On meeting Joan after her Lucia at Covent Garden in 1985, she said Ï'm just an old granny."That says it all. A wonderful woman and the greatest soprano of my lifetime.
I adore the fact that Joan ALWAYS went for stratospheric high notes at the end of great scenes like this. This is what audiences find thrilling. Great theatre!
To transpose the whole thing just to go for a high D flat wouldn't be so wise, in my opinion. There are so many other to express in the whole scene. Nevertheless her coloratura was always amazing, though sometimes a bit "overwhelmed".
@@khongcothithoi ....I think she HAD to go for the high note because that's what the people expected...as soon as you leave the high note out the haters say your done or on your way out. Opera is a TREMENDOUSLY strenuous career, the vocal cords are very small and fragile and anything can happen to them at any moment....
Why do you always pop on to comment on Sutherland then, as its clearly a voice you don't like? Many found her voice to be quite magical, she really cannot be matched by anyone I have heard in 35 years of opera going, and I have seen and heard a lot!
This gives me chills. It's like actually being at the opera...opera as it should be. Like you have gone back in time to Italy or Paris in the 1830's. When she turns upstage at the very end to face her fate....I actually started to...I'm weeping right now. Sutherland = divine.
I love the richness of her voice and the tone of her high notes at this stage of her career. I could just keep playing this scene over and over. It's just thrilling thrilling vocalism and she's so commanding on the stage. I'm so jealous of anybody who heard La Stupenda sing this live. It's hard to believe anybody could sing high notes like that at almost 60 or any age really. Of course one should also check out Callas in this same material. She is also spectacular and she is in great voice, but does not take the high note at the end which is so truly magnificent and enormous when Sutherland does it.
Therein probably lies the problem though, because 28 sounds too young. Todays singers just don't have the stamina or vocal security to even compare with Sutherland and even Callas at her worst. Today's are full of vibrato, short breaths and phrases with notes that thin down the higher they go. I think it really will be a long time before we can truly say that the next Sutherland/Callas has arrived. Nearly 100 years after Caruso's death the world is still waiting, but you never know what's around the corner.
Even past her prime she is fantastic here. She knew exactly what bel canto is about and that makes the difference. Modern singers have a lot to learn with her. Unsurpassed.
@@markdarenvillanueva7740 No. Callas was great, but not at Joan's level. Callas had to act to make up for glaring vocal deficiencies; Joan just had to sing.
The low notes somewhere in 3:44 - 3:46 were marvelous. And of course, the high notes were great, as well. Amazing. Dame Joan has always maintained the bar that high.
Even though this was Joan toward the end of her career, I dare anyone to play this next to Angela Meade and tell me she can come anywhere even remotely close to performing this role. We are starved for a true dramatic coloratura soprano, and Joan was it!
You are right. She cannot come close! Maede doesn't "yodel" her way through the cantabile passages. Sutherland, "la Stupenda", should have worn lederhosen and a feathered cap when she sang Norma and Bolena. Yodelleewho!
+Arbiter Veritatis Meade isn't talented enough to "yodel" like the greatest soprano of all time, Joan Sutherland. Please provide video of any soprano who, at age 59, could sing this aria better.
Sutherland never had a hole in the middle and I agree she always had the high notes, the only thing I ever noticed in the latter years was a little rust in the lower notes, but technically she was always amazing.
I never understand why people need to trash other artists. Of course Sutherland is fantastic! So were Callas and Sills as Bolena. And Netrebko and Meade are great artists too. Anderson was phenomenal. When you reach the top tier of opera, you are already bringing something great to the table.
Dave Glo -- I would not include Meade nor Netrebko in the same quality as the mentioned sopranos get real. Meade has a very ugly vibrato/ tonal issue she is in utter denial of . Netrebko is a dark Slavic lyric soprano who thinks she is now suddenly a dramatic soprano and has perilously changed repertory. But no worries she thought she was a leggiero for a couple of years back as well .
Netrebko is a blessed singer, her detractors are so passionate that they are doing the promotions for her, because no matter what singer video is uploaded, as long as Netrebko has sang the opera in question her name comes right up. Lucky girl. For the record, I am not one of her fans, nor a detractor.
@windstorm: Probably because the Met doesn't have the caliber of Opera singers it used to have. They've either all died or retired. I'm sorry to say, we are stuck with B-list Opera singers :(
I love this NEW mad scene of Joan's...rich,powerful...no one could fill a theater with a column of sound like Sutherland.Wish I had heard this live....her voice doesn't treat microphones well.She is missed from the stage!
Obviously not the voice she had even 6 or 7 years earlier, but it's still a remarkable voice with true command of bel canto singing and a remarkable technique that endures the ravagings of time. But what really impresses me is how strong and expressive her cabaletta singing still is, it still has a lot of power, authority and strength to convey drama through the music.
@dziady1 The language of music, which is of course not to be understood as spoken talking. As Sutherland said, if you want perfect diction, go watch a play and not opera. Actually, for someone who speaks a Romance language like me, I can understand many words she sings. Are you a native Italian speaker? If you are, then I understand it's somewhat disturbing to hear a slightky English-accented Italian without perfect diction, but then this is opera, and opera's been international for centuries.
