The way she hit the high E in “I vespri siciliani” was vocal perfection. I find myself listening to the part over and over as I cannot believe the ease with which she reached the note. She does not sound strained nor does she miss the note as many other singers do.
I have posted this elsewhere on RUclips,so I won't repeat all of it,and bore you. Suffice it to say,I worked at Covent garden(in the Opera Wardrobe) and have been lucky enough to hear Joan sing(I stood in the wings)on many occasions.(I am 77 now) During most performances the wings were practically empty,but not when Joan was singing.People from the whole theatre crowded in to say they had been there,and heard her. She was actually quite a modest person. One night she came through the wings after singing "Quando rapito in estasi".She saw a group of us(who looked seriously gobsmacked) and said "not bad was it?" What can I say.She was always friendly,caring,and also had quite a risque sense of humour. I have really happy memories of Joan's time at Covent Garden.
Pure vocal porn!! The earlier high notes are wonderfully pure. The high-E from 1971, when her voice had matured, is absolutely colossal, like a tidal wave. I had the great fortune of seeing her in some of her great roles at the Met (and recitals in Brooklyn and Buffalo); this wasn't an engineering trick - she could take that oceanic sound right up to stratosphere with apparent ease.
He is absolutely right. I saw her several times in Chicago including Semiramide, Lucia, and Daughter of the Regiment. Her immense high E-flats and Es just filled the house like a tidal wave of sound.
I attended a Peace concert at the Sydney Opera House during the 70s featuring some of the great virtuosi of that period. I was seated feet away from the stage. Fittingly, Dame Joan was the final performer. She appeared to rapturous applause before singing unaccompanied, displaying her great power and range in what might fairly be described as a vocal exercise. I could feel her mighty voice vibrating inside my chest in the most astonishing reaction I've ever had to the human voice. Indeed, it seemed super human. I shall never forget it.
Absolutely incredible! Saw her at the Met in Lucia and La Fille du Regiment. Had the ceiling actually been brought down, I would have died happy! When I learned of her passing, I cried for 30 mins. Can't listen to her recordings w/o tears! Always refer to her high notes as " a Joanie Note ".
You are so right ; nothing else compares to her recordings (both versions) of “La Traviata”,”Rigoletto”,”Lucia Di Lammermor” etc. If only she had recorded Aida,Tosca,Butterfly and Mimi ; then I would not need to listen to any other soprano.Having said that,I do love Leontyne Price ; her “Tosca” is second to none.Sounds like you and I have identical taste.Have a happy life.
george prentice Oh, I so concur with your love of this amazing singer .... and I had the pleasure of knowing and studying with her first teachers, John & Aida Dickens here in Melbourne in the very early 1970's ... and I heard a lot about Joan. I met her later of course, on a number of occasions - just gobsmacked by her performances naturally, but precious one on one time spent together gave me the exquisite joy of just some private conversation and to experience her grace - as a lovely gentle woman who served music. She truly was La Stupenda! George, I simply loved her.
+Chris Ryan You must have a some good stories to tell about that! Bonynge apparently had no use for the Dickens's, nor does one ever hear either Bonynge or Sutherland mention their names. They were gearing her to be a Wagner singer. At any rate, I met both Bonynge and Sutherland as well - she was very gracious, although not particularly warm - while he was very kind and chatty, and I spoke with him for nearly an hour.
But she was not treated that way in the years she was active. There was constant carping from the critics that her admittedly less than clear diction was such an insurmountable problem-rediculous in the overemphasis. But worse of all were the insistent comparisons to Callas, which continued long after that great diva had retired. Sutherland was constantly compared negatively to Callas instead of being valued for her own particular strengths which today are recognized as many and invaluable-
@@photo161 Not entirely correct although there were different camps of preference. She was created Dame of the British Empire which is the female equivalent of a knighthood. She had her memorial service in Westminster Abbey where the British crown their kings and queens. The heir to the throne was a celebrant. She was admired all over the world particularly America. It should be noted that when both artists were in their prime there were many other very gifted sopranos around at the same time. Look them up. Sutherland was admired by them also and they worked together often.
Her voice never ceases to thrill. Noone, but noone, sings like that today. Some can hit the high notes but not consistently with such purity of tone and absolute control. Wonderful. Thanks so much for posting.
Extraordinary Joan. Music, no matter how fiendishly difficult held no terrors for her. I get annoyed when people try to denigrate her when comparing to Maria Callas - they were very different artists with their own unique talent.
