I'm terribly saddened -- though it was not untimely -- by the death of the great Joan Sutherland, who did so much to revitalize Italian bel canto repertoire in the twentieth century, taking up the mantle dropped by Callas in a way completely different from that of the older (and, arguably, greater) soprano. Dame Joan was also, by all reports, a genuinely kind person and a gracious colleague.
Enjoy this great, great live performance -- I'm guessing it's from her 1959 Lucia at La Scala, conducted by Tullio Serafin -- of "Ardon gli incensi," the second part of Lucia's mad scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
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4 comments:
I just heard of her passing - not 15 minutes ago - and immediately thought of you. Should have known you'd be on it....it's appreciated.
For some reason, I was shocked to hear of her death. So many great singers have gone in the past few years, and her passing is one of the least shocking; she was 83, after all. Still, it feels like a real loss. I always felt a connection to her; I started out singing her repertoire, and my old voice teacher's husband, the bel canto tenor Anastasios Vrenios, performed with her, Horne, and Bonynge in the 1970s, when he was very young, Callas was La Divina, but Sutherland was great in every way.
Bel Canto indeed! What a gorgeous crystal voice.
Yes, one of the most beautiful of the twentieth century. :)
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