This came rather late for Sutherland and one wishes she'd have undertaken this exacting role ten or fifteen years earlier. Still, it's good that she did it because she does have some great moments. Bonynge executes a very disfiguring bridge just before the cabaletta so that Sutherland can sing it in D flat instead of E flat. Still, even with the transposition, she's 58 years old and manages the best she can. She most certainly doesn't have the thrust and electricity of Callas and never did.
"Doesn't have the thrust?" She had the biggest dramatic soprano voice in history. I know people who sang in choruses with her and with Callas; Sutherland's voice was much bigger, And far more beautiful. And she had perfect technique and the greatest trill in history. And glorious top notes, which Callas certainly did not have. And I love Callas; just think she's the one who's overrated.
As an actress, maybe, but then who else did have the so-called "thrust and electricity" of Callas. Chaliapin, Gobbi, Taddei, were perhaps her only equals in the acting department, but for pure vocals in the bel canto rep, Callas and Sutherland were each others only match. Sutherland paced her vocal resources, whereas Callas in striving to project her art effectively put the cart before the horse by forgetting or abandoning a properly supported tone on the breath, singing too heavy roles too soon, and ultimately paying the price for it. In that regard Sutherland is and must be regarded as the superior singer. Nevertheless, Callas' place in musical history is secure and people will talk of that time in the 1950's when the great careers of La Divina and La Stupenda crossed oh so briefly, for many centuries to come.
@@Eiswirth1 Actually Sutherland herself said that Callas had the largest voice she had ever heard [speaking of the 1952 Callas Norma]. How one hears Callas depends on whether you want to hear a concert in costume or you want to experience a music-drama. Sutherland could deliver both but always in this fashion: MUSIC-drama. Callas depending on the year and the opera delivered MuSiC-Drama/MUSIC-DRAMA/music-DRAMA and several other combinations. Even when I heard her in her final tour she was able to provide a greater dramatic musical experience with just a piano accompaniment than most sopranos ever achieve in a fully staged opera.
@primohomme I find the whole aria annoying.. the wobble, the scooping, the approximate pitch in a piece tht requires precision and quiet, at least at first, and the cabaletta is just plain not donizetti. I am not sure what it is, but.. my oh my she has a good D flat at the end.
Of course there are this marvellous high notes. She could do it and I to expected them. BUT she was THE SINGER always, in BEL CANTO the best for me!!!!!
Why can't the MET play opera like this?? Instead we get the same old, same old--La Boheme and Magic Flute. Coloratura opera fans should write Peter Gelb to start jazzing up the repoitre!!
Grande Joan, son pocas las sopranos que llegan a cierta edad y todavía tienen facultades, será eterna y Callas, simplemente en pocos años se hizo inmortal, Sutherland y Maria son dos grandes de la historia del belcanto romántico únicas e irrepetibles
Grande Artista, ma in molti ruoli non mi convince. A mio avviso l’opera non è solo gran voce e tecnica, ma soprattutto fraseggio, dizione, interpretazione, presenza scenica e capacità espressiva. Se non mi tocca le corde interiori, non mi emoziona. È stata un fenomeno vocale e ha lasciato tantissimo. Grazie Dame Joan.
Belcanto repertoire is my interest. I look at loads of clips of singers involved in belcanto, and sometimes I write what I think. But why are you so bothered by my comments? Opera is meant to give pleasure, it is not about who is the absolute best.
It is very true she had a big voice Beautenor. In fact I always loved the fact that she sang coloratura roles with such a voice. Also I was talking about phrasing, not merely of diction. In fairness Gruberova is singing these roles in her 60s. And Devia has just debuted the role. After singing Al dolce guidami in the prone position,she gave us a Coppia iniqua without transposing. And we all heard trills.
....yes but their voices are smaller...and how many performances have they done compared to Sutherland have you seen how many recordings she has done besides probably over a 1000 performances..?
I think people will be listening to Sutherland long after Devia and Serra are long gone, not really in the same league as Sutherland, who no doubt, you didn't see in her prime live?
SI LO QUE HE EXPRESADO NO SE ENTIENDE...............Y CADA CUAL SIGUE SUS GUSTOS ME PARECE PARECE BIEN.......................PERO EL QUE TENGA OIDO QUE SEPA ESCUCHAR..................Y QUE SE QUEDE CADA CUAL CON SUS PROPIOS GUSTOS............PERO LO GRANDE ES PARA QUIEN SABE ESCUCHARLO..................Y CADA CUAL SE QUEDA EN LA NOTA VOCAL.QUE SU MENTE LE PERMITE.........................Y YO ME QUEDO EN LA SUPREMACIA SUTHERLIANA
Joan Is great in the role and in this performace even if in Donizetti I personally prefer much more Caballè. By the way.. The Anna's pray doesn't sound like Bishop's "home sweet home"? It's curious, Isn't It?
well to be honest callas has been dead for about 33 years by now and she is still remember as the best so much that the world of Opera is separated in two before and after and more then 40 biographis have been written about her 3 movies strees have been name after her in Europe and so on and untill today her CDS over due other famous opera singer of today...THATS ALL
Cuando una voz es importante como la Stupenda que canto 45 años en los mejores escenarios, sabemos que estamos frente a la mejor soprano del siglo. QUE GRAN VOZ Y ARTISTA!!!!