She was absolutely incredible in performance and recordings. I heard her at the Met, Covent Garden, and Chicago Lyric and she was always stunning. She was also very sensitive to her public. After one performance at the Met [Sonnambula] on a very cold winter night, a very large group waited outside the stage doors to try to get a closeup glimpse of her. After about half an hour [it was close to zero degrees] only four of us were left and we had just talked about leaving when the door opened and someone said "Miss Sutherland wonders if you would like to have tea with her?" We were escorted to her dressing room and spent almost an hour talking with her and Bonynge [and having tea]. The other three who had waited were voice students at Juillard and she was quite good with them in answering questions about vocal performance. I was "just" a fan but she paid attention to me as well which showed her great modesty and caring for her public.
@@robertn800Historians are talking to each other. Anybody who heard them knows the truth. At the age one debuted the other was basically finished. The facts contradict the historians who were and are obsessed with one’s ridiculous life and abuse of her instrument. How amazing she must have been to completely fall apart at 35.
One of them certainly....maybe the greatest dramatic coloratura...but there are so many great singers of many genres that it's nearly impossible to make that determination.
I had the privilege of seeing her in performance only once, in the re-premiere of Massenet's "Esclarmonde." In the brief ""Esprits de l'air, esprits de l'onde! Obéissez-moi!"" she only goes up to a high D, but it is a perfect high D. The later Decca recording captures only some of the amazement here.
+jmiller05 You are extremely correct in your comment here that Joan is supreme. But are you and Lohengrin o and Lohengrin Th really being truthful that Callas is LIGHT years ahead of Joan in voice. Do youeven know what a light year is? A light year is 6 trillion miles. As much as you love Callas, she is not 6,000,000,000,000 times better than Joan vocally. Dont exaggerate. And you said Trillions, so are you saying 12,000,000,,000,000 times better than Joan if you mean 2 trillion?. YOu better learn your vocabulary before making outragioius statements.A light year is a a 6 follow by 16 zeros. Even if Callas is better than even singer who ever live all combine, she would not be 1,000,000 times better every singer who went before her. So to be valid, don't exaggerate yourself to the extent of being mathematically impossible. Since the Earth to get blast by an shooting star tomorrow is only about 1 in a 10,000,000,0000, 12,000,000,000,0000 is out of reach..
+Vette gaddia Oh honestly! You are over the top! How does one measure taste in mathematical terms? Some people enjoy Callas, some enjoy Sutherland. The well-adjusted fans enjoy the artistry of BOTH.
Thanks for posting these incredible moments! She brings such a wonderful weight to her high notes and then, of course, her coloratura work is impeccable.
Richard said the difference between her and many sopranos (one of many) was her voice did not thin out at the top, so she was able to hit those notes and sustain them.
The 1963 was recorded in Florence, and the pitch of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra is famously, and ridiculously high. All the Decca/London recordings from the early 60s are afflicted with insanely high pitch;. All the Ebs in the first Sonnambula are closer to E natural, for example. BTW, even though it takes Joan a few seconds to get to her full sound in the final example (the Lucia Act II duet), I find that one of the most exciting scenes ever recorded. Ave, Stupenda!
You have a few E-flats thrown in there, but I don't care. It's enormous fun & thanks for pulling it together. The final excerpt with Milnes is, of course, my favorite of all time. Dramatic on an E-natural? You betcha. May Dessay and all her fellow screechy twisty birds eat their hearts out.
The "Spargi di pianto" in her 1959 opera arias was transposed to an E natural. I read they were thinking of taking it to F as Donizetti wrote it. It would have been quite a legacy if she recorded with high F.
@@herrbrucvald6376 That's nice, but those of us with absolute pitch will agree and disagree with both of you. A few of the clips here seem to be sped up or slowed down in the transition from analog to digital recording. What machovoce is referring to most likely is the noticeable difference between most of the clips from the Lucia and the two Bellini clips. They are a quarter-tone flatter than the other clips, which why your piano is showing it as not quite going down to E flat...but it's not quite A 1318 (or "A6")
O she delivers those high notes and fioriture with such sprightly panache such verve and conviction such brilliance and beauty so distinctive in tone and timbre.... If only the rest of her Artistry and instrument was on that level she would have been...
