# favorite soprano who interpreted tne role of Lucia di Lamermoor



## babbles (Aug 20, 2013)

I am torn between Sutherland and Sills as to which is my favorite Lucia....Callas did not have the quality that I personally enjoyed...There is a newcomer,Sara Coburn,who appeared in Tulsa in the role. She is going to be a big star someday,I believe. She is the daughter of Senator Tom Coburn...


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

My favorites are Callas, Sutherland and Mariella Devia:


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Callas, NO doubt...................


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Grubi for me, she looked mad as a box of frogs


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Sutherland's premier at Covent Garden had to have been one of the supreme operatic debuts of all time. Here is my Toastmasters talk on the subject:


----------



## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

I think Patrizia Ciofi is a very moving Lucia (not to mention a touching Violetta).


----------



## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I saw Natalie Dessays' Lucia (actually Lucie, in the French version given here ~2004). Probably one of the greast dramatic performances I will see on any stage anywhere, opera or otherwise.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Hello babbles & welcome to the forum! My favourite is Sutherland. And this version










rather than this one


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

My all-time favorite Lucia is probably Joan Sutherland -- not that I ever heard her "live," but I do _love_ her in the 1971 Decca/London recording.

I haven't heard many other famous Lucias. However, I did hear Ruth Ann Swenson, and I believe she was underrated in the role. I heard her in a Met broadcast in 1999 and was awed by her limpid and subtly shaded tone. And her recording of "Regnava nel silenzio" on her early recital disc is my favorite version of that aria; she does a superb job conveying horror through tone-color alone. Ruth Ann Swenson really was an underrated soprano. So many people seemed to consider her "boring" -- and maybe she wasn't the most dynamic actress (though I never saw her myself) -- but I think she was a great singer.


----------



## babbles (Aug 20, 2013)

*Favorite Lucia*

I was fortunate to see Sills in Tulsa in 1973 when she was at her prime in this role...Unbeolievable ..BUT I did see Sutherland in Missouri in same role...VERY hard to say who was better although I am a big fan of Sills...It was soooo excit9ng to0 have two great divas competing in the same roles...It was like Tettrazini and Jenny Lind...I would have LOVED to hear a recording of Maria Malibran in this role...I too like Swenson but really Sarah Coburn is going to be a singer,I believe to be reconized...She is on You Tube with several arias.


----------



## babbles (Aug 20, 2013)

*Favorite Lucias*



MAuer said:


> I think Patrizia Ciofi is a very moving Lucia (not to mention a touching Violetta).


Thank you for thevideo. I am not familiar with this soprano but she is GREAT....Can you supply me with information about her,please? Do you think any info on internet? THanks.


----------



## babbles (Aug 20, 2013)

In my previous reply I said Tetrazini aedn Lind...OOOPPS I stand corrected...Melba and Tetrazini...I know Melba had two dishes named after her but didn't Tetrazini also have a cuisine named after her?


----------



## babbles (Aug 20, 2013)

Thank you for welcoming me aboard...I love opera and envious of coloraturas...I am a Mezzo but REALLY wish I had been blessed with a soprano voice ...especially colortura...(Sigh) Oh well...I DO thinik I am going to enjoy this forum.


----------



## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

babbles said:


> Thank you for thevideo. I am not familiar with this soprano but she is GREAT....Can you supply me with information about her,please? Do you think any info on internet? THanks.


I first heard her 10 years ago when she sang Violetta with the Chicago Lyric Opera, and I was tremendously impressed. I've made a point of looking for her recordings and YouTube videos since then. Here are a couple of links to an unofficial fan site for her and her Facebook page:
Fan site: http://ciofi.blogspot.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Patrizia-Ciofi/25399048539

BTW, Sarah Coburn has sung some leading roles with our opera company here in Cincinnati in recent years. I heard her as Gilda in 2011 and Sophie in _Der Rosenkavalier _this past June. She does, indeed, have a lovely voice.


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

babbles said:


> I was fortunate to see Sills in Tulsa in 1973 when she was at her prime in this role...Unbeolievable ..BUT I did see Sutherland in Missouri in same role...VERY hard to say who was better although I am a big fan of Sills...It was soooo excit9ng to0 have two great divas competing in the same roles...It was like Tettrazini and Jenny Lind...I would have LOVED to hear a recording of Maria Malibran in this role...I too like Swenson but really Sarah Coburn is going to be a singer,I believe to be reconized...She is on You Tube with several arias.


