George Hall salutes the great Australian singer Dame Joan Sutherland, so peerless in the bel canto roles of Donizetti, Bellini and others.
Who was Joan Sutherland?
For decades, following the sensation she caused when she starred as Donizetti’s tragic heroine in Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden in 1959, Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) represented the peak of the art of bel canto to the widest audience.
When was Joan Sutherland born?
Born in Sydney in 1926, Sutherland initially learned singing by imitating her mother. Later, she triumphed in the the Sun Aria competition. That feat allowed her to move on from local studies to the Royal College of Music in London. From there she gained a contract at Covent Garden. Here she appeared first in small roles, including playing Clotilde to Maria Callas’s Norma in 1952.
Gradually her abilities were recognised, especially by the pianist and coach Richard Bonynge. The pair married in 1954: Bonynge conducted all her later performances. He persuaded her to tackle the bel canto repertoire, a then neglected field that Callas had opened up. Bonynge’s artistic vision was vindicated when the role of Lucia won Sutherland world-wide fame.
Soon she was appearing at Venice, Milan's La Scala and the New York Met, her talents showcased in revivals of works mainly from the early 19th-century that had been shelved for decades. Sutherland brought them back to life.
What roles did Joan Sutherland sing?
In her long career, Sutherland triumphed in roles by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi, as well as Mozart and Handel. Later on she assumed the heroines of Ambroise Thomas and Jules Massenet with equal success.
A hardworking singer, she built up and maintained an impregnable technique. This was founded on a substantial, bright-toned soprano and peerless breath control. Down-to-earth rather than temperamental, she never let her audiences down, and in return they loved her unstintingly. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1979 and was later awarded the Order of Merit.
Her relationship with Decca began at the end of the 1950s and continued through to the 1980s. She closed her career with Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots in Sydney in 1990 – though she returned to Covent Garden one final time as a guest in the party scene of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus on New Year’s Eve of that year.
Why was Joan Sutherland so popular?
Sutherland’s stage personality contained a warmth that reached out to audiences and made them love her. She was rewarded with one of the most loyal followings accorded an opera singer.
The young Joan Sutherland studied and gained experience in Australia before heading to London and the Royal College of Music in 1951. There she made an impression and soon joined the Covent Garden Opera Company.
Gradually her repertoire increased to take in such big assignments as Micaëla, Aïda and Eva in Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. After the badgering of her fellow Australian Bonynge, her potential in the coloratura repertory was recognised. Covent Garden duly staged Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for her.
The first night on 17 February 1959 changed her life – and musical history. Its success meant she was thereafter in demand as an exponent of bel canto roles and 19th-century French rarities.
Following her debut at La Fenice in Handel’s Alcina in 1960, the Italians labelled her ‘La Stupenda’. Yet throughout the remainder of her career, she was as renowned for her down-to-earth attitudes and capacity for hard work as for the beauty of her voice and vocal technique that was ready for any challenge Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and all the rest could throw at her.
When did Joan Sutherland retire?
Sutherland was a consistent artist, able to revisit earlier triumphs in later years with success. She proved this, memoraby, with a great Lucia at Covent Garden in 1985.
There was also a wise decision on when to retire. That moment came with a still glittering account of Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots for the Australian Opera in 1990. What carried her throughout, apart from a God-given voice and technique, was a personal strength combined with a sense of humour that kept her feet on the ground.
When did Joan Sutherland die?
Dame Joan Sutherland died of cardiopulmonary failure on 10 October 2010, at her home at Les Avants, Switzerland.