# La Stupenda



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

It's her big day today.
Let's give thanks for all the wonderful moments she gave us through the years.
Happy Birthday Dame Joanie.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> It's her big day today.
> Let's give thanks for all the wonderful moments she gave us through the years.
> Happy Birthday Dame Joanie.


I love big and beautiful voices, spectacular coloratura and great high notes and Joan gave her fans 30 years of that. She wasn't everything, but what she was was completely irreplaceable and no one has come close to filling her shoes since she stopped singing a whole generation ago !!!!!!!!! Plus she was both down to earth in real life and truly grand onstage. You rarely see that combination. The other thing was the singers who sang with her really enjoyed working with her. No prima donna moments from her offstage. In an industry of lonely singers on the road, failed marriages and such, she had a very successful working marriage and had a happy homelife on the road which few singers have been able to equal in their personal lives. The last thing which our group that doesn't really value high notes might overlook, almost all other singers saw their top voice suffer and loose it's spectacular quality with age. Sutherland managed to sing often bigger and more beautiful high notes in her 50s up to her early 60's which is almost unheard of. She lost a half note at the top but on the whole I like her high notes better late in her career. Callas was the only competition she had for really monumental notes above high C but she only really had notes like that from the mid 40's to around 52. Sutherland had them for 30 + years. Already 2 years after her spectacular live Armida recording there was a markedly diminished power on the D climax when she repeated the theme and variation aria from Armida, whereas before you felt like you were taking mind expanding drugs. Callas of course was a different type of singer and the things people most loved about her persisted for some while... just not those mind bending high notes. Unlike most of you a high percentage of my favorite arias is with Sutherland singing them. I just value different things than many of you and there are millions of other people around the world who feel the way that I do about La Stupenda, so I am not a weirdo by any means. A last thing, she was not known as a great thespian like Callas but her Mad Scene was always thrilling physically and she worked on her craft and her Norma on video in her mid 50's saw her become a very competent and believable actress.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

When Joan Sutherland was hailed (by the Italians) as _La Stupenda, _she was indeed worthy of that _sobriquet. _Her voice was a sizable instrument, beautiful in tone, extremely even in its emission, and her capabilities in _coloratura _almost unmatched by her contemporaries. Additionally, her compass was very wide and in its higher reaches just as voluminous as her lower ones, with no sense of strain or tightness - the sense of freedom up high was intoxicating.
Her facility in florid music made her an ideal interpreter of the traditional _bel canto _literature, starting with her calling card, *Lucia di Lammermoor*, which catapulted her to international fame - she debuted in that role in most of the world’s great opera houses. Her first time in the role was at Covent Garden in 1959, conducted by the great Tullio Serafin and directed by the fabulous Franco Zeffirelli. She was a sensation and was instantly propelled into the operatic stratosphere. The rest in history.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> When Joan Sutherland was hailed (by the Italians) as _La Stupenda, _she was indeed worthy of that _sobriquet. _Her voice was a sizable instrument, beautiful in tone, extremely even in its emission, and her capabilities in _coloratura _almost unmatched by her contemporaries. Additionally, her compass was very wide and in its higher reaches just as voluminous as her lower ones, with no sense of strain or tightness - the sense of free up high was intoxicating.
> Her facility in florid music made her an ideal interpreter of the traditional _bel canto _literature, starting with her calling card, *Lucia di Lammermoor*, which catapulted her to international fame - she debuted in that role in most of the world’s great opera houses. Her first time in the role was at Covent Garden in 1959, conducted by the great Tullio Serafin and directed by the fabulous Franco Zeffirelli. She was a sensation and was instantly propelled into the operatic stratosphere. The rest in history.


I am envious that you heard her live. I had a chance late in her career to hear her in Atlanta but I was in a lull in my operatic interest ( more into boys and disco then) and I didn't have enough money to spring for the tickets at the time. Oh, well! C'est la vie. I was really into opera in my teens and after moving to Seattle in my 30's. My 20's not so much.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Some of my favorite recordings of Joan that get less attention than her more common Lucia, Violetta, Semiramide, etc. 

"but...but Joan Sutherland wasn't expressive!"
oh?





I included this one for two reasons
1) I enjoy the more heroic side of her voice more than the joyful ingenue side most people are more familiar with. I think part of the cause of her unique sound wasn't just the instrument itself, but that she went in reverse order of how most singers choose repertoire: she _started _singing Wagnerian pieces and only moved into bel canto in her mid 30s. As a result, her singing retained a certain heroic dignity of Wagner, but combined it with the playfulness, femininity and elaborate ornamentation of bel canto. 
2) the thumbnail is a good example of how she could look quite beautiful when Bonynge wasn't dressing her up like a drag queen). 