I always felt like Sills was Callas lite. 
A huge compliment I think.
I love Sills' Violetta.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

babbles said:


> Thank you for the video. I am not familiar with this soprano but she is GREAT....Can you supply me with information about her, please? Do you think any info on internet? Thanks.


I saw her last year in Laurent Pelly's new production of _Robert le diable_. She rather controversially replaced Jennifer Rowley as Princess Isabelle. I like her.


----------



## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Callas with Karajan. The LaScala company in Berlin 1955. Incomparable.


----------



## operashoppejim (Aug 20, 2013)

My favorite Lucias are Mariella Devia, Cristina Deutekom, and Leyla Gencer. Devia and Deutekom both sang what I consider the perfect Lucia performances, and both are live performances! Gencer's Lucia [1957] had the heft and dramatic weight to give the role great dimension even if imperfectly vocalized. One thing for sure, she is never dull! I saw Sutherland's Lucia a number of tiems and it was marvelous, she had the appropriate melancholy in her voice which worked for that role more than most others she did. Sills sand a good Lucia with Pavarotti in 1972 but her coloratura and fioratura were awkward and clunnky.


----------



## Pamina (Sep 5, 2012)

For me, it has always been Sutherland. Although I do like Sills and Callas as well for their different colors and approaches to the role. I also like some of the old school coloraturas like Lily Pons and Roberta Peters in the part too--a different style and taste. But I have always felt that Sutherland was the best (it was one of her best roles). Her mad scene is stunning--the coloratura display as well as the emotional shading. If you have seen the Met video of her, then you can see it was a role she acted quite well too.


----------



## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

I heard Joan Sutherland sing a recital at the Kennedy Center in the mid 1980s that included the 'mad scene' from Lucia - conducted by Richard Bonynge. Sutherland was in the middle of the dual with the flute and lost her place. She was a little flustered and very charmingly explained to the audience what happened, then signaled to Bonynge to start the aria from the beginning. It was a treat to see such a star in such a human moment, and I was thrilled.

Just the same, I like the recording with Beverly Sills - especially since the mad scene was recorded using the glass harmonica, which is the instrument Donizetti called for when he first composed the opera.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Hoffmann said:


> I heard Joan Sutherland sing a recital at the Kennedy Center in the mid 1980s that included the 'mad scene' from Lucia - conducted by Richard Bonynge. Sutherland was in the middle of the dual with the flute and lost her place. She was a little flustered and very charmingly explained to the audience what happened, then signaled to Bonynge to start the aria from the beginning. It was a treat to see such a star in such a human moment, and I was thrilled.


What a great story!



Hoffmann said:


> Just the same, I like the recording with Beverly Sills - especially since the mad scene was recorded using the glass harmonica, which is the instrument Donizetti called for when he first composed the opera.


I love the sound of the glass harmonica.


----------



## TrevBus (Jun 6, 2013)

In performance, Sills and Dessay. Both amazing when I saw them. Cannot and will not choose between them.
Recording, Sutherland(any recording). The only role I ever truly liked her in.


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

*Hoffmann:* I like hearing stories like that, and I think it's good that you were thrilled by the incident rather than put off. In my view, Dame Joan made the right choice. In recital, I think it's perfectly okay for a singer and accompanist to simply begin the aria or song again if it gets off to a bad start. After all, it's _their_ show. Certainly it's preferable to them faking their way through to the end. I mean, they have to do that in opera when mistakes occur -- why should they have to do it in recital as well?


----------



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Cavaradossi said:


> I saw Natalie Dessays' Lucia (actually Lucie, in the French version given here ~2004). Probably one of the greatest dramatic performances I will see on any stage anywhere, opera or otherwise.


I second that. Well, I thought her Violetta was better. But it was something.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

babbles said:


> In my previous reply I said Tetrazini aedn Lind...OOOPPS I stand corrected...Melba and Tetrazini...I know Melba had two dishes named after her but didn't Tetrazini also have a cuisine named after her?


You are thinking of Chicken Tetrazzini which is a great recipe. The lady was a very good cook and loved food which was reflected in her roly-poly shape.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Pamina said:


> For me, it has always been Sutherland. Although I do like Sills and Callas as well for their different colors and approaches to the role. I also like some of the old school coloraturas like Lily Pons and Roberta Peters in the part too--a different style and taste. But I have always felt that Sutherland was the best (it was one of her best roles). Her mad scene is stunning--the coloratura display as well as the emotional shading. If you have seen the Met video of her, then you can see it was a role she acted quite well too.


