in….