This set documents the brilliance and fluency of the young
Joan Sutherland’s performances. All made in the period
1959/61 when the singer was in her early thirties, they show
what an outstanding technique she combined with the famous evenness
of tone all the way through the voice. Granted, there is nothing
here to match the vividness, acuity and range of colour that
Callas brought to these roles. Then again, Sutherland mercifully
lacks Callas’s hollow tone and struggle to master her
voice.
What is remarkable about the excerpts from Acis and Galatea
is how acceptable they are to a modern ear, though we still
get the very solid, pure legato classical string tone. Sutherland’s
diction is exemplary for its clarity, In fact that is true of
most pieces in this set. Few suffer from the oddly occluded
diction that pervaded her recordings later on.
Boult’s speeds are quite acceptable, so we get a Galatea
of great lyric beauty and technical freedom. Peter Pears’
Acis is not in the same class, but he brings his customary intelligence
to the role. Owen Brannigan was sui generis as Polyphemus
even though, here, we don’t get O ruddier than the
cherry.
The excerpts from Messiah are done in a similar style
and are generally classy; Boult used a new edition which did
away with the later additions to the score. However I know
that my redeemer liveth is done at a rather slow tempo with
Sutherland extruding the tone in a manner which verges on the
lugubrious. Her ornamentation is rather lavish, but her trills
are superb.
Many of Handel’s operas were written for the finest singers
of the day. With Sutherland’s account of Alcina
we get one of the 20th century’s finest vocalists
in a role which suited her. These two arias are recorded with
Sir Anthony Lewis, rather than from the later Richard Bonynge
recording. Lewis opts for stylistically more correct speeds
than Bonynge and Sutherland is at her freshest and most winning.
The Handel disc concludes with an account of Sutherland in Let
the Bright Seraphim which is, I think, the one from The
Art of the Prima Donna.
One of the frustrations of this set is that the documentation
as to what the tracks are is very scanty. The notes say that
the third disc in the set consists of excerpts from The Art
of the Prima Donna, but gives no source for the second disc,
Sutherland singing Verdi and Bellini, though these too appear
to be from the same origin. For some reason, Regis has decided
to deconstruct the arias from The Art of the Prima Donna
so that CD 2 has Verdi and Bellini and CD 3 everything else
except Handel. Such things might niggle, but mean that on the
second CD we can concentrate on Sutherland singing Verdi and
Bellini.
For me, one the advantages of hearing these discs is that the
conductor isn’t Richard Bonynge. As far as Sutherland
is concerned there is a wonderful freshness and attack about
everything, a glorious fluidity and facility. Her excerpts from
I Puritani and La Sonnambula are suitably light,
but there is a depth and darkness as well to the Norma and to
the Verdi singing.
In The Willow Song and in one or two other moments in
the Verdi extracts there are hints of the spinto Sutherland,
the sort of singer she might have developed into if the famous
Lucia had been followed by Lady Macbeth - as Tullio Serafin
wanted.
On the last disc, Mozart’s Marten aller Arten is
the least successful item, but that is on an absolute scale;
by any standards these recordings are amazing. In fact, listening
to them is a trifle depressing because Sutherland never did
anything quite as good again. On an aria by aria basis, many
here are preferable to the ones on later issues.
There is not only technical facility here. Sutherland varies
colour and tone so that each item is characteristically shaded
and affected. One could listen for hours to the trills, staccatos
and scales in The Jewel Song; but this is also a very
real Marguerite.
If you have only one Sutherland recording, then you must have
The Art of the Prima Donna. If you don’t have a
Sutherland recording, then you must have The Art of the Prima
Donna. If you buy The Art of the Prima Donna then
you get words and a good pair of articles in the CD booklet.
If you buy this set, you get rather poorer documentation with
no words and just a single article, but you also get substantial
excerpts of Sutherland singing Handel. The choice is yours.
Robert Hugill
Track listing
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Acis and Galatea (excerpts) (1)
Rejoice greatly (Messiah) (2)
How beautiful are the feet (Messiah) (2)
I know that my redeemer liveth (Messiah) (2)
If God be for us (Messiah) (2)
Tornami a vagheggiar (Alcina) (3)
Ombre pallide (Alcina) (3)
Let the bright seraphim (Samson) (4)
Giuseppe VERDI (1813
- 1901)
The Willow Song (Otello) (4)
Sempre libera (La Traviata) (4)
Caro Nome (Rigoletto) (4)
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801
- 1835)
Casta Diva (Norma) (4)
Son vergin vezzosa (I Puritani) (4)
Qui la voce (I Puritani) (4)
Come per me sereno (La Sonnambula) (4)
Charles GOUNOD (1818
- 1893)
The Waltz Song (Romeo et Juliet) (4)
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756 - 1791)
Marten aller Arten (Die Enfuhrung aus dem Serail) (4)
Leo DELIBES (1836 - 1891)
The Bell Song (Lakme) (4)
Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791
- 1864)
O beau pays (Les Huguenots) (4)
Thomas ARNE (1710 - 1778)
The Soldier Tir’d (Artaxerxes) (4)
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792
- 1898)
Bel raggio lusingher (Semiramide) (4)
Charles GOUNOD
Jewel Song (Faust) (4)
Ambroise THOMAS (1811
- 1896)
The Mad Scene (Hamlet) (4) Joan Sutherland (soprano)
Acis - Peter Pears (tenor) (1); Polyphemus - Owen Brannigan
(bass) (1); St Anthony Singers (1); Philomusica of London (1,
3); London Symphony Orchestra (2); Orchestra and Chorus of the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (4); Sir Adrian Boult (conductor)
(1, 2); Sir Anthony Lewis (conductor) (3); Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
(conductor) (4)
rec. (1) 1960, (2) 1960, (3) 1959, (4) 1960 The Art of the
Primadonna
REGIS RRC3013 [3 CDs: 70.15 + 52.27 + 49.49] 