Joan have two different E's: the early career - which is more pure, some sounded as a F (ex. Semiramide 1962 Scala, La Cambiale... 1962 studio) and the later career - which have more drama, weight, sometimes confounded with Eb's because of the vibrato (ex. Lucia's 1961 Edinburgh, studio; Beatrice 1966). Stupendous huge and powerful notes, only heard from Joan Sutherland and no one else ;)
MAS DE 40 AÑOS CANTAN DO ASI.................YA TIENE..................VALOR..............INSUPERABLE....DE PODER SER CRITICADO..............................SI DE JOVEN ERA LA HOSTIA.....DE MAYOR ERA MAS QUE LA HOSTIA......................ERA................LA CUSPIDE DEL SONIDO MAS HERMOSO Y PODEROSO...............Y ADEMAS ENCANTADOR...........TAREA DIFICIL PARA UNA SOPRANO DE SUPER COLORATURA DRAMATICA SIN PARANGON.............NI LIMITES..............Y SIN LIMITES.............CON TODO EL CALOR DE LA HERMOSURA DE QUIEN SABE DAR ........LO MEJOR DE SI MISMO....................ESTA MUJER ERA LA HOSTIA.......EN ESPAÑOL SIGNIFICA...............LO MAS............JODIDAMENTE HABLANDO.........................
The high notes from the 1959 Lucia and the 1963 Puritani are E flats. They are high-pitched but they are not E's - compare them to the other E's in this collection and you will hear the difference. Thank you for the upload, it is great!
Went to the exhibition at Covent Garden.............beautiful costumes and wigs.....just amazing. And to see her mannequins - bloody hell, she really was tall!
@Richiesutherland Thank you for writing! This is the first convincing explanation I've heard for the weird pitch issues in the 1963 Puritani. Agreed about the 1971 Lucia: Thrilling.
I totally agree with the previous comment! Hearing recordings of the great Dame Joan got me into the world of operas. I was at the final performance at Covent Garden..... “ they don’t make them like that anymore “. They broke the mold
Yes, the Maggio Musicale recordings are high, and Vienna Philhamonic was playing at A=445 (or somewhere around there) in those days as well, which is why Franco Corelli opted to sing "Di quella pira" in B at his famous Salzburg performance of Il Trovatore. And yet to the early Sutherland it didn't seem to make a lick of difference!
+eoselan7 ... no offense taken.... there is of course nobody like Joan, but I meant that Mariela Devia, after Sutherland also has beautiful high notes!
I agree, and I'm one of Sutherland's biggest fans. I've never thought Devia's voice was near as beautiful, or her coloratura anywhere near as brilliant, but I'll give her her a thumbs up for her brilliant high notes.
Many of these are E-flats, not E-naturals. She did sing a good number E-naturals early in her career, but shortly thereafter, she didn't really like singing anything above an E-natural.
I had forgotten how ridiculous the ‘Lucia’ duet is in that key. No doubt they had some arcane excuse to raise it, the purpose being solely to let S. and M. do their thing.
Is there any way that you could post a recording of Se Tradirmi with Sherrill Milnes and Joan Sutherland? I really like that recording :) If it is a bother don't worry about it.
Original key is somewhat misleading. Concert pitch rose over time, so the high E's and F's of Mozart's time were lower than today. Lucia's high notes, in the key of F, were a bit lower as well when it was originally performed. I believe it is possible to sing a piece of music in various keys and still end up with a pleasing result. Some keys are more sombre etc, so keys that obviously belie the intended mood or atmosphere should be avoided.
In this case soprano high E natural is the top note of soprano vocal range. Or E above the treble clef E6 which is the 6th E starting with the left end of the piano going up 6 octave. Most Soprano's have high C,,,some can sing higher, but C is regarded as essential if you want to sing Soprano.
Magnificent, but her money notes were D6 in my opinion. They were the biggest and the most full sounding: e.g. the end of the trio in Norma in 64 and her big scene from Maria Stuarda from 74 when her voice had matured. It was maybe her biggest note:ruclips.net/video/543JUMzjfIU/видео.html
esto lo escuchamos por ordenador......pero no tiene nada que ver con las cintas de cassettes....y los vinilos.....donde este sonido es mas real y superior....
And Taylor Swift just became a billionaire… the true talents like Sutherland are other worldly … I’m sure we will hear her in heaven….. with the composers of the past writing new and wonderful music for us to listen to ..
