Joan Sutherland

Australian operatic soprano

• Born: November 7, 1926
• Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
• Died: October 10, 2010
• Place of death: Near Geneva, Switzerland

One of the twentieth century’s greatest opera singers, Sutherland became known for a voice of immense size and range. She was praised for her phenomenal vocal agility, seamless legato singing, and powerful high notes. She became instrumental in the mid-twentieth century renaissance of bel canto opera.

The Life

Joan Alston Sutherland was the second child of William McDonald Sutherland and Muriel Alston. She received her earliest vocal instruction from her mother, an amateur singer, and began formal voice lessons with John and Aida Dickens at the age of nineteen. During these formative years, Sutherland sang concerts and oratorios in her hometown of Sydney, Australia. She made her operatic debut with the title role in Judith by Eugene Goossens at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1951.

In 1951 Sutherland moved to London to continue her studies at the Opera School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in 1952. In 1954 she married pianist, conductor, and fellow Australian Richard Bonynge. She gave birth to their son, Adam Bonynge, in 1956.

Sutherland made her international debut singing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Vancouver Festival in 1958, but it was her success in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959 at Covent Garden that launched her remarkable career. After a performance of George Frideric Handel’s Alcina in 1960 at La Fenice theater in Venice, Sutherland was given the soubriquet La Stupenda (the stupendous one) by the critics. During her extensive career she traveled to every major opera house in the world, where she sang with some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists. Her husband conducted many of her performances and accompanied her in numerous recitals. She made her final performance at Covent Garden on December 31, 1990.

The Music

During the early years at Covent Garden, Sutherland performed a wide variety of soprano roles. These included lyric soprano parts as well as heavier, dramatic soprano roles such as Aida, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Woglinde in Das Rheingold. Because of the large size of her voice, many conductors predicted she would become a great Wagnerian soprano. It was her husband, Richard Bonynge, who encouraged her to specialize in coloratura roles and bel canto opera. With the aid of his coaching, she expanded her range, developed her phenomenal vocal agility, and learned many of her signature operatic roles. Of the fifty-five operas Sutherland performed during her career, Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani, and Norma were among her most famous.

Lucia di Lammermoor.Gaetano Donizetti’s opera provided the perfect vehicle to display the vocal talents of Joan Sutherland. Her first performance as Lucia was on February 17, 1959, at Covent Garden in London. Franco Zeffirelli directed and Tullio Serafin conducted this production, which was mounted to feature Sutherland. The performances at Covent Garden were so successful that Sutherland was quickly engaged to sing Lucia at many of the world’s greatest opera houses. She made her debuts at the Paris Opéra (April 25, 1960), La Scala (May 14, 1961), and the Metropolitan Opera (November 26, 1961) in highly acclaimed productions of Lucia di Lammermoor.

In 1961 she recorded the opera for the Decca record label with the chorus and orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia conducted by John Pritchard. This early recording featured Renato Cioni as Edgardo, Robert Merrill as Enrico, and Cesare Siepi as Raimondo. Sutherland recorded Lucia di Lammermoor again for Decca in 1971, this time with Bonynge conducting the Covent Garden Orchestra. This second recording features Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and Nicolai Ghiaurov. A live recording from the 1959 production at Covent Garden was released in 1998 by the Melodram label. Sutherland sang 211 performances of the opera during her career. Her final appearance as Lucia was in Barcelona in 1988.

I Puritani. Sutherland made her first excursion into the operas of Vincenzo Bellini with the role of Elvira in I Puritani at Glyndebourne on May 24, 1960. This demanding role requires a large voice to carry over the orchestra, a strong middle register, a comfortable low range, tremendous flexibility, and secure high notes. Sutherland’s voice met these challenges with great success. Between 1960 and 1987 she sang in sixty-eight performances of I Puritani in London, New York, Barcelona, Palermo, Genoa, Sydney, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Philadelphia, and Boston. Sutherland and Bonynge recorded I Puritani for Decca in 1963 and again in 1973. A live recording from Palermo, conducted by Serafin in 1961, was released by Bella Voce Records in 1997.

