This is nearly flawless singing (and very expressive to boot, those who keep ranting that Sutherland was cold should be ashamed once again) in a treacherously difficult aria that can easily sound like screaming and screeching if sung by a less able voice. And take into consiferation that Sutherland was almost 54 years old when she sang this amazing performance, she had started singing professionally in 1946 in concert, and in 1947 in concert opera performances. That's 33-34 years of lyrical singing, much of it in very tricky and demanging repertory. That's what rock solid vocal chords and amazing technique gets you.
This aria’s range is from Bb3 to Eb6. Very impressively sung by Dame Joan. Present-day singers are all outmatched by the music in this piece. Dame Joan’s coloratura and trills are almost supernatural. I have no idea how she so quickly flies through the ornamentations without sounding wobbly, especially at her age in this clip. We will not see her like for quite some time!
The greatest Lucrezia... perhaps her best role in the latter half of her career. She had the requisite chest tones, agility when needed, and loads of top notes for peak moments in the drama. Lucrezia isn't for every soprano, and is best left alone by most.
Definitive performance… hard to believe, sadly, that THIS was the first video recording/ broadcast of her legendary presence on the operatic stage… so much was lost, thankful for what we have… she’s the pinnacle, the great voice, operatic presence of this and the last century
Not entirely accurate - she appeared in the Met’s Don Giovanni in 1978, several years before this performance. And there is a tape from the New York Tales of Hoffmann that was intended for telecast in 1974. Supposedly, the Met and Richard Bonynge have pristine copies of that tape.
@@wotan10950 Yes, but it was the first broadcast recording that was released to the public…Yes, the Donna Anna from two years before this, and the Hoffmann…not until RUclips and pirated recordings were any of us able to enjoy those things…it’s simply a pity technology wasn’t ready for Joan the twenty years before this Lucrezia( the snippets from television shows in the U S and England are treasures, but not the same as an entire role/production)!
She was always magnificent, but especially in this role and especially in this aria. Thank you for uploading it. An interesting point: Notwithstanding the often ugly critical bias against Richard Bonynge, when this performance premiered more than one critic attacked the orchestra, one accusing them of 'playing like dogs'. (I don't recall the publication.) But that sounded pretty good to me. Or am I mistaken?
Catty critics! I saw her at Covent Garden about a week later and she was even better!!! Bonynge was hated by most of the London critics - pure jealousy. He was a good opera conductor.
Something to always remember, critics rarely get their paycheck unless they're absolute [insert whichever expletive you desire] in their write-ups. Almost their job to deride, sadly - and we tolerate it for some silly reason.
You don't see costumes like this for other sopranos, I can tell you. It must have cost a fortune. She was wise to save this role for her later years when her voice got even bigger and the low notes came into their own. She never forced them but in her last decade strangely her low notes got much stronger and her high notes got bigger and more steely. She could hit Eb easily even this late but D was her real glory note and here her voice was full bodied and at it's most enormous. The Eb was kind of white but still very solid and strong.
Technique for one thing and passion. I was lucky to see Sutherland just a few days later than this gala which I remember watching on the TV live. She was astonishing in the theatre!
Yes. It’s called “singing technique”. 😂 Simple as that! This requires a teacher who knows it, and years of training in foundation skills, like breathing. Sutherland came from a generation when all opera stars had it or they would have been unemployed. I can name few now, maybe in Germany or East Europe. It’s worth remembering that Sutherland was already 33 years old when she “emerged overnight “ in Lucia, after YEARS of training in Australia & London in bit-parts. No ‘stars’ in the last 25 years have this preparation background. Who are the great singing teachers of today? Are there any?? My comment only repeats what Sutherland used to say herself to your question, in every interview.