We all enjoy different things zacharybr! Nothing wrong with it! As far as the diction is concerned, most Belcanto singers pronounce properly. Callas and Gencer bite the words. Gruberova is correct. I saw Serra and Devia live: both fabulous.
No, really, I know the synch is off slightly, but I have the audio only of this performance and it is identical to this in every way including some small word errors.
Well...I would still rather have this Sutherland performance, even WITH its transposition, than for her to have not done Bolena at all! Still...too bad she didn't do this role earlier in her career, when she could have handled the original key with no problem.
I agree BeauTenor. Neither has the same size instrument. But as far as I am concerned the sheer volume of a voice does not excite me as much as an imaginative phrasing and dynamics. Just personal preference. Yes the high notes were always great, although she had to transpose a few times.
Yes, in fact I am Italian. The coupling of words and music is very important to me. If you take time to notice nearly every aria sung by Sutherland ends with trill (or turn), breath, dominant tonic or just tonic depending on the key. Let me think... maybe my favourite singers burp after a big meal. Which one are you referring to?
I love her, but not singing this piece... Although there was other roles in which I thought she would not be good at, like Turandot, and, against all odds, she was so so great...
I think we are all entitled to watch the clips and give our opinion, zacharybr. It is not a matter of love or hatred. I thought it was polite to answer your question, but do not worry! I will go away!
In general, I don't have problems with transpositions if a singer is able to do justice to the role. But JS seems to transpose ONLY so she can sing an unwritten and mood-breaking high note at the end. Even in the original key and sans the last note, I don't think she could have amounted to much in this role.
She probably would have been better in this role had she done it 15 or 20 years earlier, but even then, she had neither the seamless sculpted legato nor the gradiloquence needed by this role. By this time, the "mooning and mooching" was pretty unbearable in slow sections, though the fast sections were still pretty impressive. To my ears, the final unwritten high note really damages the mood and dignity of the scene.
I love her and heard her live two years after this, and she still sounded great. But this really was NOT a role for her. And did anyone notice that the finale was lowered a whole tone, so that she could end on the unwritten C-Sharp.
Perfect role for her, and she brought a command and poise to it other sopranos can only dream about. I heard her live, in the opera house, for this performance - not on a video - and she was miraculous. And every one on EARTH knowns the Coppia Iniqua was in a different key.
Pavarotti called her the greatest voice. He very carefully didn't say the greatest singer. Possessing a voice is one thing. Using it to it's maximum is another. It is like possessing a Stradivarius. It does not automatically make you Jascha Heifetz. And her singing in this piece is not at all good, 58 or not.
Ariadne7710 I don't think Pavarotti was interested in that whole assoluta bullshit or was educated of that theory by some TH-camr. Claiming someone to be the greatest singer is kinda stupid right? Callas fans love to do that though. Honestly the greatest singer of modern time is Billie Holiday.
Transposing the whole thing just to capture a high D flat wouldn't be a nice idea. I think her coloratura was still amazing, but perhaps that's all. Even her trills aren't good here, don't sound haunting. And that stupid tianyang xu you should fuck off. Sutherland's fans would not bash Maria Callas like that, even Sutherland respected Callas. You should get a brain transplant to be more useful to the world. P.S. Pav did say Callas was the greatest musician, Sutherland was the greatest technician ok ?
Im not sure I would rate Pavarotti so deeply. He was not in Bonynges words "an intellectual singer" and I think he meant what he said about Sutherland. Pavarotti was not a dramatic tenor, his voice was not as heavy or voluminous as his records suggest and he himself knew this. He was the rightful successor to Gigli and di Stefano at his best.
Interesting that you should raise the issue of Billie Holiday. I think in the mid-20th Century, one uniquely emotive and one supremely technically beautiful singer arose in many categories. The unique ones certainly are Callas in opera; Holiday in jazz; Patsy Cline in country, Edith Piaf in international song; Judy Garland in pop; and Janis Joplin in rock. The technically beautiful singers are Sutherland in opera; Ella Fitzgerald in jazz; Loretta Lynn in country; Barbara Streisand in pop; and Cher in rock. I do not think that Piaf had a female counterpart but perhaps Charles Aznavour was the beautiful voice to her emotive involvement. The emotive singers were all both idolized and reviled across their careers for greatness and for ruining, to some extent, their voices. The beautiful singers were great and lasted much longer but never quite reach the ultimate expression possible in the music they sang.
It's too bad that Dame Joan didn't undertake this role fifteen years earlier. Though she transposes the cabaletta down a whole step, she executes the notes accurately. My only problem is with her voice quality, which by this late stage had lost it's brightness, it's fluidity, and it's color. I hear a gray dull sound here, but remember that she was hitting sixty when she sang this. I just wish she had the demonic genius, force, and searing quality of Callas. This is not prime Joan at all.
