# Bonus Round! Ocean Thou Mighty Monster (Sutherland, Hammond, Nilsson)



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)




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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't know Joan Hammond's work, but based on this I'm inclined to say that her voice hasn't quite the weight and thrust for such dramatic music. Her high notes do ring out, but lower down she sounds like a pleasant lyric soprano out of her depth. An intelligent and sympathetic interpretation isn't sufficient compensation. And did I hear waves crashing? Was this recorded on location, wherever that is?

Birgit Nilsson certainly has enough voice for it, but it's a relentlessly bright, metallic sound, and despite her good intentions I don't get much specific feeling from her performance.

Sutherland is very attentive to the text at all times if not always verbally distinct. A bit of her note-to-note mooniness creeps into the phrasing in quiet passages, and the lower part of the voice isn't as full and resonant as I'd like. In other words, she's vocally as we'd expect. All in all, a fine performance and the best of this trio.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I SWOON over the Nilsson recital version because she looks so FABULOUS! That black and white dress!!!!!!!!!! She always had great dresses but this was the best and her hair was her personal best. I am a fan of her singing this but I like Joan better. I feel strongly that Nilsson would have sounded much much better live in that hall and you never get the real thrust of her sound on a LP. Thanks for posting this. I had run out of steam on this contest for some reason.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I feel strongly that Nilsson would have sounded much much better live in that hall and you never get the real thrust of her sound on a LP.


This is indeed not the sound I remember hearing at the Met. An impossible voice to reproduce.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> This is indeed not the sound I remember hearing at the Met. An impossible voice to reproduce.


Part of the romance of opera to me is that often with your favorite singers you have to imagine what they must have sounded like when you hear their recordings. It is almost like recreating a scene you read about in your head as you read a book.This is especially true for Nilsson and for many singers recorded before the mid 1950's. Early Callas needs a lot of imagining, especially Armida.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I SWOON over the Nilsson recital version because she looks so FABULOUS! That black and white dress!!!!!!!!!! She always had great dresses but this was the best and her hair was her personal best. I am a fan of her singing this but I like Joan better. I feel strongly that Nilsson would have sounded much much better live in that hall and you never get the real thrust of her sound on a LP. Thanks for posting this. I had run out of steam on this contest for some reason.


I think Nilsson has a better video, too.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Joan Hammond was well known in the UK in her day, earnig a Gold record for her recording of Puccini's _O mio babbino caro _(sung in English as _Oh my beloved fathe_r. The voice may be a tad small for the aria, and she may not have Sutherland's stunning high notes, but I found her version more dramatically aware, probably because we got more of the words. Sutherland sings some of them, but largely ignores vowels and consonants as per usual. The excellent trill and thrilling top notes don't, I'm afraid, compensate enough for me. Her lower register is comparitvely weak as well. I wasn't much impressed with Nilsson here either. She doesn't seem particularly engaged and of course there's not even an attempt at a trill. Her top notes are still like shafts of light though. They seem to just pop out of nowhere.

I'm giving this to Hammond, whose version I enjoyed most here.


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## Shaafee Shameem (Aug 4, 2021)

This aria, in my opinion, needs to sound monumental and heroic, and only Nilsson sounds so. Hammond and Sutherland’s voices tend to be very lyrical and soft-grained in the middle and quite weak in the lower register which is underwhelming to me despite Hammond’s sensitive interpretation.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

What's always confused me about Sutherland is that she puts more chest voice into the middle of her voice than the bottom (the former is a good thing, as most modern singers need more of this), which she timidly backed away from. Most singer's voices age when cracks form at the top of the range and slowly work their way down. Sutherland was the opposite, where the bottom gave out first, then the middle slowly gave way.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I wish every singer would age as Sutherland did. Even on the brink of retirement she sang better than many do in their prime. 
Second lady sang well too, her lower notes didn't seem to me strained. Forgive my incompetent judgement. 
Nilsson for me sounded the best, heroic but not excessive, without muffing lyric moments.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> What's always confused me about Sutherland is that she puts more chest voice into the middle of her voice than the bottom (the former is a good thing, as most modern singers need more of this), which she timidly backed away from. Most singer's voices age when cracks form at the top of the range and slowly work their way down. Sutherland was the opposite, where the bottom gave out first, then the middle slowly gave way.


Respectfully I disagree. This Miserere from Trovatore is from near 60 and her chest and middle register sound richer than ever. I am practically alone here in loving the mature Sutherland but her middle voice particularly became dramatic soprano rich by her 50's. She also did some strong chest passages in Lucrezia Borgia towards the end of her career. I also included a Bel Raggio from near 60 where her middle voice is unbelievably rich and she repeatedly vocalizes beautifully down to A or G here below C..


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