Lastly, this piece is normally sung by a spinto or dramatic soprano with a "fatter" voice, but I prefer a voice with more varied capabilities. For example, she starts off here with some uncharacteristic bite and fiery expression, moves into the middle section with a floaty fil de voce type of singing that reminds of a delicate lullaby, and ends with a more heroic, triumphal finale.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Some of my favorite recordings of Joan that get less attention than her more common Lucia, Violetta, Semiramide, etc.
> 
> "but...but Joan Sutherland wasn't expressive!"
> oh?
> ...


         
One of my favorite arias for her to sing was Bel Raggio by Rossini. Of course the most spectacular version was from the Art of the Prima Donna with those mind bending High E's. I love the sheer grandness of her in her 60's in the version from the Met Gala. Here, though, is a sleeper version that might be my favorite from a live performance in her mid 50's captured from out in the house which showed off not only the gigantic size which her already huge voice had grown into but by this point the middle part of her voice had the color, size and richness of a mezzo and she easily vocalized down repeatedly to the G below middle C. Early fat Callas was the only other person outside of perhaps some singers from the late 19th century who could sing bel canto soprano arias with this size, dexterity and mezzo richness of color down low. It is like in her 50's she recaptured the mezzo voice she began with and incorporated it with the soprano voice she was known for in her prime. She looked lovely here and I just wish we had this in HD!!!


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

This is my favourite Dame Joan recording


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

damianjb1 said:


> This is my favourite Dame Joan recording


Same for me. One of the most heroic recordings of the human voice in all of history.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

A 1 minute video about her highest (?) notes made by a very devoted fan


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

*"You're only judged by your last performance. It doesn't matter how many superlatives are behind you, you still have to think what you must get through in the future." *


Joan Sutherland

Modest as she was always.............


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> A 1 minute video about her highest (?) notes made by a very devoted fan


You and I are very likely the only people in our forum that enjoy this type of thing  🤩I am so glad you are here - plus you love Dame Joan, which is not often found in our group except for her stuff up till The Art of the Prima Donna- like 10% of her career. I love this type of thing. Before you came I did a "who sang the best high note" contest for sopranos. People played but many said they don't enjoy high notes taken out of context in an opera I almost pulled the contest because of the grumbling. God bless you young lady!!!!!!!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You and I are very likely the only people in our forum that enjoy this type of thing  🤩I am so glad you are here - plus you love Dame Joan, which is not often found in our group except for her stuff up till The Art of the Prima Donna- like 10% of her career. I love this type of thing. Before you came I did a "who sang the best high note" contest for sopranos. People played but many said they don't enjoy high notes taken out of context in an opera I almost pulled the contest because of the grumbling. God bless you young lady!!!!!!!


Check out on Instagram if you have it

joansutherlandfan


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Rogerx said:


> Check out on Instagram if you have it
> 
> joansutherlandfan


I am a very active follower of that Instagram poster and make comments as nwdixieboy. I live half my life on the internet LOL. Lots of folks like this sort of thing in the opera world in general but it is beneath many of our august members as it always must be within the context tied in to the feeling and meaning of the text ( Maria Callas fan club) type of thing LOL. I love this sort of stuff LOL.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You and I are very likely the only people in our forum that enjoy this type of thing  🤩I am so glad you are here - plus you love Dame Joan, which is not often found in our group except for her stuff up till The Art of the Prima Donna- like 10% of her career. I love this type of thing. Before you came I did a "who sang the best high note" contest for sopranos. People played but many said they don't enjoy high notes taken out of context in an opera I almost pulled the contest because of the grumbling. God bless you young lady!!!!!!!


I don't want to make a false impression. I am not the author of the video. Above all, I dont't know how to cut and glue together the pieces of footage  . I just saw it on youtube cca 1 year ago, and it impressed me, both the singing and the devotion of that person. Youtube is full of them. Our teacher of opera history adores her as well, I think she is his number one of all eras alltogether. As for me, I have a pitch processing impairment, I cannot tell which note is sung at the moment. I can only guess the difficulty. I usually focus on the story, the libretto, and if it is delivered powerfully. Sutherland gives a lark-like feeling, which fits some arias very well. For instance, in Maria Stuarda, when the imprisoned queen walks in the open air, and is happy for a while, plus you imagine there are the actual larks above her.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Thank you Ms Sutherland. Happy Birthday


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

damianjb1 said:


> This is my favourite Dame Joan recording


I've not always liked Dame Joan. I used to like her, and then didn't like her at all and now I like various things. Most of what she did before the early 60s was great and a few things since I can stand.