To be frank, timsuffolk, I am not interested to whom people will be listening to. I tend to listen to the singers whose art I enjoy. As Lauri Volpi stated, for Sutherland the voice was the aim, not a means to achieve the magic of art.
The greatest boring singer, her greatest Opera was La Fille du Regiment with Pavarotti at the Metropolitan Opera where she could be herself and ham it up, loved her in it.
Gimme' a break. If she were British, American or whatever euro race you belong to, you'd be falling over yourself to claim her. But you can't, and never will, because she's ours (Australia's).
She was the most exciting, thrill-inducing singer of all time. The only thing boring is the chorus of her detractors, who preferred sopranos with half her ability.
a mi perdonenme pero leer esas discusiones sobre la callas y sutherland es algo patetico, la sutherland habra durado en escena ma años.pero leio y vi reportajes donde sutherland y su esposo han alabado a la callas , ademas callas ha marcado un antes y un despues, maria era una GRAN ACTRIZ una gran interprete e escena,joan fue una gran soprano con una tecnica superlativa para la coloratura pero escenicamente era bastante elemental
those were days.... :-( awful dizione, full of imprecisions, the all is covered by sovracuti made just to enchant the audiance! She could have been a great Anna Bolena, if she had the courage to sing it at the right time. Same mistake made by her friend Montserrat Caballè! Amen
I'm a great fan of the young, incomparable, Joan Sutherland and this 1984 recording is proof that she continued to undertake roles for which she was far too old. The voice had developed a wobble and a mushy middle register, ( though she could still manage those difficult high notes)- a world away from her golden age of the 50's and 60's. This is opera at it's most unconvincing and would put off most people unfamiliar with the genre.
Lo siento mucho pero la sra Maria Callas, nunca hizo la carrera respetabilisima larga y de exitos a la edad de la Stupenda, no cantaba ni la cucaracha la Callas.
This is like Joan Crawford standing in for her daughter in mommy dearest when her daughter took ill in her acting job. I never owned a piece of Sutherland's music and so proud that i i don't she is so over rated on so many accounts..
Your ignorance is appalling. Sutherland was the greatest dramatic coloratura of the past 60 years. No one who knows anything about great singing would agree with you.She's almost 60 in this role and still had the best technique and high notes of any soprano singing in that period. Listen to her many recordings from the late 50s through the mid 70s and you'll hear a voice so brilliant in its weight, power and beauty you won't believe what you're hearing.
Probably the best trill in the history of operatic singing.
Untouchable.
On meeting Joan after her Lucia at Covent Garden in 1985, she said Ï'm just an old granny."That says it all. A wonderful woman and the greatest soprano of my lifetime.
Really? She called herself an old granny
Breath taking beautiful. Wow what a wonderful singer she was.
I adore the fact that Joan ALWAYS went for stratospheric high notes at the end of great scenes like this. This is what audiences find thrilling. Great theatre!
Dianaemanuel So true, yet so few singers do this nowadays. :(
To transpose the whole thing just to go for a high D flat wouldn't be so wise, in my opinion. There are so many other to express in the whole scene.
Nevertheless her coloratura was always amazing, though sometimes a bit "overwhelmed".
@@khongcothithoi ....I think she HAD to go for the high note because that's what the people expected...as soon as you leave the high note out the haters say your done or on your way out. Opera is a TREMENDOUSLY strenuous career, the vocal cords are very small and fragile and anything can happen to them at any moment....
Beautifully sung by Joan! Brava diva! TY.
Why do you always pop on to comment on Sutherland then, as its clearly a voice you don't like? Many found her voice to be quite magical, she really cannot be matched by anyone I have heard in 35 years of opera going, and I have seen and heard a lot!
Even far from her prime she still delivers the goods. Head and shoulders above the vast majority of today's sopranos tacking this role. Bravissima.
This gives me chills. It's like actually being at the opera...opera as it should be.
Like you have gone back in time to Italy or Paris in the 1830's. When she turns upstage at
the very end to face her fate....I actually started to...I'm weeping right now.
Sutherland = divine.
My God.. Her voice is absolutely 'Huge'!!
Her trill and high note are incredible.
I love the richness of her voice and the tone of her high notes at this stage of her career. I could just keep playing this scene over and over. It's just thrilling thrilling vocalism and she's so commanding on the stage. I'm so jealous of anybody who heard La Stupenda sing this live. It's hard to believe anybody could sing high notes like that at almost 60 or any age really. Of course one should also check out Callas in this same material. She is also spectacular and she is in great voice, but does not take the high note at the end which is so truly magnificent and enormous when Sutherland does it.
John Roberts Honey, to sing this splendidly at 28 would be a coup these days!
Therein probably lies the problem though, because 28 sounds too young. Todays singers just don't have the stamina or vocal security to even compare with Sutherland and even Callas at her worst. Today's are full of vibrato, short breaths and phrases with notes that thin down the higher they go. I think it really will be a long time before we can truly say that the next Sutherland/Callas has arrived. Nearly 100 years after Caruso's death the world is still waiting, but you never know what's around the corner.