I'm not a Sutherland fan so I may sound biased here, but the truth must be told. She hits an E natural in Merce dilette amiche (not written in the score) but she choses to omit the low notes that are written in the score even though she had a much larger, darker and heavier voice than a typical coloratura so one wonders why she doesn't sing the low notes (she did the same in Mozart's Vorrei spiegarvi oh Dio where she refused to sing both the high E AND the low notes). Then when she made the complete recording of Lakmé for Decca she transposed the whole Bell Song, hitting only high Eb, thus changing the entire score and ignoring Delibes' intentions. This would be perhaps acceptable for a recital but not when you record the entire opera with the best possible cast. Compared to other coloratura sopranos she has a very poor record of hitting high E natural (much less high F) and that for someone who is often called the greatest coloratura soprano who has ever lived. She never sang Zerbinetta (because she couldn't) nor did she sing the Queen of Night in the original key on stage. You can clearly hear that high E natural is the very limit of her voice and that she cannot do much with this note other than produce it as loud as possible. Gruberova in her prime had total control in the upper register and her voice was equally powerful above the staff as Sutherland's (not so much in the medium and low registers). Plus Gruberova didn't limit herself to singing notes but she gave meaning to her coloratura. So for me personally Gruberova is the greatest, not Sutherland. Just my opinion.
Zerbinetta is a soubrette role. Sutherland could have sung it but she would have sounded ridiculous. And I heard Gruberova and Sutherland live. Gruberova sounded like Minnie Mouse by comparison and her voice was somewhat ugly when she unleashed any volume at all. They were not comparable singers.
To me, the E6 is the absolute limit of the female voice. And D6 for the male voice. ex: Spyres' E6 is garbage. Higher notes are just ugly, inartistic, and meaningless...crass athletics. And I had thought some of these were E-flats! Wow! Sutherland = divine
voy a decir una vulgaridad...pero me da igual.......cuando canta joan sutherland.....vayanse al carajo las demas cantantes de opera.............lo siento..mil perdones...........pero lo siento asi ........con todos mis respetos a las demas....pero ella era simplemente lo mas de lo mas.....desde mi punto de vista........y lo defendere hasta que alguien me convenza de lo contrario.....cosa que dudo.........
La Stupenda. One in a million. Dame Sutherland you are sorely missed.
The way she hit the high E in “I vespri siciliani” was vocal perfection. I find myself listening to the part over and over as I cannot believe the ease with which she reached the note. She does not sound strained nor does she miss the note as many other singers do.
And as an attack! Pure liquid gold to my ears!
I have posted this elsewhere on RUclips,so I won't repeat all of it,and bore you.
Suffice it to say,I worked at Covent garden(in the Opera Wardrobe) and have been lucky enough to hear Joan sing(I stood in the wings)on many occasions.(I am 77 now)
During most performances the wings were practically empty,but not when Joan was singing.People from the whole theatre crowded in to say they had been there,and heard her.
She was actually quite a modest person.
One night she came through the wings after singing "Quando rapito in estasi".She saw a group of us(who looked seriously gobsmacked) and said "not bad was it?"
What can I say.She was always friendly,caring,and also had quite a risque sense of humour.
I have really happy memories of Joan's time at Covent Garden.
My favorite opera singer
Pure vocal porn!! The earlier high notes are wonderfully pure. The high-E from 1971, when her voice had matured, is absolutely colossal, like a tidal wave. I had the great fortune of seeing her in some of her great roles at the Met (and recitals in Brooklyn and Buffalo); this wasn't an engineering trick - she could take that oceanic sound right up to stratosphere with apparent ease.
Dave Glo I just love the term Vocal Porn,I must remember that.Thank You.
He is absolutely right. I saw her several times in Chicago including Semiramide, Lucia, and Daughter of the Regiment. Her immense high E-flats and Es just filled the house like a tidal wave of sound.
You were lucky!!
@@wilsonwatt9283 And she sounded as though she could keep climbing!!!
I attended a Peace concert at the Sydney Opera House during the 70s featuring some of the great virtuosi of that period. I was seated feet away from the stage. Fittingly, Dame Joan was the final performer. She appeared to rapturous applause before singing unaccompanied, displaying her great power and range in what might fairly be described as a vocal exercise. I could feel her mighty voice vibrating inside my chest in the most astonishing reaction I've ever had to the human voice. Indeed, it seemed super human. I shall never forget it.
Absolutely incredible! Saw her at the Met in Lucia and La Fille du Regiment. Had the ceiling actually been brought down, I would have died happy! When I learned of her passing, I cried for 30 mins. Can't listen to her recordings w/o tears! Always refer to her high notes as " a Joanie Note ".
The last one is the most addicting, I could spend a whole hour listening to it
The 3:41 one is astounding. You can hear it in the venue, resonating off every surface and overwhelming every other sound. It it miraculous.
Without a doubt the greatest voice (of any type) of the twentieth century. Thank God for all her recordings.
You are so right ; nothing else compares to her recordings (both versions) of “La Traviata”,”Rigoletto”,”Lucia Di Lammermor” etc.
