Joan Sutherland possessed a voice of tremendous size and fiendish agility. Starting as a mezzo-soprano, her husband Richard Bonynge worked with her to reveal the true nature of her voice: a dramatic coloratura. While she made a huge splash as Lucia di Lammermoor, she would also make brief forays into more dramatic repertoire. She even recorded a phenomenal version of Turandot that has been highly acclaimed by critics as one of the definitive recordings of that opera.
She was a dramatic shift in the bel canto repertoire from her predecessor, Maria Callas. While Callas pursued the dramatic ends of these heroines, Sutherland thrilled audiences with the athleticism of her coloratura. In fact, Callas and Sutherland were once in talks to perform in an opera together: Meyerbeer's epic Gli Ugonotti (Les Huguenots) at La Scala. This pairing never came to fruition, but Joan did record and perform the opera several times.
Here are some clips showing Joan in her natural element, and some more adventurous repertoire:
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1 comment:
La Stupenda, indeed. *sigh*
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