Straordinaria artista, interprete meravigliosa. La sua "coppia iniqua" è indimenticabile e deliziosa!
Even past her prime she is fantastic here. She knew exactly what bel canto is about and that makes the difference. Modern singers have a lot to learn with her. Unsurpassed.
Past her prime was better than most modern singers at their peak.
the best, ever!
She will always be the Queen of Opera.
CALLAS
@@markdarenvillanueva7740 No. Callas was great, but not at Joan's level. Callas had to act to make up for glaring vocal deficiencies; Joan just had to sing.
@@Eiswirth1What nonsense, but you are keeping Callas name alive !
The low notes somewhere in 3:44 - 3:46 were marvelous. And of course, the high notes were great, as well. Amazing. Dame Joan has always maintained the bar that high.
Yepp, it really caught my attention, she did that so beautifully and healthly/naturally.
Even though this was Joan toward the end of her career, I dare anyone to play this next to Angela Meade and tell me she can come anywhere even remotely close to performing this role. We are starved for a true dramatic coloratura soprano, and Joan was it!
She was a a great example...so was June anderson and maria callas....I even dare to say edda moser but she didn't sing this rep though...
You are right. She cannot come close! Maede doesn't "yodel" her way through the cantabile passages. Sutherland, "la Stupenda", should have worn lederhosen and a feathered cap when she sang Norma and Bolena. Yodelleewho!
Angela Mead should lay off the meatballs first then hire Richard Bonynge as coach. He won't bother with her until she loses 235 pounds.
+Arbiter Veritatis Meade isn't talented enough to "yodel" like the greatest soprano of all time, Joan Sutherland. Please provide video of any soprano who, at age 59, could sing this aria better.
astroboy royale Wow, what a nasty thing to say. Just substitute ‘gay’ for ‘fat’ and you would be howling.
Incredible!
Compared with the mediocre sopranos that are supposed to be the definitive singers today I would rather have Joan in this vocal condition.
petelovesbevsills well said
Joan Sutherland was and is and will Always be LA FAVORITA per me
Fantastic❤️
Bel Canto opus. La magnificent Stupenda.🌹🌻💖
Sutherland never had a hole in the middle and I agree she always had the high notes, the only thing I ever noticed in the latter years was a little rust in the lower notes, but technically she was always amazing.
I ve loved Joan Sutherland but this is not exactly Anna Bolena
Che dire ???? La perfezione
super diva! legend! love joan sutherland:)
I never understand why people need to trash other artists. Of course Sutherland is fantastic! So were Callas and Sills as Bolena. And Netrebko and Meade are great artists too. Anderson was phenomenal. When you reach the top tier of opera, you are already bringing something great to the table.
Dave Glo -- I would not include Meade nor Netrebko in the same quality as the mentioned sopranos get real. Meade has a very ugly vibrato/ tonal issue she is in utter denial of . Netrebko is a dark Slavic lyric soprano who thinks she is now suddenly a dramatic soprano and has perilously changed repertory. But no worries she thought she was a leggiero for a couple of years back as well .
@@orion8835 I so agree...Netrebko is horrible.
Netrebko is a blessed singer, her detractors are so passionate that they are doing the promotions for her, because no matter what singer video is uploaded, as long as Netrebko has sang the opera in question her name comes right up. Lucky girl. For the record, I am not one of her fans, nor a detractor.
You mention Nettpot and Meadiocre in a category with Sutherland? LMAO.
@windstorm: Probably because the Met doesn't have the caliber of Opera singers it used to have. They've either all died or retired. I'm sorry to say, we are stuck with B-list Opera singers :(
I love this NEW mad scene of Joan's...rich,powerful...no one could fill a theater with a column of sound like Sutherland.Wish I had heard this live....her voice doesn't treat microphones well.She is missed from the stage!
@GoldenAgeSunshine
The new generation of stars are instant coffee as opposed to the Sutherland and her peers, who were the real beans.
Absolutely agree with you.
how touching !!!
Obviously not the voice she had even 6 or 7 years earlier, but it's still a remarkable voice with true command of bel canto singing and a remarkable technique that endures the ravagings of time. But what really impresses me is how strong and expressive her cabaletta singing still is, it still has a lot of power, authority and strength to convey drama through the music.
Well said
Unbelievable !!!!!
transposed? Who has ever sung a Db like that at 58, not to mention the rest?!
Well, Joan told me the best Bolena is Christine Weidinger who was chosen by Bonynge for several production as Barcelona.
The inimitable Joan Sutherland.
@dziady1 The language of music, which is of course not to be understood as spoken talking. As Sutherland said, if you want perfect diction, go watch a play and not opera. Actually, for someone who speaks a Romance language like me, I can understand many words she sings. Are you a native Italian speaker? If you are, then I understand it's somewhat disturbing to hear a slightky English-accented Italian without perfect diction, but then this is opera, and opera's been international for centuries.