If only she had recorded Aida,Tosca,Butterfly and Mimi ; then I would not need to listen to any other soprano.Having said that,I
do love Leontyne Price ; her “Tosca” is second to none.Sounds like you and I have identical taste.Have a happy life.
Maybe in your opinion.
Feisenbach ,True enough but I see myself as a very satisfied customer,deriving infinite pleasure from Dame Joan’s recordings.
She was THE SUPREME GLORY of Opera
george prentice Oh, I so concur with your love of this amazing singer .... and I had the pleasure of knowing and studying with her first teachers, John & Aida Dickens here in Melbourne in the very early 1970's ... and I heard a lot about Joan. I met her later of course, on a number of occasions - just gobsmacked by her performances naturally, but precious one on one time spent together gave me the exquisite joy of just some private conversation and to experience her grace - as a lovely gentle woman who served music. She truly was La Stupenda! George, I simply loved her.
+Chris Ryan You must have a some good stories to tell about that! Bonynge apparently had no use for the Dickens's, nor does one ever hear either Bonynge or Sutherland mention their names. They were gearing her to be a Wagner singer. At any rate, I met both Bonynge and Sutherland as well - she was very gracious, although not particularly warm - while he was very kind and chatty, and I spoke with him for nearly an hour.
Chris Ryan Thank you for your memories!!
But she was not treated that way in the years she was active. There was constant carping from the critics that her admittedly less than clear diction was such an insurmountable problem-rediculous in the overemphasis. But worse of all were the insistent comparisons to Callas, which continued long after that great diva had retired. Sutherland was constantly compared negatively to Callas instead of being valued for her own particular strengths which today are recognized as many and invaluable-
@@photo161 Not entirely correct although there were different camps of preference. She was created Dame of the British Empire which is the female equivalent of a knighthood. She had her memorial service in Westminster Abbey where the British crown their kings and queens. The heir to the throne was a celebrant. She was admired all over the world particularly America. It should be noted that when both artists were in their prime there were many other very gifted sopranos around at the same time. Look them up. Sutherland was admired by them also and they worked together often.
The studio "Bel raggio" E6's from "The Art of the Prima Donna" CD are my favorite.
diana ventura i love those too
Her voice never ceases to thrill. Noone, but noone, sings like that today. Some can hit the high notes but not consistently with such purity of tone and absolute control. Wonderful. Thanks so much for posting.
She had the most spectacular upper extension of any singer in the (recorded) history of opera.
Extraordinary Joan. Music, no matter how fiendishly difficult held no terrors for her. I get annoyed when people try to denigrate her when comparing to Maria Callas - they were very different artists with their own unique talent.
I love LA STUPENDA ❤
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Extremely good. Live long and prosper.
Joan Sutherland forever number 1
Actually Number 2 💩
@@robertn800only to deaf people who buy into myths.
Incredible voice! Taught Pavarotti how to use his stomach muscles in singing after they had performed at Coventry Garden together.
She was absolutely incredible in performance and recordings. I heard her at the Met, Covent Garden, and Chicago Lyric and she was always stunning. She was also very sensitive to her public. After one performance at the Met [Sonnambula] on a very cold winter night, a very large group waited outside the stage doors to try to get a closeup glimpse of her. After about half an hour [it was close to zero degrees] only four of us were left and we had just talked about leaving when the door opened and someone said "Miss Sutherland wonders if you would like to have tea with her?" We were escorted to her dressing room and spent almost an hour talking with her and Bonynge [and having tea]. The other three who had waited were voice students at Juillard and she was quite good with them in answering questions about vocal performance. I was "just" a fan but she paid attention to me as well which showed her great modesty and caring for her public.
Joan Sutherland una voce che ti fa innamorare !!!!!!!!!!!! Bravaaaa!!!!!!!!
più unica che rara! bravissima. tecnica perfetta, sul palcoscenico incedeva come una danzatrice,che ricordi meravigliosi ha destato in me !
The fact that both Pavarotti and Domingo singled her out as the greatest soprano of all time really says it all.I agree with them.Thanks.
Opera Historians disagree 📖
The fact they said that , knowing how it would ruffle feathers, but said it anyway, is significant.
@@robertn800Historians are talking to each other. Anybody who heard them knows the truth. At the age one debuted the other was basically finished. The facts contradict the historians who were and are obsessed with one’s ridiculous life and abuse of her instrument. How amazing she must have been to completely fall apart at 35.
Stupenda for sure!