This is rather alarming as Roberta Peters was four years younger than La Sutherland and was active in the same period.
In fact the Roberta Peters / Jan Peerce recording is the one that I prefer. Callas is completely at sea and not able to manage this role in any way,her vocal failings are too great a stumbling block.As for Lily Pons her coloratura is slovenly and frequently laboured, a better example of her Mad Scene is to be heard on her 1935 recording.Lina Pagliughi's complete Cetra 1943 recording is available and her addition of mordents and other embellishments is fascinating and the sound quality is good.


----------



## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

1 for Callas's Berlin Lucia, recorded live, 1955.

(Sorry, posted wrong album cover but the program did not allow me to delete in the edit function. It's the same photo as the Berlin production album that I have, which threw me.)


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

This may seem strange, but I really liked the way Natlie Dessay portrayed Lucia in the Met's recent production which I sw on PBS. I believe she may be on a recording of Donizetti's French version, which is somewhat different from the familiar one , but I have not heard it .
Dessay was not your typical shrinking violet shy Lucia , but a passionate, even neurotic young woman .
Her behavior before her ill-fated wedding was fscinatingly different ; she appered angry and defiant .
This was not a Lucia for canary fanciers, but a flesh and blood character . On a purely vocal level, she may not have equalled Sutherland and other famous Lucias , not that her singing was poor ,it certainly wasn't, but she was intriguingly DIFFERENT . I guess I could call her my favorite Lucia .


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Revenant said:


> 1 for Callas's Berlin Lucia, recorded live, 1955.
> 
> (Sorry, posted wrong album cover but the program did not allow me to delete in the edit function. It's the same photo as the Berlin production album that I have, which threw me.)


I somehow missed this thread, *but no surprise my answer is Callas*, only question is which of her many recordings do you choose.

The live 1955 La Scala (an immortal opera season for Callas) finds Maria in great voice and Stephano is an ideal partner. I do find Karajan a bit slow in spots which is my only qualifier. The 1955 EMI release has been around forever as well as other remasters of same performance in decent live mono sound, the excitement of a live performance is thrilling and Callas has audience on edges of thier seats, brava










There is the 1953 studio EMI also with Stephano and Gobbi this time, perhaps best overall recommendation with much better mono sound, by far the best sound is the expensive Pristine Classical release (mastered by Andrew Rose) you get what you pay for here, fabulous!

















The later 1959 stereo studio EMI/Serafin release finds Callas giving a more finely nuanced Lucia performance, but the male cast is not quite the same level as previous Callas versions discussed, still I prefer this over any other version I have heard by any other singer!


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Otherwise for non Callas version the early 1961 Sutherland has great sounding powerful "clear" Lucia vocals, Sutherland in her glorious prime vocal era in very good sound quality, conductor could be better.

The later famous Sutherland recording has very strong male allstar cast ( but Sutherland vocally better in early version) this is probably best selling version ever, great sound quality....demonstration class!

 

I think Sospiro wisely said basically the same thing earlier in this thread, I agree.....


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

The Beverly Sills Westminster recording features lighter brighter toned vocals with strong male cast, and Anna Moffo during her short lived heyday gives a great balanced Lucia performance (both feature Carlo Bergonzi).....


----------



## AndyS (Dec 2, 2011)

Dame Joan for me every time


----------



## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Katia Ricciarelli wasn't perhaps the "typical" Lucia, but I've always enjoyed her interpretation of the role.


----------



## mchriste (Aug 16, 2013)

Another vote for Beverly Sills. I particularly love the Schippers recording because it includes a glass harp - any Mad Scene without one now just doesn't sound right to me. Are there any Lucia videos with glass harp available out there?


----------



## starlightexp (Sep 3, 2013)

I think Joan Sutherland will always own this role for me. Her voice just sat so well for that part. this is one of those performances that just grabbed me.


----------



## BevSills (Jul 23, 2014)

Have only seen-heard her Mad-Scene, even so...My new favorite "Lucia" is a soprano I discovered on YouTube. She is Ana Durlovski !!!! What a marvelous singing actress. I have purchased her Sonnambula DVD. First Soprano to really excite me in over five years. Would love to see her in Opera in the USA.