This came rather late for Sutherland and one wishes she'd have undertaken this exacting role ten or fifteen years earlier. Still, it's good that she did it because she does have some great moments. Bonynge executes a very disfiguring bridge just before the cabaletta so that Sutherland can sing it in D flat instead of E flat. Still, even with the transposition, she's 58 years old and manages the best she can. She most certainly doesn't have the thrust and electricity of Callas and never did.
"Doesn't have the thrust?" She had the biggest dramatic soprano voice in history. I know people who sang in choruses with her and with Callas; Sutherland's voice was much bigger, And far more beautiful. And she had perfect technique and the greatest trill in history. And glorious top notes, which Callas certainly did not have. And I love Callas; just think she's the one who's overrated.
As an actress, maybe, but then who else did have the so-called "thrust and electricity" of Callas. Chaliapin, Gobbi, Taddei, were perhaps her only equals in the acting department, but for pure vocals in the bel canto rep, Callas and Sutherland were each others only match. Sutherland paced her vocal resources, whereas Callas in striving to project her art effectively put the cart before the horse by forgetting or abandoning a properly supported tone on the breath, singing too heavy roles too soon, and ultimately paying the price for it. In that regard Sutherland is and must be regarded as the superior singer. Nevertheless, Callas' place in musical history is secure and people will talk of that time in the 1950's when the great careers of La Divina and La Stupenda crossed oh so briefly, for many centuries to come.
@@Eiswirth1 Actually Sutherland herself said that Callas had the largest voice she had ever heard [speaking of the 1952 Callas Norma]. How one hears Callas depends on whether you want to hear a concert in costume or you want to experience a music-drama. Sutherland could deliver both but always in this fashion: MUSIC-drama. Callas depending on the year and the opera delivered MuSiC-Drama/MUSIC-DRAMA/music-DRAMA and several other combinations. Even when I heard her in her final tour she was able to provide a greater dramatic musical experience with just a piano accompaniment than most sopranos ever achieve in a fully staged opera.
@@Eiswirth1I love the ‘I knew people who knew people’ better known as hearsay.
please God let me sing like that at 58
@primohomme I find the whole aria annoying.. the wobble, the scooping, the approximate pitch in a piece tht requires precision and quiet, at least at first, and the cabaletta is just plain not donizetti. I am not sure what it is, but.. my oh my she has a good D flat at the end.
kgarmaker123 ....you stinker! Lol!
Of course there are this marvellous high notes. She could do it and I to expected them. BUT she was THE SINGER always, in BEL CANTO the best for me!!!!!
Why can't the MET play opera like this?? Instead we get the same old, same old--La Boheme and Magic Flute. Coloratura opera fans should write Peter Gelb to start jazzing up the repoitre!!
Grande Joan, son pocas las sopranos que llegan a cierta edad y todavía tienen facultades, será eterna y Callas, simplemente en pocos años se hizo inmortal, Sutherland y Maria son dos grandes de la historia del belcanto romántico únicas e irrepetibles
Grande Artista, ma in molti ruoli non mi convince. A mio avviso l’opera non è solo gran voce e tecnica, ma soprattutto fraseggio, dizione, interpretazione, presenza scenica e capacità espressiva. Se non mi tocca le corde interiori, non mi emoziona. È stata un fenomeno vocale e ha lasciato tantissimo. Grazie Dame Joan.
Questo è il melodramma poi viene il teatro musicale e il verismo
Es muncho mejor cantar 10 anos grandiosos que 40 con una voz chica y Sencilla....
Belcanto repertoire is my interest. I look at loads of clips of singers involved in belcanto, and sometimes I write what I think. But why are you so bothered by my comments? Opera is meant to give pleasure, it is not about who is the absolute best.
It is very true she had a big voice Beautenor. In fact I always loved the fact that she sang coloratura roles with such a voice. Also I was talking about phrasing, not merely of diction.
In fairness Gruberova is singing these roles in her 60s. And Devia has just debuted the role. After singing Al dolce guidami in the prone position,she gave us a Coppia iniqua without transposing. And we all heard trills.
....yes but their voices are smaller...and how many performances have they done compared to Sutherland have you seen how many recordings she has done besides probably over a 1000 performances..?
I think people will be listening to Sutherland long after Devia and Serra are long gone, not really in the same league as Sutherland, who no doubt, you didn't see in her prime live?
2024. And I'm still listening to Mariella Devia.
SI LO QUE HE EXPRESADO NO SE ENTIENDE...............Y CADA CUAL SIGUE SUS GUSTOS ME PARECE PARECE BIEN.......................PERO EL QUE TENGA OIDO QUE SEPA ESCUCHAR..................Y QUE SE QUEDE CADA CUAL CON SUS PROPIOS GUSTOS............PERO LO GRANDE ES PARA QUIEN SABE ESCUCHARLO..................Y CADA CUAL SE QUEDA EN LA NOTA VOCAL.QUE SU MENTE LE PERMITE.........................Y YO ME QUEDO EN LA SUPREMACIA SUTHERLIANA
Joan Is great in the role and in this performace even if in Donizetti I personally prefer much more Caballè. By the way.. The Anna's pray doesn't sound like Bishop's "home sweet home"? It's curious, Isn't It?
well to be honest callas has been dead for about 33 years by now and she is still remember as the best so much that the world of Opera is separated in two before and after and more then 40 biographis have been written about her 3 movies strees have been name after her in Europe and so on and untill today her CDS over due other famous opera singer of today...THATS ALL
Cuando una voz es importante como la Stupenda que canto 45 años en los mejores escenarios, sabemos que estamos frente a la mejor soprano del siglo. QUE GRAN VOZ Y ARTISTA!!!!