@@MidnightIsolde OMG! What a difficult question! I could write an essay of speculation about why, and there woud be an avalanche of voice experts & aficionados disagreeing with me. I wish an interviewer had asked Joan Sutherland that. LOL. She always said the same: 1. Singers these days can't breathe properly, and related to that, 2. "there just aren't the singing teachers anymore". Certainly not - teachers like legendary Madame Marchesi don't exist.! (Bonynge was a fluke who taught by the seat of his pants, and teaching Joan Sutherland to sing must've been like teaching a fish to swim 😂.) I am an old man, and one big advantage is that I have heard LIVE most of the greats 1960-2000, including Sutherland numerous times... these were golden times, and they're gone. Divas like Schwartzkopf, Price, Sills, Callas, Caballé, Nillson etc ...these were living legends, larger than life, and I ask, similar to you, why aren't there real DIVAS anymore? Where are they? Why not? How did the gentle, unmistakable art of the English soprano (Elizabeth Harward and her ilk) in the '60s-80s disappear? And with the recent death of Eva POdles, we lost the last and best diva contralto goddess in >100 years. Extinct now. To my mind, the exception to this is Russia and, to a lesser extent, Germany, where old-style discipline, daily training, perfections were expected. It's no coincidence that Marion Anderson, one of the US's very greatest singers, was GERMAN trained 😉. A good legato was a hallmark of the best trained German sopranos through sheer training and discipline, like Gundula Janowitz, and they are still there in the German houses... men too like baritone Boesch. Mastersingers. In Russia, there are a few singers more recently who are still fine products of good-old fashioned powerful Russian vocal training ... just one example is the glorious Ekatarina Semenchuk. Go hear her. Russian as caviar ❤️‼️OMG! And the men, too. So it's not lost, there's enough to salvage. 🤞🏻
Голос -свекающий брилиант, таких больше не будет. ВОСТОГ ЕЩЕ И ЕЩЕ ВОСТОРГ. ЗАГУБИЛИ ТАКОГО ЧЕЛОВЕКА-ТАЛАНТ, ублюдки-мужики, использовавшие любовь и привязанность такой ЖЕНЩИНЫ. Кровь ее души никогда не смоется с них.
I adore Sutherland, always have; however, she never, even in the 70s, could sing the final E flat securely. It always ended up a short scream -- probably because of all the difficult fioritura before it. Still, magnificent and no one like her.
@@williamparsons8535this poor dude apparently knows zip about singing. Accusing sopranos of screaming high notes is a favorite comment. He says the same thing about Devia’s great high D at end of Roberto Devereaux from 2015 (when she nailed the entire finale at age 67!).
![ROSÉ (로제) - number one girl [더 시즌즈-이영지의 레인보우] | KBS 241129 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A9oByH9Ci24/mqdefault.jpg)
This is nearly flawless singing (and very expressive to boot, those who keep ranting that Sutherland was cold should be ashamed once again) in a treacherously difficult aria that can easily sound like screaming and screeching if sung by a less able voice. And take into consiferation that Sutherland was almost 54 years old when she sang this amazing performance, she had started singing professionally in 1946 in concert, and in 1947 in concert opera performances. That's 33-34 years of lyrical singing, much of it in very tricky and demanging repertory. That's what rock solid vocal chords and amazing technique gets you.
This aria’s range is from Bb3 to Eb6. Very impressively sung by Dame Joan. Present-day singers are all outmatched by the music in this piece. Dame Joan’s coloratura and trills are almost supernatural. I have no idea how she so quickly flies through the ornamentations without sounding wobbly, especially at her age in this clip. We will not see her like for quite some time!
A treasure to be cherished, well shared and yet guarded
I was actually at this performance (my proper introduction to opera!!) It left an indelible impression on me.
The greatest Lucrezia... perhaps her best role in the latter half of her career. She had the requisite chest tones, agility when needed, and loads of top notes for peak moments in the drama. Lucrezia isn't for every soprano, and is best left alone by most.
I agree. I’ve heard tapes of Caballe, Sills, Devia - all of whom I admire very much - but Sutherland really owned this role.
Ah La Stupenda!!!
Perfección!!!!
Davvero splendida!
Sutherland was one of my favorite opera singer. She was awesome.
I absolutely love her rendition of this aria. Thank you.
Definitive performance… hard to believe, sadly, that THIS was the first video recording/ broadcast of her legendary presence on the operatic stage… so much was lost, thankful for what we have… she’s the pinnacle, the great voice, operatic presence of this and the last century
Not entirely accurate - she appeared in the Met’s Don Giovanni in 1978, several years before this performance. And there is a tape from the New York Tales of Hoffmann that was intended for telecast in 1974. Supposedly, the Met and Richard Bonynge have pristine copies of that tape.
@@wotan10950 Yes, but it was the first broadcast recording that was released to the public…Yes, the Donna Anna from two years before this, and the Hoffmann…not until RUclips and pirated recordings were any of us able to enjoy those things…it’s simply a pity technology wasn’t ready for Joan the twenty years before this Lucrezia( the snippets from television shows in the U S and England are treasures, but not the same as an entire role/production)!
Maravillosa interpretación.!!
She was always magnificent, but especially in this role and especially in this aria. Thank you for uploading it. An interesting point: Notwithstanding the often ugly critical bias against Richard Bonynge, when this performance premiered more than one critic attacked the orchestra, one accusing them of 'playing like dogs'. (I don't recall the publication.) But that sounded pretty good to me. Or am I mistaken?
It's fantastic playing
Catty critics! I saw her at Covent Garden about a week later and she was even better!!! Bonynge was hated by most of the London critics - pure jealousy. He was a good opera conductor.