Simply the greatest and over 40+ years!
Incredible, glorious woman!
so bright and clear and she makes it sound effortless
The greatest singer in history!!!
One of them certainly....maybe the greatest dramatic coloratura...but there are so many great singers of many genres that it's nearly impossible to make that determination.
NO
Completamente de acuerdo con vos la Numero 1.
Senza confini...senza limiti..oltre tempo!
Her voice is so beautiful
I had the privilege of seeing her in performance only once, in the re-premiere of Massenet's "Esclarmonde." In the brief ""Esprits de l'air, esprits de l'onde! Obéissez-moi!"" she only goes up to a high D, but it is a perfect high D. The later Decca recording captures only some of the amazement here.
A lightning bolt of vocal beauty.
+jmiller05 You are extremely correct in your comment here that Joan is supreme. But are you and Lohengrin o and Lohengrin Th really being truthful that Callas is LIGHT years ahead of Joan in voice.
Do youeven know what a light year is? A
light year is 6 trillion miles. As much as you love Callas, she is not 6,000,000,000,000 times better than Joan vocally. Dont exaggerate. And you said Trillions, so are you saying 12,000,000,,000,000 times better than Joan if you mean 2 trillion?. YOu better learn your vocabulary before making outragioius statements.A light year is a a 6 follow by 16 zeros. Even if Callas is better than even singer who ever live all combine, she would not be 1,000,000 times better every singer who went before her. So to be valid, don't exaggerate yourself to the extent of being mathematically impossible. Since the Earth to get blast by an shooting star tomorrow is only about 1 in a 10,000,000,0000, 12,000,000,000,0000 is out of reach..
+Vette gaddia gosh dude, you have way too much time on your hands.
jmiller05 I'm not a dude. I'm a woman. And I do have time on my hands since I'm semi retired as a vocal coach and only giving private lessons.
+Vette gaddia Oh honestly! You are over the top! How does one measure taste in mathematical terms? Some people enjoy Callas, some enjoy Sutherland. The well-adjusted fans enjoy the artistry of BOTH.
Dave Glo I enjoy them both, but to put a singer a trillion times better than another is taking exaggeration to the utmost limit. Happy New Year!
Thanks for posting these incredible moments! She brings such a wonderful weight to her high notes and then, of course, her coloratura work is impeccable.
Richard said the difference between her and many sopranos (one of many) was her voice did not thin out at the top, so she was able to hit those notes and sustain them.
Her first one was CRAZY! I loved it
The 1963 was recorded in Florence, and the pitch of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra is famously, and ridiculously high. All the Decca/London recordings from the early 60s are afflicted with insanely high pitch;. All the Ebs in the first Sonnambula are closer to E natural, for example. BTW, even though it takes Joan a few seconds to get to her full sound in the final example (the Lucia Act II duet), I find that one of the most exciting scenes ever recorded. Ave, Stupenda!
Que belleza de agudos y sobre agudos limpios cristalinos, maravillosa voz!!!
You have a few E-flats thrown in there, but I don't care. It's enormous fun & thanks for pulling it together. The final excerpt with Milnes is, of course, my favorite of all time. Dramatic on an E-natural? You betcha. May Dessay and all her fellow screechy twisty birds eat their hearts out.
The "Spargi di pianto" in her 1959 opera arias was transposed to an E natural. I read they were thinking of taking it to F as Donizetti wrote it. It would have been quite a legacy if she recorded with high F.
No, these are all climatic E6s as advertised. I tested on my piano.
@@herrbrucvald6376 That's nice, but those of us with absolute pitch will agree and disagree with both of you. A few of the clips here seem to be sped up or slowed down in the transition from analog to digital recording. What machovoce is referring to most likely is the noticeable difference between most of the clips from the Lucia and the two Bellini clips. They are a quarter-tone flatter than the other clips, which why your piano is showing it as not quite going down to E flat...but it's not quite A 1318 (or "A6")
Grazie dame Sutherland per queste meraviglie
I dare to say there was no
soprano that could sing better
than Joan Sutherland in the
20th century.
Or ever
@@suzyschwarz7023For pure singing that is correct. She sounds like science fiction in her prime.
O she delivers those high notes and fioriture with such sprightly panache such verve and conviction such brilliance and beauty so distinctive in tone and timbre.... If only the rest of her Artistry and instrument was on that level she would have been...
no casi en you tube no escucho a Sutherland ni a la Callas, pero por Dios el canto de Sutherland debo admitir es mas puro, puro lirismo e insuperable.
cierto
QUE DIOS TE BENDIGA................O LOS DIOSES O LO SEAN................
