Joan Sutherland

Sutherland as Haydn's Euridice in Vienna, 1967

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (born 7 November 1926) is an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution in the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.

One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance as Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century", while Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven".

Contents

Early life and career

Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney, Australia, of Scots parents, where she attended St Catherine's School. As a child, she listened to and copied the singing exercises of her mother, a mezzo-soprano who had studied but never considered making a career. Sutherland was 18 when she started studying voice seriously with John and Aida Dickens. She made her concert debut in Sydney, as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, in 1947. In 1951, she made her stage debut in Eugene Goossens's Judith. In 1951, after winning Australia's most important competition, the Sun Aria, she went to London to further her studies at the Opera School of the Royal College of Music with Clive Carey. She was engaged by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as a utility soprano, and made her debut there on 28 October 1952, as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, followed in November by a few performances as Clotilde in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, with Maria Callas as Norma.

During her early career, she was training to be a Wagnerian dramatic soprano, following the steps of Kirsten Flagstad, whom she greatly admired. In December 1952, she sang her first leading role at the Royal Opera House, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera. Other roles included Agathe in Der Freischütz, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Desdemona in Otello, Gilda in Rigoletto, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Pamina in The Magic Flute. In 1953, she sang in Benjamin Britten's Gloriana a few month after its world premiere, and created the role of Jennifer in Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage, on 27 January 1955.

Sutherland married Australian conductor and pianist, Richard Bonynge, on 16 October 1954. They had a son, Adam, born in 1956. Bonynge gradually convinced her that Wagner might not be her Fach after all, since she had such great ease with high notes and coloratura, and that she should perhaps explore the bel canto repertory.

In 1957, she appeared in Handel's Alcina with the Handel Opera Society, and in Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool, in which performances her bel canto potential was clearly demonstrated, vindicating her husband's judgement. The following year she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in Vancouver.

In 1958, at the Royal Opera House, she "stopped the show" with "Let the Bright Seraphim" from Handel's Samson, an exceedingly difficult and demanding aria. The crowd was on its feet for ten minutes and the show came to a stop. It was one of the most extraordinary ovations that house had seen. Her future as a diva at the Royal Opera House seemed assured afterwards.

La Stupenda

In 1959, she was invited to sing Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House in a production conducted by Tullio Serafin and staged by Franco Zeffirelli. The role of Edgardo was sung by her fellow Australian Kenneth Neate, who had replaced the scheduled tenor at short notice.[1] It was a breakthrough for Sutherland's career, and, upon the completion of the famous Mad Scene, she had become a star. In 1960, she recorded the album The Art of the Prima Donna, which remains today one of the most recommended opera albums ever recorded: the double LP set won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance — Vocal Soloist in 1962. The album, a collection consisting mainly of coloratura arias, provides an opportunity to listen to the young Sutherland at the beginning of her international career. It displays her seemingly effortless coloratura ability, high notes and opulent tones, as well as her exemplary trill, by which she is identified and for which she is widely admired.

By the beginning of the 1960s, Sutherland had already established a reputation as a diva with a voice out of the ordinary. She sang Lucia to great acclaim in Paris in 1960 and, in 1961, at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. Also in 1960, she sang a superb Alcina at La Fenice, Venice, where she was nicknamed La Stupenda ("The Stunning One"). Sutherland would soon be praised as La Stupenda in newspapers around the world. Later that year (1960), Sutherland sang Alcina at the Dallas Opera, with which she made her US debut.

Her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on 26 November 1961, when she sang Lucia. After a total of 217 performances in a number of different operas, her last appearance there was on 19 December 1987, when she sang in Il trovatore. During 1978–82 period her relationship with the Met severely deteriorated when Sutherland had to decline the role of Constanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, more than a year before the rehearsals were scheduled to start. The opera house management then declined to stage the operetta The Merry Widow especially for her, as requested; subsequently, she did not perform at the Met during that time at all, even though a production of Rossini's Semiramide had also been planned, but later she returned there to sing in other operas.[2]

During the 1960s, Sutherland had added the greatest heroines of bel canto ("beautiful singing") to her repertoire: Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula and Elvira in Bellini's I puritani in 1960; the title role in Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda in 1961; Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and the title role in Rossini's Semiramide in 1962; Norma in Bellini's Norma and Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare in 1963. In 1966 she added Marie in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, which became one of her most adored roles, because of her perfect coloratura and lively, funny interpretation.

In 1965, Sutherland toured Australia with the Sutherland-Williamson Opera Company. Accompanying her was a young tenor named Luciano Pavarotti, and the tour proved to be a major milestone in Pavarotti's career. Every performance featuring Sutherland sold out.

