Joan Sutherland
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Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney, and her mother was a mezzo soprano who had given up her career. She learned a lot from her mother, with whom she used to sing and listen to many recordings. She attended St Catherine's School, Waverley, the oldest Anglican girls' school in Sydney. When Sutherland was 18, she started to study singing seriously. She debuted in Australia as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, in 1952. Previously, in 1949, she had won Australia's most important competition, The Sun Aria and went to London to study at the Opera School of the Royal College of Music. In 1951, she sang in the world premiere of Eugène Goossens's Judith. She made her European debut as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on October 28, 1952.
During her early career, she was training to be a Wagnerian dramatic soprano, following the steps of Kirsten Flagstad, whom she considers the best singer ever. In 1953, she sang her first title role at the Royal Opera House: Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. Later, she sang Aida. Also in 1953, she sang in the world premiere of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana. In 1954, she married the conductor and pianist, Richard Bonynge. He convinced her to concentrate on the bel canto repertoire, since she had great ease at the high notes and coloratura. From 1954 to 1958, she sang successfully a large repertoire, from coloratura roles to dramatic ones: Eva in Die Meistersinger, Agathe in Der Freischütz, Desdemona in Otello, Gilda in Rigoletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and many others.
In 1957, she debuted as Alcina, starting her work on rediscovering the forgotten operas from the Baroque and Bel Canto eras. In 1958, she sang Madame Lidoine in the English premiere of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.
La Stupenda
In 1960, Sutherland was already known as a vocal miracle and a great diva. She sang Lucia to great acclaim in Paris and, in 1961, at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. In 1960, she sang a superb Alcina at La Fenice, Venice, where she was nicknamed La Stupenda (The Stupendous One). Sutherland would soon be called La Stupenda all around the world. She also sang Alcina at the Dallas Opera, with which she made her US debut the same year.
Joan Sutherland added the greatest heroines of bel canto in her repertoire: Violetta (La Traviata), Amina (La Sonnambula) and Elvira (I Puritani) in 1960; Beatrice di Tenda in 1961; Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) and Semiramide in 1962; Norma and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) in 1963. She later added Marie (La Fille du Régiment), which is one of her most admired roles, because of her perfect coloratura and lively, funny interpretation.
During the 70s, her voice became more expressive and she improved her diction. Then, she added dramatic roles like Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucrezia Borgia and Massenet's extremely difficult Esclarmonde. She even recorded a successful Turandot in 1972, though she never performed the role on stage.
In the late 70s, Sutherland's voice started to decline. However, thanks to her vocal flexibility and flawless technique, she continued singing the most difficult roles amazingly well. During the 80s, she added Anna Bolena, Amelia in I masnadieri and Adriana Lecouvreur to her repertoire. Her last performance was as Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) in 1990, at the age of 64. However, her last public appearance took place in a gala recital with her friends, Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne.
During her career and after, Sutherland received many prizes. In 1961, Sutherland was made a Commander of the British Empire. She was further elevated from Commander to Dame Commander on December 30, 1978. On June 9, 1975, Dame Joan was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. On November 29, 1991, the Queen bestowed on Dame Joan the Order of Merit, one of Britain and Australia's highest honours and within the Queen's personal gift.
In 2004 she received a Kennedy Center Honour for her outstanding achievement throughout her career. Joan Sutherland appears in many international vocal competitions and is the patron of the famous BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She had one of the longest careers in the history of opera and her many studio recordings, mostly for the DECCA/London label, are best-sellers.
Vocal description
Sutherland is one of the best examples of dramatic coloratura soprano. She had a very big and rounded voice even in the highest notes. Her middle range was always creamy and rich, though some criticize her sometimes cloudy middle notes. As for her low range, she could reach deep mezzo notes, but her low notes never had the volume and spontaneity of Maria Callas or Leyla Gencer. On the other hand, her high notes were unsurpassed. She could hit a large and brilliant high E without any strain even in her late career (though her high notes got smaller and smaller with age) and sing a long and high coloratura line in full voice. Through most of her career, she is noted for her perfect legato, perfectly even from bottom to top (from low G to high F-sharp, G3-F#6).
Initially, Sutherland's voice was very silvery with precise, clear diction. However, by 1962, her middle voice had become cloudy and her diction deteriorated drastically. Some have attributed this to sinus surgery around 1962. However, her major sinus surgery was in March 1959 immediate after her big break. The surgery was actually delayed so that it would not conflict with her Lucia debut at Covent Garden. When compared to live recordings of the Feb 1959 Lucia's, her first recital (1959) shows no change in the clarity of voice or diction, and if anything, the voice is even firmer and clearer. The famous "Art of the Prima Donna" album from 1960 still reveals decent diction, but the voice is already slightly cloudier and less girlish than 1959. By the time of her first complete "Lucia" recording, her middle voice had become quite cloudy, her diction practically non-existent, and her singing of slower music had degenerated to the oft-criticised "mooning and mooching." In fast music, however, her technical mastery remained unrivalled.
She partially corrected her diction problems in the 1970s, but she never regained the clarity of her early voice or the precise and clear diction. In the 1980s, her voice developed a slight wobble and a shrinkage of the upper notes, but many times she overcame these faults by using her superb technique as well as resorting to transposing her famous arias down by a semi-tone or full-tone.
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