@@ahogbin2644 I think a lot of people have been biased because of Bonynge's private life.
Something to always remember, critics rarely get their paycheck unless they're absolute [insert whichever expletive you desire] in their write-ups. Almost their job to deride, sadly - and we tolerate it for some silly reason.
Strepitosa a dir poco la più grande belcantista del 900
You don't see costumes like this for other sopranos, I can tell you. It must have cost a fortune. She was wise to save this role for her later years when her voice got even bigger and the low notes came into their own. She never forced them but in her last decade strangely her low notes got much stronger and her high notes got bigger and more steely. She could hit Eb easily even this late but D was her real glory note and here her voice was full bodied and at it's most enormous. The Eb was kind of white but still very solid and strong.
E Bellissima e Super a Per Sempre..
I dont know what that is, but today's opera performer just seem to be missing something the past generation has.
Technique for one thing and passion. I was lucky to see Sutherland just a few days later than this gala which I remember watching on the TV live. She was astonishing in the theatre!
Yes. It’s called “singing technique”. 😂 Simple as that!
This requires a teacher who knows it, and years of training in foundation skills, like breathing. Sutherland came from a generation when all opera stars had it or they would have been unemployed. I can name few now, maybe in Germany or East Europe.
It’s worth remembering that Sutherland was already 33 years old when she “emerged overnight “ in Lucia, after YEARS of training in Australia & London in bit-parts. No ‘stars’ in the last 25 years have this preparation background.
Who are the great singing teachers of today? Are there any??
My comment only repeats what Sutherland used to say herself to your question, in every interview.
@@theon9575why do you think this chain of knowledge on singing was lost?
@@MidnightIsolde OMG! What a difficult question! I could write an essay of speculation about why, and there woud be an avalanche of voice experts & aficionados disagreeing with me.
I wish an interviewer had asked Joan Sutherland that. LOL. She always said the same: 1. Singers these days can't breathe properly, and related to that, 2. "there just aren't the singing teachers anymore". Certainly not - teachers like legendary Madame Marchesi don't exist.! (Bonynge was a fluke who taught by the seat of his pants, and teaching Joan Sutherland to sing must've been like teaching a fish to swim 😂.)
I am an old man, and one big advantage is that I have heard LIVE most of the greats 1960-2000, including Sutherland numerous times... these were golden times, and they're gone. Divas like Schwartzkopf, Price, Sills, Callas, Caballé, Nillson etc ...these were living legends, larger than life, and I ask, similar to you, why aren't there real DIVAS anymore? Where are they? Why not? How did the gentle, unmistakable art of the English soprano (Elizabeth Harward and her ilk) in the '60s-80s disappear? And with the recent death of Eva POdles, we lost the last and best diva contralto goddess in >100 years. Extinct now.
To my mind, the exception to this is Russia and, to a lesser extent, Germany, where old-style discipline, daily training, perfections were expected. It's no coincidence that Marion Anderson, one of the US's very greatest singers, was GERMAN trained 😉. A good legato was a hallmark of the best trained German sopranos through sheer training and discipline, like Gundula Janowitz, and they are still there in the German houses... men too like baritone Boesch. Mastersingers.
In Russia, there are a few singers more recently who are still fine products of good-old fashioned powerful Russian vocal training ... just one example is the glorious Ekatarina Semenchuk. Go hear her. Russian as caviar ❤️‼️OMG! And the men, too.
So it's not lost, there's enough to salvage. 🤞🏻
Голос -свекающий брилиант, таких больше не будет. ВОСТОГ ЕЩЕ И ЕЩЕ ВОСТОРГ. ЗАГУБИЛИ ТАКОГО ЧЕЛОВЕКА-ТАЛАНТ, ублюдки-мужики, использовавшие любовь и привязанность такой ЖЕНЩИНЫ. Кровь ее души никогда не смоется с них.
Per il finale preferisco la versione di/con Mariella Devia
I don't remember if Adalgisa
was played by Teresa Berganza. Both were supreme.
Adalgisa was Norma’s cleaning lady, not Lucrezia’s.
Probably. And Nellie Melba sang Clorinda.
...and with the thud of that massive bouquet, the end 😂
Inascoltabile 😭😭😭
I adore Sutherland, always have; however, she never, even in the 70s, could sing the final E flat securely. It always ended up a short scream -- probably because of all the difficult fioritura before it. Still, magnificent and no one like her.
Excuse me, but, that was a secure E flat to my ears.
@@williamparsons8535this poor dude apparently knows zip about singing. Accusing sopranos of screaming high notes is a favorite comment. He says the same thing about Devia’s great high D at end of Roberto Devereaux from 2015 (when she nailed the entire finale at age 67!).