During the 1970s, Sutherland strove to improve her diction, which had often been criticised, and increase the expressiveness of her interpretations. She continued to add dramatic bel canto roles to her repertoire, such as Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Lucrezia Borgia, as well as Massenet's extremely difficult Esclarmonde, a role that few sopranos attempt. She recorded a very successful Turandot in 1972 under the baton of Zubin Mehta, though she never performed that role on stage.

Sutherland's early recordings show her to be possessed of a crystal-clear voice and excellent diction. However, by the early 1960s her voice lost some of this clarity in the middle register, and she often came under fire for having unclear diction. Some have attributed this to sinus surgery; however, her major sinus surgery was done in 1959, immediately after her breakthrough Lucia at Covent Garden.[3] In fact, her first commercial recording of the first and final scene of Lucia reveals her voice and diction to be just as clear as prior to the sinus procedure. Her husband Richard Bonynge stated in an interview that her "mushy diction" occurred while striving to achieve perfect legato. According to him, it is because she earlier had a very Germanic "un-legato" way of singing.[4] She clearly took the criticism to heart, as, within a few years, her diction improved markedly and she continued to amaze and thrill audiences throughout the world.

In the late 1970s, Sutherland's voice started to decline and her vibrato loosened to an intrusive extent. However, thanks to her vocal agility and solid technique, she continued singing the most difficult roles amazingly well. During the 1980s, she added Anna Bolena, Amalia in I masnadieri and Adriana Lecouvreur to her repertoire, and repeated Esclarmonde at the Royal Opera House performances in November and December 1983. Her last performance was as Marguerite de Valois (Les Huguenots) at the Sydney Opera House in 1990, at the age of 63, where she sang Home Sweet Home for her encore. Her last public appearance, however, took place in a gala performance of Die Fledermaus on New Year's Eve, 1990, at Covent Garden, where she was accompanied by her colleagues Luciano Pavarotti and the mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne.

According to her own words, given in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in 2002[5], her biggest achievement was to sing the title role in Esclarmonde. She considers those performances and recordings her best.

Retirement years

Joan Sutherland in 1990

Since her retirement, Sutherland has made relatively few public appearances, preferring a quiet life at her home in Switzerland. One exception was her 1994 address at a lunch organised by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. In that address, she complained at having to be interviewed by a clerk of Chinese or Indian background when applying to renew her Australian passport. Her comments caused controversy among some sections of the community at the time.[6][7]

Sutherland had a leading role as Mother Rudd in the 1995 comedy film Dad and Dave: On Our Selection opposite Leo McKern and Geoffrey Rush.[8]

In 1997 she published an autobiography, The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland: A Prima Donna's Progress. While it received generally scathing reviews for its literary merits,[9] it does contain a complete list of all her performances, with full cast lists.

In 2002 she appeared at a dinner in London to accept the Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal, and gave an interview to The Guardian in which she lamented the lack of technique in young opera singers, and the dearth of good teachers.[5] She no longer gives master classes herself and when asked why by Italian journalists in May 2007, she replied: "Because I'm 80 years old and I really don't want to have anything to do with opera any more, although I do sit on the juries of singing competitions."[10] The competition that Sutherland has been most closely associated with since her retirement is the Cardiff Singer of the World. She began her regular involvement in the competition in 1993, serving on the jury five consecutive times and later, in 2003, became its patron.[11]

On 3 July 2008, she fell and broke both of her legs while gardening at her home in Switzerland.[12] She is completely recovered and attended the luncheon hosted by Her Majesty The Queen in honour of Members of the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace in 2009.

Honours and awards

During her career and after, Sutherland received many honours and awards.

In 1961, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[13] That year she was also named the Australian of the Year.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 9 June 1975, she was in the first group of people to be named Companions of the Order of Australia (AC) (the order had been created only in February 1975).[14]

She was elevated within the Order of the British Empire from Commander to Dame Commander (DBE) in the New Year's Honours of 1979.[15]

On 29 November 1991, the Queen bestowed on Dame Joan the Order of Merit (OM).[16]

In January 2004 she received the Australia Post Australian Legends Award which honours Australians who have contributed to the Australian identity and culture. Two stamps featuring Joan Sutherland were issued on Australia Day 2004 to mark the award. Later in 2004, she received a Kennedy Center Honor for her outstanding achievement throughout her career.