Las sopranos ligeras pueden hacer un mi sobre agudo, pero ninguna con la perfección y belleza de la Stupenda!!
Where can we hear operatic vocalism like this today? Sutherland was a phenomene, but also an example of the most rigorous vocal training.
Fabulous!
Joan have two different E's: the early career - which is more pure, some sounded as a F (ex. Semiramide 1962 Scala, La Cambiale... 1962 studio) and the later career - which have more drama, weight, sometimes confounded with Eb's because of the vibrato (ex. Lucia's 1961 Edinburgh, studio; Beatrice 1966). Stupendous huge and powerful notes, only heard from Joan Sutherland and no one else ;)
The recordings on the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth and eighth ones are sharp, they sound like a high F. Beautiful anyway!
Around 1963/64 her high range was incredible.
At any age her whole voice was incredible is a better comment.
Le LA aigu explosif de Milnes, à la fin, est également une tuerie !
MAS DE 40 AÑOS CANTAN DO ASI.................YA TIENE..................VALOR..............INSUPERABLE....DE PODER SER CRITICADO..............................SI DE JOVEN ERA LA HOSTIA.....DE MAYOR ERA MAS QUE LA HOSTIA......................ERA................LA CUSPIDE DEL SONIDO MAS HERMOSO Y PODEROSO...............Y ADEMAS ENCANTADOR...........TAREA DIFICIL PARA UNA SOPRANO DE SUPER COLORATURA DRAMATICA SIN PARANGON.............NI LIMITES..............Y SIN LIMITES.............CON TODO EL CALOR DE LA HERMOSURA DE QUIEN SABE DAR ........LO MEJOR DE SI MISMO....................ESTA MUJER ERA LA HOSTIA.......EN ESPAÑOL SIGNIFICA...............LO MAS............JODIDAMENTE HABLANDO.........................
The high notes from the 1959 Lucia and the 1963 Puritani are E flats. They are high-pitched but they are not E's - compare them to the other E's in this collection and you will hear the difference. Thank you for the upload, it is great!
I checked them and they are indeed E's
Went to the exhibition at Covent Garden.............beautiful costumes and wigs.....just amazing. And to see her mannequins - bloody hell, she really was tall!
creo que fue una sra del belcanto insuperable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Unica con sus prodigiosas pirotecnias,calidad vocal y otras cosas...
She is "The" voice!
@Richiesutherland Thank you for writing! This is the first convincing explanation I've heard for the weird pitch issues in the 1963 Puritani.
Agreed about the 1971 Lucia: Thrilling.
es mas grandioso todavía................
I totally agree with the previous comment! Hearing recordings of the great Dame Joan got me into the world of operas. I was at the final performance at Covent Garden..... “ they don’t make them like that anymore “. They broke the mold
Hail to La Stupenda
The one between the two verses of the cabaletta of Bel raggio is her signature. Very few soprano could manage such things.
Sublime!
Yes, the Maggio Musicale recordings are high, and Vienna Philhamonic was playing at A=445 (or somewhere around there) in those days as well, which is why Franco Corelli opted to sing "Di quella pira" in B at his famous Salzburg performance of Il Trovatore. And yet to the early Sutherland it didn't seem to make a lick of difference!
MassMusician88 Corelli always sang the ‘Pira’ lowered on stage.
simply Amazing !
Thunderous.
Technically amazing.
una voz insupèrable.................
La grandissima Joan Sutherland! I think Mariella Devia folows Sutherland in the legendary Eb category!
no offense, but it can only be that you never heard Sutherland in person...
+eoselan7 ... no offense taken.... there is of course nobody like Joan, but I meant that Mariela Devia, after Sutherland also has beautiful high notes!
I agree, and I'm one of Sutherland's biggest fans. I've never thought Devia's voice was near as beautiful, or her coloratura anywhere near as brilliant, but I'll give her her a thumbs up for her brilliant high notes.
I heard Sutherland and Devia live. Devia was inaudible above a C in the theater. No comparison.
Well, the ones that were recorded, anyway. Away from the mic, I'm told it was miraculous.
Superb! ... although there are a few of them that are supposed to be E flat.
N. Dessay & R. Welting also performed the mad scene in F.
Many of these are E-flats, not E-naturals. She did sing a good number E-naturals early in her career, but shortly thereafter, she didn't really like singing anything above an E-natural.
I had forgotten how ridiculous the ‘Lucia’ duet is in that key. No doubt they had some arcane excuse to raise it, the purpose being solely to let S. and M. do their thing.