----------



## JohnGerald (Jul 6, 2014)

I have heard so many ... I stood to see Sutherland in the mid/late 60s when the Met toured, and can close my eyes right now and see the long white gown and the long red hair. Literally, a "religious experience" (Folks ask me why I am so passionate about opera, and I tell them that, for me, opera is proof that we have a soul.)

But I truly enjoy Netrebko in the role on DVD, as well as Bonfidelli (with Alvarez) also on DVD. Devia, also does a fine interpretation, as does Diana Damrau, but one needs to go to the pirates for that experience. I have heard Sills on CD, having only seen her once in the Siege of Corinth late in her career.

But as Dr. McCoy once said to Capt. Kirk, "Jim, it's all good".


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

*Callas *of course.

In the live Berlin performance from 1955, though she is in even better voice at La Scala the previous year (unfortunately that performance was not captured complete, and the sound, which is very good in Berlin, is pretty intransigent. 
I find it hard to choose between the two EMI recordings. The 1953 recording (her first complete opera for EMI) finds her in better voice, as you might expect, but, though by 1959 the very top of her voice is raw, and both top Ebs something of a trial, the filigree tracing of her coloratura is really lovely.

Apparently Toti Dal Monte once greeted Callas in her dressing room after a performance of Lucia and confessed, with tears streaming down her face, that she had never understood the role till that moment. For younger listeners, it is important to point out that it was Callas's singing of Lucia, more than any other role, that changed people's thinking on _bel canto_ opera. Up till then, it was considered a canary fancier's opera, in which some doll like soprano came on stage and trilled along to a flute, showing off her high notes and her coloratura. Callas (with the help of conductors like Serafin and Karajan) brought to it a tragic grandeur, nobody had suspected was there. Furthermore, though her voice was large, her coloratura was as flexible and fluid, in some cases even more so, than many of the light voices who usually sang the role. Without Callas, Sutherland might never have been given the chance to sing it, and who knows where here career would have gone then? Both Sutherland and Caballe always acknowledged the debt they owed to Callas for opening the door to them on a repertoire that had been almost forgotten.

After Callas my preference would be for Sutherland, but not in either of her studio recordings. I would go to her debut in the role at Covent Garden under Tullio Serafin. The voice is much more forwardly produced and she really sings off the words (Serafin's influence no doubt). This is the performance that catapulted her to stardom, and, listening to it, you would have no doubts as to why.

For me, no other, not even Sills, who as ever sings with enormous intelligence and skill, but whose voice I find a trifle shallow, matches up to what Callas and Sutherland provide in the role.

Here is the Mad Scene from Callas's 1954 La Scala performance, murky recording but stellar singing 



. Unfortunately some of it was lost in transmission, including the cadenza.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Callas/Sutherland/Sills (in that order)


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> *Callas *of course.
> 
> In the live Berlin performance from 1955, though she is in even better voice at La Scala the previous year (unfortunately that performance was not captured complete, and the sound, which is very good in Berlin, is pretty intransigent.
> I find it hard to choose between the two EMI recordings. The 1953 recording (her first complete opera for EMI) finds her in better voice, as you might expect, but, though by 1959 the very top of her voice is raw, and both top Ebs something of a trial, the filigree tracing of her coloratura is really lovely.
> ...


Absolutely stellar post. It reminds me of Coleridge's remark that praises of the unworthy are felt by ardent minds as robberies of the deserving. I certainly can't exhaust superlatives on what Callas brought to the table in terms of craft, intelligence, and drama. I know this sounds like gush, but it really isn't. It's just an abiding sense of justice. There are some great singers out there, but when Callas is in her element she really has no equal.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Best drama.









Best technique.









Best sound.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Sills , Sutherland (first: recording ) and Sutherland (second recording) :tiphat:


----------



## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Callas by a country mile. 
That Sutherland's is epic and I also have a soft spot for Edita Gruberova too, as she was the first Lucia I heard.


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Marschallin Blair said:


> View attachment 47299
> 
> 
> Best drama.
> ...


