The Voices That Have Gone, Part 9: R.I.P. La Stupenda

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.