The first Lucia is an Eb. Her recording of Bel raggio is mind blowing!
❤
Is there any way that you could post a recording of Se Tradirmi with Sherrill Milnes and Joan Sutherland? I really like that recording :) If it is a bother don't worry about it.
YESS!
Original key is somewhat misleading. Concert pitch rose over time, so the high E's and F's of Mozart's time were lower than today. Lucia's high notes, in the key of F, were a bit lower as well when it was originally performed. I believe it is possible to sing a piece of music in various keys and still end up with a pleasing result. Some keys are more sombre etc, so keys that obviously belie the intended mood or atmosphere should be avoided.
what's a high E "natural" ?
an E above high C, 3 semi tones above high C. that's high.
Liu Cheang thanks!
E "natural" just means not an E sharp or an E flat.
Liu Cheang 4 semitones
In this case soprano high E natural is the top note of soprano vocal range.
Or E above the treble clef
E6 which is the 6th E starting with the left end of the piano going up 6 octave.
Most Soprano's have high C,,,some can sing higher, but C is regarded as essential if you want to sing Soprano.
Гений.
Magnificent, but her money notes were D6 in my opinion. They were the biggest and the most full sounding: e.g. the end of the trio in Norma in 64 and her big scene from Maria Stuarda from 74 when her voice had matured. It was maybe her biggest note:ruclips.net/video/543JUMzjfIU/видео.html
Θαυμααααα
Lucia's mad scene pt 2 is in the key of Eb, not E major. so its an Eb at the end.
You are correct. I am Chorus master of Indy Opera. Have prepared that score .
If you had read the notes under 'more information' you would have discovered that it had been transposed to E.
@@brookeggleston9314 Except that it's NOT transposed. It's an Eb. The 'more information' has it wrong.
esto lo escuchamos por ordenador......pero no tiene nada que ver con las cintas de cassettes....y los vinilos.....donde este sonido es mas real y superior....
bellini verdi exacto
3:59
And Taylor Swift just became a billionaire… the true talents like Sutherland are other worldly … I’m sure we will hear her in heaven….. with the composers of the past writing new and wonderful music for us to listen to ..
I loved them all, just the last one that sounded a bit scrramy for her standart.
I'm not a Sutherland fan so I may sound biased here, but the truth must be told. She hits an E natural in Merce dilette amiche (not written in the score) but she choses to omit the low notes that are written in the score even though she had a much larger, darker and heavier voice than a typical coloratura so one wonders why she doesn't sing the low notes (she did the same in Mozart's Vorrei spiegarvi oh Dio where she refused to sing both the high E AND the low notes). Then when she made the complete recording of Lakmé for Decca she transposed the whole Bell Song, hitting only high Eb, thus changing the entire score and ignoring Delibes' intentions. This would be perhaps acceptable for a recital but not when you record the entire opera with the best possible cast. Compared to other coloratura sopranos she has a very poor record of hitting high E natural (much less high F) and that for someone who is often called the greatest coloratura soprano who has ever lived. She never sang Zerbinetta (because she couldn't) nor did she sing the Queen of Night in the original key on stage. You can clearly hear that high E natural is the very limit of her voice and that she cannot do much with this note other than produce it as loud as possible. Gruberova in her prime had total control in the upper register and her voice was equally powerful above the staff as Sutherland's (not so much in the medium and low registers). Plus Gruberova didn't limit herself to singing notes but she gave meaning to her coloratura. So for me personally Gruberova is the greatest, not Sutherland. Just my opinion.
Zerbinetta is a soubrette role. Sutherland could have sung it but she would have sounded ridiculous. And I heard Gruberova and Sutherland live. Gruberova sounded like Minnie Mouse by comparison and her voice was somewhat ugly when she unleashed any volume at all. They were not comparable singers.
To me, the E6 is the absolute limit of the female voice.
And D6 for the male voice. ex: Spyres' E6 is garbage.
Higher notes are just ugly, inartistic, and meaningless...crass athletics.
And I had thought some of these were E-flats! Wow! Sutherland = divine
Some of these E naturals are actually E flats...
voy a decir una vulgaridad...pero me da igual.......cuando canta joan sutherland.....vayanse al carajo las demas cantantes de opera.............lo siento..mil perdones...........pero lo siento asi ........con todos mis respetos a las demas....pero ella era simplemente lo mas de lo mas.....desde mi punto de vista........y lo defendere hasta que alguien me convenza de lo contrario.....cosa que dudo.........
besser geht es nicht
3:30