Thanks to vast resources of spotify premium another early Sutherland gem, 1961 live MET broadcast thrilling performance in very good sound, Varviso leads vibrant orchestral performance, a real treat










Unfortunately spotify does not have the first Sutherland "Lucia" 1959 ROH


----------



## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

Sutherland, _sans aucune doute_. The only soprano who has even done the role complete justice, in my opinion, with regard to characterisation, coloratura and *power*! I think too many 'canary-bird' sopranos sing the role, a good example being Natalie Dessay.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

BaronScarpia said:


> Sutherland, _sans aucune doute_. The only soprano who has even done the role complete justice, in my opinion, with regard to characterisation, coloratura and *power*!


The _only_ one? Not really


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

> Originally Posted by BaronScarpia
> 
> Sutherland, sans aucune doute. The only soprano who has even done the role complete justice, in my opinion, with regard to characterisation, coloratura and power!





GregMitchell said:


> The _only_ one? Not really


I _loooooooooooove _early Sutherland, _sans aucune doubte_-- she's the _best_.

But Callas has technique, wide-open-throttle-nitromethane reserves of power, _and_ absolutely unrivaled penetrating psychological insight of character.

-- So the 'best,' is 'bested'--- even _before _Sutherland made her famed '59 Covent Garden Lucia _début._

How's that for talent?


----------



## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Marschallin Blair said:


> I _loooooooooooove _early Sutherland, _sans aucune doubte_-- she's the _best_.
> 
> But Callas has technique, wide-open-throttle-nitromethane reserves of power, _and_ absolutely unrivaled penetrating psychological insight of character.
> 
> ...












Sutherland was able to observe 1st hand the Callas experience (ROH 1952) what better learning experience.......

I also love the 1959 Sutherland debut ROH Lucia, but I have this version in nice slipcase and booklet










If there is any doubt of Callas "Lucia" stature the clarified sound of Pristine Classics XR remaster will remove those doubts, all kinds of subtle vocal details revealed, this is a *true* *canary killer performance.........RIP

*







​


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

DarkAngel said:


> Sutherland was able to observe 1st hand the Callas experience (ROH 1952) what better learning experience.......


Sutherland always stated that being on stage with Callas for those *Norma*s was incredible. According to her Callas's voice just poured out of her, and the intensity, the attack, was just jaw dropping.


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

GregMitchell said:


> Sutherland always stated that being on stage with Callas for those *Norma*s was incredible. According to her Callas's voice just poured out her, and the intensity, the attack, *was just jaw dropping*.


And that's saying something with that jaw. :lol:


----------



## jdcbr (Jul 21, 2014)

Callas, for the kunst- Devia, for the stimme.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Sir Walter Scott's tale of the hapless Lucy is a gloomy tragedy set on the Scottish moors. That, for those of you who, like me, have never been there, can be a pretty dismal and spooky place (I know this from _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, as well as an old Walt Disney comic book starring Scrooge MacDuck, from which I also learned about haggis). Donizetti clearly liked the morbidity of it all and infused his music with an appropriate gloom. He also made sad Lucy a little loony, and so anyone who sings her has got to capture from the getgo the feeling that this girl's mind is as cloudy as the highland skies.

One singer convinces me that this poor girl is truly doomed: the dark vocal tone, redolent of melancholy, and the ability to make coloratura sound like the disembodied wanderings of a psychological fugue state - well, need I say more?

Callas


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Sir Walter Scott's tale of the hapless Lucy is a gloomy tragedy set on the Scottish moors. That, for those of you who, like me, have never been there, can be a pretty dismal and spooky place (I know this from _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, as well as an old Walt Disney comic book starring Scrooge MacDuck, from which I also learned about haggis). Donizetti clearly liked the morbidity of it all and infused his music with an appropriate gloom. He also made sad Lucy a little loony, and so anyone who sings her has got to capture from the getgo the feeling that this girl's mind is as cloudy as the highland skies.
> 
> One singer convinces me that this poor girl is truly doomed: the dark vocal tone, redolent of melancholy, and the ability to make coloratura sound like the disembodied wanderings of a psychological fugue state - well, need I say more?
> 
> Callas


As they say in the world of muscle cars: "There's no replacement for displacement."
_
La Callas_ is balanced-and-blueprinted to take you into a whole other _world_.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Callas saw Sutherland's debut in Lucia and she said that all that running across the stage was completely beyond her own abilities. Part of Joan's success in the role was her coaching and staging by Zeffirelli and she adhered closely to his stagecraft in the role her entire career.In my popular Youtube video on Sutherland my speech goes into how Zeffirelli coached her for the role: 