Sutherland House and the Dame Joan Sutherland Centre, both at St Catherine's School, Sydney, and The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (JSPAC), Penrith, are all named in her honour.[17]

Roles

Joan Sutherland performed live the following complete roles.[18]

Date Composer Work Role House Conductor Director Remarks
Jun-1947 Handel Acis and Galatea Galatea Eastwood Masonic Hall Concert performance
Aug-1947 Purcell Dido and Aeneas Dido Lyceum Club, Sydney Concert performance
15-Jul-1950 Handel Samson Dalila and Israelite woman Sydney Town Hall Concert performance; Sutherland made her professional role debut as the Israelite woman on 14 October 1958
09-Jul-1951 Goossens Judith Judith Sydney Conservatorium of Music Goossens Sutherland's first complete staged opera
16-Jul-1952 Puccini Il tabarro Giorgetta Parry Theatre, RCM Richard Austin Peter Rice/Pauline Elliot
28-Oct-1952 Mozart The Magic Flute First lady ROH, Covent Garden Pritchard Messel Sutherland's professional debut
03-Nov-1952 Verdi Aida High Priestess ROH, Covent Garden Barbirolli Cruddas
08-Nov-1952 Bellini Norma Clotilde ROH, Covent Garden Gui Barlow
29-Dec-1952 Verdi Un ballo in maschera Amelia ROH, Covent Garden Pritchard Barlow/Stone Sutherland's first leading role
24-Feb-1953 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Countess Almaviva ROH tour, Edinburgh J Gibson Gerard
13-May-1953 Strauss Elektra Overseer ROH, Covent Garden Kleiber Lambert
11-Aug-1953 Britten Gloriana Lady Rich ROH tour, Bulawayo
19-Oct-1953 Wagner Die Walküre Helwige ROH, Covent Garden Stiedry Pemberton
02-Nov-1953 Bizet Carmen Frasquita ROH, Covent Garden Pritchard Wakhévitch
04-Feb-1954 Verdi Aida Aida ROH, Covent Garden E Young Cruddas
23-Mar-1954 Weber Der Freischütz Agathe ROH, Covent Garden Downes Furse
30-Apr-1954 Piccinni La buona figliuola Lucinda Mackerras BBC radio broadcast
27-May-1954 Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen Woglinde and Woodbird ROH, Covent Garden Stiedry Hurry Sutherland also sang the role of Helmwige, which she had sung previously; the other dates of the cycle were 2, 8, and 17 June
17-Nov-1954 Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann Antonia ROH, Covent Garden Downes Wakhévitch
27-Jan-1955 Tippett The Midsummer Marriage Jenifer ROH, Covent Garden Pritchard Hepworth World premiere; Sutherland created the role
28-Feb-1955 Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann Giulietta ROH tour, Glasgow Downes Wakhévitch
19-Jun-1955 Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann Olympia ROH, Covent Garden Downes Wakhévitch
30-Sep-1955 Weber Euryanthe Euryanthe Stiedry BBC radio broadcast
30-Oct-1955 Bizet Carmen Micaela ROH, Covent Garden Downes Wakhévitch
11-Mar-1956 Mozart La clemenza di Tito Vitellia Pritchard BBC radio broadcast
10-Nov-1956 Mozart The Magic Flute Pamina ROH, Covent Garden J Gibson Messel
28-Jan-1957 Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Eva ROH, Covent Garden Kubelík Wakhévitch
19-Mar-1957 Handel Alcina Alcina St Pancras Town Hall Farncombe Concert performance; Sutherland first performed this role on stage on 19 February 1960
08-Jun-1957 Verdi Rigoletto Gilda ROH, Covent Garden Downes Gellner
05-Jul-1957 Mozart Der Schauspieldirektor Mme Hertz Glyndebourne Festival Opera Balkwill Rice
16-Aug-1957 Scarlatti Mitridate Eupatore Laodice Appia BBC radio broadcast
08-Sep-1957 Donizetti Emilia di Liverpool Emilia Pritchard BBC radio broadcast
21-Dec-1957 Verdi Otello Desdemona ROH, Covent Garden Downes Wakhévitch
16-Jan-1958 Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites Mme Lidoine ROH, Covent Garden Kubelík Wakhévitch
24-May-1958 Handel Applausus Musicus Temperentia Newstone BBC radio broadcast
26-Jul-1958 Mozart Don Giovanni Donna Anna Vancouver Opera Goldschmidt Maximowna
17-Feb-1959 Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor Lucia ROH, Covent Garden Serafin Zeffirelli This performance marked the beginning of Sutherland's international career
24-Jun-1959 Handel Rodelinda Rodelinda Sadler's Wells Theatre Farncombe Pidcock
08-Jan-1960 Verdi La traviata Violetta Valéry ROH, Covent Garden Santi Fedorovitch
24-May-1960 Bellini I puritani Elvira Glyndebourne Festival Opera Gui Heeley
19-Oct-1960 Bellini La sonnambula Amina ROH, Covent Garden Serafin Sanjust
21-Feb-1961 Bellini Beatrice di Tenda Beatrice New York Town Hall Rescigno Concert performance; Sutherland first performed this role on stage on 10 May 1961
04-Jan-1962 Mozart The Magic Flute The Queen of the Night ROH, Covent Garden Klemperer Eisler
28-May-1962 Meyerbeer Les Huguenots Maguerite de Valois La Scala Gavazzeni Nicola Benois
17-Dec-1962 Rossini Semiramide Semiramide La Scala Santini
20-Jun-1963 Handel Giulio Cesare Cleopatra Sadler's Wells Theatre Farncombe Warre
17-Oct-1963 Bellini Norma Norma Vancouver Opera Bonynge McLance/Mess
09-Mar-1965 Gounod Faust Marguerite Connecticut Opera Bonynge Rome/Brooks van Horne
02-Jun-1966 Donizetti La fille du régiment Marie ROH, Covent Garden Bonynge Anni/Escoffier
10-Apr-1967 Delibes Lakmé Lakmé Seattle Opera Bonynge
21-May-1967 Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Euridice Theater an der Wien Bonynge Ludwig
12-Nov-1971 Donizetti Maria Stuarda Maria Stuarda San Francisco Opera Bonynge Pizzi
26-Oct-1972 Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Vancouver Opera Bonynge Varona
23-Oct-1974 Massenet Esclarmonde Esclarmonde San Francisco Opera Bonynge Montressor
12-Sep-1975 Verdi Il trovatore Leonora San Francisco Opera Bonynge Hager/Skalicki
22-Apr-1976 Lehár The Merry Widow Hanna Glavari Vancouver Opera Bonynge Varona
16-Jul-1977 Puccini Suor Angelica Suor Angelica Sydney Opera House Bonynge Digby
23-Sep-1977 Massenet Le roi de Lahore Sita Vancouver Opera Bonynge Mariani
04-Jul-1979 Mozart Idomeneo Electra Sydney Opera House Bonynge Truscott
02-Jul-1980 Verdi I masnadieri Amalia Sydney Opera House Bonynge Lees/Stennett
22-May-1983 Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur Adriana San Diego Opera Bonynge O'Hearn/Mess
22-Jun-1984 Donizetti Anna Bolena Anna Bolena Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Bonynge Pascoe/Stennett
04-Oct-1985 Thomas Hamlet Ophélie Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Bonynge Shalicki/Digby/Stennett