Norma. Sutherland furthered her status as one of the foremost interpreters of the bel canto repertoire with her performance of the titular role in Bellini’s Norma in Vancouver in 1963. This performance also marked her first performance with another noted interpreter of bel canto opera, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, who was to become a frequent collaborator. Sutherland sang 111 performances of Norma at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, San Fransisco Opera, and the Sydney Opera, among many other venues. Her recording of Norma for Decca was with the London Symphony under the direction of Bonynge in 1964. Her second studio recording of Norma, with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, was made in 1984.

Musical Legacy

Sutherland’s role in the mid-twentieth century resurgence of interest in the operas of Giacchino Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti cannot be understated. In addition, Sutherland was also instrumental in the revival of Handel’s music in the 1950’s. She was one of the most prolific recording artists of her era, leaving behind a sizable discography. Her career as an operatic and concert singer lasted more than forty years, and she was honored with several awards during her career. In 1975 she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1978 she was named Dame Commander of the British Empire and in 1991 Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on her the Order of Merit.

Principal Works

Operatic roles: Dido in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, 1947

Judith in Eugene Goossens’s Judith, 1951

First Lady in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, 1952 (The Magic Flute)

Clotilde in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, 1952

Amelia in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, 1952 (The Masked Ball)

Frasquita in Georges Bizet’s Carmen, 1953

Gloriana in Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, 1953

La Contessa in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, 1953 (The Marriage of Figaro)

Aida in Verdi’s Aida, 1954

Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz, 1954 (The Free Shooter)

Eva in Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, 1954 (The Master Singers of Nuremberg)

Woglinde in Das Rheingold, 1954

Jennifer in Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, 1955

Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, 1956 (The Magic Flute)

Alcina in George Frideric Handel’s Alcina, 1957

Emilia in Gaetano Donizetti’s Emilia di Liverpool, 1957

Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, 1957

Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, 1957

Madame Lidoine in Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, 1958 (Dialogues of the Carmelites)

Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, 1958

Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, 1959

Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani, 1960

Amina in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, 1960 (The Sleepwalker)

Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, 1960

Beatrice in Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, 1961

Semiramide in Giacchino Rossini’s Semiramide, 1962

Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, 1963 (Julius Caesar)

Norma in Bellini’s Norma, 1963

Marguerite in Charles Gounod’s Faust, 1965

Marie in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, 1966 (The Daughter of the Regiment)

Lakmé in Léo Delibes’s Lakmé, 1967

Maria Stuarda in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, 1971 (Mary Stuart)

Lucrezia Borgia in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, 1972

Rosalinde in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, 1973

Esclarmonde in Jules Massenet’s Esclarmonde, 1974

Lenora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, 1975

Amalia in Verdi’s I masnadieri, 1980 (The Bandits)

Adriana Lecouvreur in Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, 1983

Anna Bolena in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, 1984

Ophélie in Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, 1985

Marguerite de Valois in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, 1990.

Bibliography

Adams, Brian. La Stupenda: A Biography of Joan Sutherland. Melbourne, Vic.: Hutchinson Group, 1980. Adams wrote this biography shortly after completing his documentary film Joan Sutherland: A Life on the Move. The book includes discographies for both Sutherland and Bonynge, a list of Sutherland’s first performances of operatic roles, and a bibliography.

Hines, Jerome. “Joan Sutherland.” In Great Singers on Great Singing. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982. Sutherland discusses concepts related to vocal technique in this interview with Hines.

Major, Norma. Joan Sutherland: The Authorized Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994. Major’s text is the most extensive biography of Sutherland. It includes a complete catalog of her concert and operatic performances and a comprehensive discography.

Steane, John B. “Let the Florida Music Praise: Rococo Revival.” In The Grand Tradition: Seventy Years of Singing on Record. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Stean’s text discusses the importance of Sutherland’s recordings.

Sutherland, Joan. A Prima Donna’s Progress: The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1997. Sutherland’s autobiography is an unassuming description of her exceptional career.