. I would not want to give up either Sutherland's or Callas' Lucia, for different reasons. Sutherland's was more vocally beautiful and Maria's more insightful. Sutherland really threw herself in the part and it can be seen better visually than vocally. Both have their place. As far as who had a greater impact on the role, Callas did not sing many Lucia's but Sutherland's career was almost defined by the role and she sang many hundreds of performances from 59 up to the very end of her extremely long and enormously successful career in her 60's. She sang it more than any other role. It made her one of the biggest fortunes ever made from a career in opera. Lucia was beyond Maria's abilities by the late 50's, but her Eb's were good in the early years after her weight loss. Norma on the other hand... I would kill to have seen Sutherland and Horne in Norma, but Maria owned the role.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Callas saw Sutherland's debut in Lucia and she said that all that running across the stage was completely beyond her own abilities. Part of Joan's success in the role was her coaching and staging by Zeffirelli and she adhered closely to his stagecraft in the role her entire career.In my popular Youtube video on Sutherland my speech goes into how Zeffirelli coached her for the role:
> 
> 
> 
> . I would not want to give up either Sutherland's or Callas' Lucia, for different reasons. Sutherland's was more vocally beautiful and Maria's more insightful. Sutherland really threw herself in the part and it can be seen better visually than vocally. Both have their place. As far as who had a greater impact on the role, Callas did not sing many Lucia's but Sutherland's career was almost defined by the role and she sang many hundreds of performances from 59 up to the very end of her extremely long and enormously successful career in her 60's. She sang it more than any other role. It made her one of the biggest fortunes ever made from a career in opera. Lucia was beyond Maria's abilities by the late 50's, but her Eb's were good in the early years after her weight loss. Norma on the other hand... I would kill to have seen Sutherland and Horne in Norma, but Maria owned the role.


Actually you're wrong. Without the impact Callas created in the role of Lucia, Sutherland may never have got the chance to sing it. It was a seminal role in Callas's early career, in some ways even more important than Norma because it was so unexpected of her voice. It was with Callas's Lucia, that the re-assessment of a whole repertoire began. After Norma, Violetta and Tosca it was the role she sang most often, more even than Medea, and it was after singing Lucia for the first time in 1952, that she gradually dropped the heavier roles from her repertoire.

Zeffirelli, perhaps unkindly, said that the reason he gave Sutherland all that running around to do in the Mad Scene was because it distracted from her physical appearance. The miracle was that whatever he gave her to do, she could still sing. On the other hand he stated that Karajan may have been the only one to really get it right when directing Callas. In Karajan's production of *Lucia*, which Callas sang at La Scala, in Berlin and in Vienna, he darkened the stage completely for the Mad Scene, and just trained a follow spot on her, leaving her to wander the stage at will. Well we've all seen the photographs. According to Zeffirelli, with a Callas that's all you had to do. Her whole body exuded music.









I do not want to take anything away from Sutherland's achievement as Lucia, which was stupendous, and coincidentally the reasons the Italians dubbed her "La Stupenda", but I feel I must correct your assertion that Callas had little impact on the role, or that she sang it infrequently. Her impact on the role was enormous and far reaching.


----------



## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Callas saw Sutherland's debut in Lucia and she said that all that running across the stage was completely beyond her own abilities. Part of Joan's success in the role was her coaching and staging by Zeffirelli and she adhered closely to his stagecraft in the role her entire career.In my popular Youtube video on Sutherland my speech goes into how Zeffirelli coached her for the role:
> 
> 
> 
> . I would not want to give up either Sutherland's or Callas' Lucia, for different reasons. Sutherland's was more vocally beautiful and Maria's more insightful. Sutherland really threw herself in the part and it can be seen better visually than vocally. Both have their place. As far as who had a greater impact on the role, Callas did not sing many Lucia's but Sutherland's career was almost defined by the role and she sang many hundreds of performances from 59 up to the very end of her extremely long and enormously successful career in her 60's. She sang it more than any other role. It made her one of the biggest fortunes ever made from a career in opera. Lucia was beyond Maria's abilities by the late 50's, but her Eb's were good in the early years after her weight loss. Norma on the other hand... I would kill to have seen Sutherland and Horne in Norma, but Maria owned the role.


. . . and I love them both.

But honestly, as they say: "Who wore it _best_?" _;D_

Yeah.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Greg, I am willing to concede your points. They were so very, very, very different and there is nothing like either around today.


----------