Recordings

Recordings include:

Vincenzo Bellini
Georges Bizet
Giovanni Battista Bononcini
Léo Delibes
Gaetano Donizetti
Charles Gounod
George Frideric Handel
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Jacques Offenbach
Giacomo Puccini
Gioachino Rossini
Ambroise Thomas
Giuseppe Verdi
Richard Wagner

References

  1. ↑ Martin Cooke: Vale Ken Neate
  2. ↑ Music View: Mystery of Casting at the Met by Donal Henahan, NYT, February 16, 1986
  3. ↑ Joan Sutherland, Russell Braddon, Collins, 1962
  4. ↑ Joan Sutherland talks about high notes—part 2 YouTube clip of a TV interview
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Martin Kettle, 'I didn't want to be a diva', The Guardian, May 8, 2002.
  6. ↑ "Dame Joan Sutherland". Sunday Profile (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 27 March 2005. http://www.abc.net.au/sundayprofile/stories/s1331197.htm. Retrieved 21 December 2007. 
  7. ↑ Hide, Carolyn (1996). "Background Paper 9 1995–96: The Recent Republic Debate—A Chronology". Background Papers published 1995–96. Australian Parliamentary Library. http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bp/1995-96/96bp09.htm. Retrieved 21 December 2007. "7 October 1994 Dame Joan Sutherland addressed a lunch organised by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and said: I was brought up having a British passport and it upsets me that I don't have a British passport now...; When I go to the post office to be interviewed by a Chinese or an Indian—I'm not particularly racist—but I find it ludicrous, when I've had a passport for 40 years." 
  8. ↑ Dad and Dave: On Our Selection at the Internet Movie Database
  9. ↑ "One Long Flat Note", Anthony Clarke, Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 20 December 1997, p. 10
  10. ↑ Alberto Mattioli, 'Big Luciano, un video per la Stupenda Joan', La Stampa, 23 May 2007.
  11. ↑ BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005.
  12. ↑ "Opera legend Joan Sutherland, 81, recovering after breaking both her legs in a fall at home" Daily Mail (7 July 2008)
  13. ↑ It's an Honour: CBE
  14. ↑ It's an Honour: AC
  15. ↑ It's an Honour: DBE
  16. ↑ It's an Honour: OM
  17. ↑ Official web site of The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre
  18. ↑ This list is taken from the complete list of Sutherland's performances up to and including 18 December 1986 on pp. 204–241 of Norma Major's book Joan Sutherland, published 1987

Further reading

External links

2004 Kennedy Center Honorees
Warren Beatty · Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee · Elton John · Joan Sutherland · John Williams