This recording is amazing, what year was it? I hadn't heard it before and have now listened to it several times. Her lower voice sounds fuller here but still doesn't have the required resonance to really give the low notes full impact. Oh well. This is spectacular singing of the highest order. Very exciting.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Op.123 said:


> I've not always liked Dame Joan. I used to like her, and then didn't like her at all and now I like various things. Most of what she did before the early 60s was great and a few things since I can stand.
> 
> This recording is amazing, what year was it? I hadn't heard it before and have now listened to it several times. Her lower voice sounds fuller here but still doesn't have the required resonance to really give the low notes full impact. Oh well. This is spectacular singing of the highest order. Very exciting.


This was an early LP called “The Art of the Prima Donna,” recorded in 1959/60 when her voice was unimpaired by the Bonynge influence, though her lower register was never fully developed.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> I've not always liked Dame Joan. I used to like her, and then didn't like her at all and now I like various things. Most of what she did before the early 60s was great and a few things since I can stand.
> 
> This recording is amazing, what year was it? I hadn't heard it before and have now listened to it several times. Her lower voice sounds fuller here but still doesn't have the required resonance to really give the low notes full impact. Oh well. This is spectacular singing of the highest order. Very exciting.


The lower voice came into it's own in her last decade. Because she never forced it her voice remained healthy for 3 decades.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

_"I never thought of becoming a diva. I just wanted to sing the roles and get on with my work. I used to come to the theatre in a taxi, not in some Rolls-Royce. I didn't have time to do all that silly stuff." _



Joan Sutherland


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Rogerx said:


> _"I never thought of becoming a diva. I just wanted to sing the roles and get on with my work. I used to come to the theatre in a taxi, not in some Rolls-Royce. I didn't have time to do all that silly stuff." _
> 
> 
> 
> Joan Sutherland


A taxi? What luxury! Ponselle used to cycle on a push bike all the way down to the Met! (Just kidding, I love the down to earth divas!)

N.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> A taxi? What luxury! Ponselle used to cycle on a push bike all the way down to the Met! (Just kidding, I love the down to earth divas!)
> 
> N.


Sutherland was not ever a diva in real life, but could be truly grand as Sutherland in a concert. It was like flipping a switch. Some of her outfits were a bit silly but the overall impression and posture was the diva is here
Battle rode in a limo and called the Met to call the driver to tell him it was too cold.. or something to that effect
Warren walked home with his friends and could sing Di quella pira and soar up to high C after singing all evening. Can you imagine with that huge voice. They could have heard him two blocks away!


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Op.123 said:


> I've not always liked Dame Joan. I used to like her, and then didn't like her at all and now I like various things. Most of what she did before the early 60s was great and a few things since I can stand.
> 
> This recording is amazing, what year was it? I hadn't heard it before and have now listened to it several times. Her lower voice sounds fuller here but still doesn't have the required resonance to really give the low notes full impact. Oh well. This is spectacular singing of the highest order. Very exciting.


I'm glad you like it. I think it's one of the most spectacular pieces of singing ever recorded.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> I've not always liked Dame Joan. I used to like her, and then didn't like her at all and now I like various things. Most of what she did before the early 60s was great and a few things since I can stand.
> 
> This recording is amazing, what year was it? I hadn't heard it before and have now listened to it several times. Her lower voice sounds fuller here but still doesn't have the required resonance to really give the low notes full impact. Oh well. This is spectacular singing of the highest order. Very exciting.


I would LOVE to include this in a contest, but because this is after the Art of the Prima Donna most of the people here in our Callas club will discount it and I don't want to hear their criticism. They never ever like her after that benchmark. To them they don't like her middle voice and her enunciation after that time and many of my favorite Sutherland performances are after the early 60's. There have been so few Sutherland fans among the regular posters I just don't bother. I was surprised Turandot, being much later, got as much love as it got with her singing it. She is almost inhuman with her spectacular feats of singing in this aria and the way she runs up and down the scales with that perfectly enormous voice has only really been heard in one other singer- early Callas.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I would LOVE to include this in a contest, but because this is after the Art of the Prima Donna most of the people here in our Callas club will discount it and I don't want to hear their criticism. They never ever like her after that benchmark. To them they don't like her middle voice and her enunciation after that time and many of my favorite Sutherland performances are after the early 60's. There have been so few Sutherland fans among the regular posters I just don't bother. I was surprised Turandot, being much later, got as much love as it got with her singing it. She is almost inhuman with her spectacular feats of singing in this aria and the way she runs up and down the scales with that perfectly enormous voice has only really been heard in one other singer- early Callas.