EXQUISITA
Eine perfekte Gesangsmaschine.
We all enjoy different things zacharybr! Nothing wrong with it!
As far as the diction is concerned, most Belcanto singers pronounce properly. Callas and Gencer bite the words. Gruberova is correct. I saw Serra and Devia live: both fabulous.
Yes a lovely VOICE, wonderful high notes , drills, but it would be nice to hear the words.
Matti Heiskanen and see the acting
No, really, I know the synch is off slightly, but I have the audio only of this performance and it is identical to this in every way including some small word errors.
Sounds like she's singing theirs no place like home. Which i thought was written way after the Tudor period
❤️🇱🇨!!!
Well...I would still rather have this Sutherland performance, even WITH its transposition, than for her to have not done Bolena at all! Still...too bad she didn't do this role earlier in her career, when she could have handled the original key with no problem.
I agree BeauTenor. Neither has the same size instrument. But as far as I am concerned the sheer volume of a voice does not excite me as much as an imaginative phrasing and dynamics. Just personal preference. Yes the high notes were always great, although she had to transpose a few times.
Yes, in fact I am Italian. The coupling of words and music is very important to me.
If you take time to notice nearly every aria sung by Sutherland ends with trill (or turn), breath, dominant tonic or just tonic depending on the key. Let me think... maybe my favourite singers burp after a big meal. Which one are you referring to?
Well, even the cabaleta is transposed, I like Joan here better then usual.
Una artista de gran nivel que solo canta 10 años demuestra lo contrario.
Love Joan, but this is too late in her career for ‘Bolena’ .
Joan was really stupenda,but this is not a role for her ....go earlier to Lucia!
I love her, but not singing this piece... Although there was other roles in which I thought she would not be good at, like Turandot, and, against all odds, she was so so great...
It was a shame she did not sing this role when she when was younger; live her age would not been noticeable as it is on this video.
I love Joan Sutherland....but give me Beverly Sills in all of the 3 queens roles any day!
Your arguments do not improve by insulting me, riccardi 699. I am sure she could do more. It is a matter of imagination.
@windstorm1000 Haha, you're in luck my friend!
@MAPIAKALLAS JAJAJAJA Nadie canta 40 años en los mejores escenarios con "voz pequeña", y a la vez ser considerada la Stupenda como la mejor del siglo.
I think we are all entitled to watch the clips and give our opinion, zacharybr. It is not a matter of love or hatred. I thought it was polite to answer your question, but do not worry! I will go away!
Why transpose down at the end?!
She was 58
Thats more a caricature !
In general, I don't have problems with transpositions if a singer is able to do justice to the role. But JS seems to transpose ONLY so she can sing an unwritten and mood-breaking high note at the end. Even in the original key and sans the last note, I don't think she could have amounted to much in this role.
For this aria: Sutherland, first;
Sutherland was la Stupenda! Callas la Divina!
However Souliotis WAS Anna Bolena.
Una cantante Que canta 40 anos y mediocre demuestra algo peor :) pero esa es mi opinion
She probably would have been better in this role had she done it 15 or 20 years earlier, but even then, she had neither the seamless sculpted legato nor the gradiloquence needed by this role. By this time, the "mooning and mooching" was pretty unbearable in slow sections, though the fast sections were still pretty impressive. To my ears, the final unwritten high note really damages the mood and dignity of the scene.
I love her and heard her live two years after this, and she still sounded great. But this really was NOT a role for her. And did anyone notice that the finale was lowered a whole tone, so that she could end on the unwritten C-Sharp.
Perfect role for her, and she brought a command and poise to it other sopranos can only dream about. I heard her live, in the opera house, for this performance - not on a video - and she was miraculous. And every one on EARTH knowns the Coppia Iniqua was in a different key.
Pavarotti called her the greatest voice. He very carefully didn't say the greatest singer. Possessing a voice is one thing. Using it to it's maximum is another. It is like possessing a Stradivarius. It does not automatically make you Jascha Heifetz.
And her singing in this piece is not at all good, 58 or not.
Ariadne7710 I don't think Pavarotti was interested in that whole assoluta bullshit or was educated of that theory by some TH-camr. Claiming someone to be the greatest singer is kinda stupid right? Callas fans love to do that though. Honestly the greatest singer of modern time is Billie Holiday.
Transposing the whole thing just to capture a high D flat wouldn't be a nice idea. I think her coloratura was still amazing, but perhaps that's all.
Even her trills aren't good here, don't sound haunting.
And that stupid tianyang xu you should fuck off. Sutherland's fans would not bash Maria Callas like that, even Sutherland respected Callas. You should get a brain transplant to be more useful to the world.