You should do it, I generally wouldn't vote for her past The Art of the Prima Donna either but I would here. There are some good versions by Caterina Mancini and Margherita Roberti too but Sutherland beats them both.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

_I'm very happy to sing whatever I'm singing. I've always enjoyed any role I've been given at a certain time. They've all been favourites, they've all been wonderful pieces to play._

Quote by Joan Sutherland


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

This might be a backhanded compliment, but I am not sure if I would have loved Norma as I do now, hadn't my first version been with Joan Sutherland, i.e. a little softened and fluffier. (It is the videotaped version from Sydney I have in mind.) Some productions and singers can make this opera very raw. There is a forgotten comment from years ago here on TC by somebody, who dislikes Norma and finds it "nauseating". I now love Norma for everything it can be, but would it enter my heart so efficiently without Dame Joan ?

Edit: some of the resulting impressions can be attributed to the production and the staging but I like to believe, they had been adjusted to her personality. Similarly like the ending of Semiramide has been changed to happyend by Bonynge for her.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

_"I decided it was time to stop because I felt that the technique was leaving me. The breathing was becoming more difficult too. It was about that time that I went to have a check-up. I found I had a slight heart problem, and I have been on pills ever since. It was sheer physical burnout. You grow old. The machinery wears down. Just like your refrigerator." _


Quote by Joan Sutherland


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Rogerx said:


> _"I decided it was time to stop because I felt that the technique was leaving me. The breathing was becoming more difficult too. It was about that time that I went to have a check-up. I found I had a slight heart problem, and I have been on pills ever since. It was sheer physical burnout. You grow old. The machinery wears down. Just like your refrigerator." _
> 
> 
> Quote by Joan Sutherland


But howold was she when that happened ?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

BBSVK said:


> But howold was she when that happened ?




Her last public performance was concluded in 1990 at Convent Garden with a gala performance of Die Fledermaus on the evening of New Year's Day, where she was equalized by her friends Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne. They then retired and made very little public appearances after that; they preferred a quiet life in her house in Montreux.
from wiki


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Rogerx said:


> Her last public performance was concluded in 1990 at Convent Garden with a gala performance of Die Fledermaus on the evening of New Year's Day, where she was equalized by her friends Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne. They then retired and made very little public appearances after that; they preferred a quiet life in her house in Montreux.
> from wiki


It was likely the biggest send off any singer ever experienced. Confetti all over the wildly cheering crowd and the biggest dress EVER!!
She is a great Mozart singer but she recorded her Mozart recital close to her retiring and she was sounding old after 61. Same with her Wagner recital. She had a very very long run. She was turning in performances up till age 61 that were better than hardly anyone else. I wish Callas had a twin sister equally talented that didn't lose weight and kept that unreal voice she had till the early 50's. Bonynge had her switch her vocal production in the early 60's to prolong the voice. You can't say it didn't work. Her D6's actually improved in sound till her early 60's- bigger and more steely in sound with more defined vibrato. How many singer's high notes get better with age. Plus Sutherland's lower voice got fuller and stronger as she aged. You can tell I am an indifferent Sutherland fan.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

_"I have sung an F sharp, but I wouldn't want to do that very often. Mostly it was around E. It is a very wonderful feeling to get those notes, and I can't remember many occasions when my top notes ever failed me. That was because of all the work I did to build the support for them. I had to really work on getting the quality of sound right. Carey always said that De Reszke insisted the high notes come out of the back of the top of the head. And that was where I finally located them, to great advantage." _

Quote from La Stupenda
Joan Sutherland


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Rogerx said:


> _"I have sung an F sharp, but I wouldn't want to do that very often. Mostly it was around E. It is a very wonderful feeling to get those notes, and I can't remember many occasions when my top notes ever failed me. That was because of all the work I did to build the support for them. I had to really work on getting the quality of sound right. Carey always said that De Reszke insisted the high notes come out of the back of the top of the head. And that was where I finally located them, to great advantage." _
> 
> Quote from La Stupenda
> Joan Sutherland


If you pay attention her high notes they do appear to come from somewhere else but still very connected to her voice. For an early Christmas I got her Command Performance set which has the best photo ever of her on the back cover. She was so gorgeous and grand. The singing is great and I LOVE 3 out of 4 sides. Lots of obscure stuff which you don't normally hear. There was zero surface noise on the lp. I owned this as a teen so it is very nostalgic for me. Pavarotti said she had the greatest support of any singer he had encountered and her diaphram was like a rock.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> ... I LOVE 3 out of 4 sides. ...


OK, I have to ask: what happened on Side 4???


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> OK, I have to ask: what happened on Side 4???


Pristine like the rest, I just didn't enjoy the selections. The rest were all simply wonderful. A contest is coming out of one fabulous but little known Italian concert coloratura aria. Just you wait.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Copyright by me.... painted in the far east


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