P.S. Pav did say Callas was the greatest musician, Sutherland was the greatest technician ok ?
Im not sure I would rate Pavarotti so deeply. He was not in Bonynges words "an intellectual singer" and I think he meant what he said about Sutherland. Pavarotti was not a dramatic tenor, his voice was not as heavy or voluminous as his records suggest and he himself knew this. He was the rightful successor to Gigli and di Stefano at his best.
Interesting that you should raise the issue of Billie Holiday. I think in the mid-20th Century, one uniquely emotive and one supremely technically beautiful singer arose in many categories. The unique ones certainly are Callas in opera; Holiday in jazz; Patsy Cline in country, Edith Piaf in international song; Judy Garland in pop; and Janis Joplin in rock. The technically beautiful singers are Sutherland in opera; Ella Fitzgerald in jazz; Loretta Lynn in country; Barbara Streisand in pop; and Cher in rock. I do not think that Piaf had a female counterpart but perhaps Charles Aznavour was the beautiful voice to her emotive involvement. The emotive singers were all both idolized and reviled across their careers for greatness and for ruining, to some extent, their voices. The beautiful singers were great and lasted much longer but never quite reach the ultimate expression possible in the music they sang.
It's too bad that Dame Joan didn't undertake this role fifteen years earlier. Though she transposes the cabaletta down a whole step, she executes the notes accurately. My only problem is with her voice quality, which by this late stage had lost it's brightness, it's fluidity, and it's color. I hear a gray dull sound here, but remember that she was hitting sixty when she sang this. I just wish she had the demonic genius, force, and searing quality of Callas. This is not prime Joan at all.
To be frank, timsuffolk, I am not interested to whom people will be listening to. I tend to listen to the singers whose art I enjoy. As Lauri Volpi stated, for Sutherland the voice was the aim, not a means to achieve the magic of art.
The greatest boring singer, her greatest Opera was La Fille du Regiment with Pavarotti at the Metropolitan Opera where she could be herself and ham it up, loved her in it.
Gimme' a break. If she were British, American or whatever euro race you belong to, you'd be falling over yourself to claim her. But you can't, and never will, because she's ours (Australia's).
She was the most exciting, thrill-inducing singer of all time. The only thing boring is the chorus of her detractors, who preferred sopranos with half her ability.
a mi perdonenme pero leer esas discusiones sobre la callas y sutherland es algo patetico, la sutherland habra durado en escena ma años.pero leio y vi reportajes donde sutherland y su esposo han alabado a la callas , ademas callas ha marcado un antes y un despues, maria era una GRAN ACTRIZ una gran interprete e escena,joan fue una gran soprano con una tecnica superlativa para la coloratura pero escenicamente era bastante elemental
This is atrocious! The coloratura is so laboured that the phrasing becomes ludicrous. And why does she have to finish every single piece the same way?
those were days.... :-( awful dizione, full of imprecisions, the all is covered by sovracuti made just to enchant the audiance! She could have been a great Anna Bolena, if she had the courage to sing it at the right time. Same mistake made by her friend Montserrat Caballè! Amen
I'm a great fan of the young, incomparable, Joan Sutherland and this 1984 recording is proof that she continued to undertake roles for which she was far too old. The voice had developed a wobble and a mushy middle register, ( though she could still manage those difficult high notes)- a world away from her golden age of the 50's and 60's. This is opera at it's most unconvincing and would put off most people unfamiliar with the genre.
Paul Lewis , I dunno, I was captivated by the recording when it first came out. Yes, it was too late, but I’m glad she had a whack at it.
No wobble. No mushy middle. Just bitchy opinions from a YT graduate.
Che noia!
this is horrible, no drama
Coincido contigo y dime si estas de acuerdo con mi comentario! saludos
To old for this. She sould not have done it.
She should have sung this in 1960 - at the proper tempo
Its funny when non singer nobodies like you give suggestions to world class singers like Dame Joan.
Lo siento mucho pero la sra Maria Callas, nunca hizo la carrera respetabilisima larga y de exitos a la edad de la Stupenda, no cantaba ni la cucaracha la Callas.
horrible¡¡ una vergüenza, cambia la partitura y el final¡ sin expresión, solo canto bien un personaje: Clotilde junto a CALLAS¡
Otherwise she's out of tune.
This is like Joan Crawford standing in for her daughter in mommy dearest when her daughter took ill in her acting job. I never owned a piece of Sutherland's music and so proud that i i don't she is so over rated on so many accounts..
Your ignorance is appalling. Sutherland was the greatest dramatic coloratura of the past 60 years. No one who knows anything about great singing would agree with you.She's almost 60 in this role and still had the best technique and high notes of any soprano singing in that period. Listen to her many recordings from the late 50s through the mid 70s and you'll hear a voice so brilliant in its weight, power and beauty you won't believe what you're hearing.
Yawning....................
You must be very lonely
Neither lonely nor homely..:>)
yuk747 I feel sorry for you. You think Meade is better than Joan? You must be Meade's relative to say that.