Dame Joan Sutherland (soprano)
My Favourites
Rec. 1962-75
ELOQUENCE 482 6448 [80:47]
This, we are to believe, is Joan Sutherland’s collection of her own favourite recordings. The CD notes hint that it was released it to mark a decade since her death in 2010, and there is a note from Dame Joan in the booklet explaining her choices, though it doesn’t say when she wrote it. You certainly get all sorts of memorabilia in the booklet: costume designs for her roles, photographs of her house, an advert for a new picture book about her chateau, even her own recipe for Christmas pudding. There are no sung texts, which not everyone will think a good exchange, but her way with pronunciation was so hit-and-miss over this period that many won’t think it makes much of a difference.
Sutherland had one of the greatest voices of the twentieth century, but you always got the same thing with her no matter what she was singing. That means, therefore, that all questions of period and style go out the window: when she sings Handel she might as well be singing Puccini. Happily, however, the thing you get is rather wonderful, and the combination of her gloriously rich tone, impeccable technique and razor sharp precision, not least at the top, makes this disc a delight for her followers.
That means, therefore, that her bel canto arias are impeccable, but her baroque sounds absurd to our 21st century ears. So her Graun aria, for all its technical brilliance, is ridiculous but undeniably fun, and that’s equally true for her operetta recordings. It definitely wasn’t her fach, but the Offenbach and, especially, the Lecocq on this disc sound superb. In fact, I enjoyed them as much for the lush orchestral contribution and Richard Bonynge’s direction, something you definitely can't say for the Handel.
She is at her commanding best in the extracts from her complete opera recordings. She had a habit of recording her finest roles twice and, while the second outing was often more satisfying, there is something lovely about the first recordings we hear here of Norma and Sonnambula, where the voice has a pearly brightness that it lacked later. She says that Esclarmonde was one of her favourite roles, and the extract from her 1975 recording is a reminder that it is unlikely ever to be surpassed. There are thrills and spills aplenty, but also pathos in the L’oracolo extract. The other opera arias, taken from recitals, are hints at what we never heard on record, such as a complete Odabella or Queen of the Night, both of which showcase a much creamier voice than were used to hearing in the roles.
Not everything shows her off well. There isn’t a single consonant in her Christmas Gounod, and the Hahn is unconscionably soupy. However, she really lets her hair down in the one-off numbers: the songs and light tunes like Arditti’s Il bacio, which really sparkles, and she is adept at both the tone and enunciation of Noel Coward’s Countess Mitzi. The last three tracks are clearly just there for the fun, but they end on a light-hearted high.
This disc is squarely aimed at Sutherland’s superfans, who will lap up every second and excuse any gloopiness. In fact, it has nostalgia baked into it, not least with the loving reminiscences of her appearances in Australia, something not surprising given that Eloquence is based in Sydney.
So it might not win over any converts to Sutherland, though at least it provides variety. If you really want to see a recital of her at her best, though, then go straight to
The Art of the Prima Donna. Recorded in London in 1960, just as her career was about to go nuclear, it remains one of the greatest operatic recitals ever, capturing a great artist at her peak in repertoire that suited her down to the ground.
Simon Thompson
Contents
1 GRAUN Montezuma: Non han calma le mie pene
2 MOZART Die Zauberflöte: O zittre nicht
3–4 BELLINI Norma: Mira, O Norma – Si, fino all’ore estreme compagna tua m’avrai
5 BELLINI La sonnambula: Ah! non giunge
6 VERDI Attila: Santo di patria…allor che i forti corrono
7 MASSENET Esclarmonde: Esprits de l’air … Roland ! Roland ! Roland !
8 LEONI L’oracolo: Ferito … L’hanno ferito
9 LECOCQ Le Cœur et la Main: Un soir Perez le capitaine
10 OFFENBACH Robinson Crusoé: Conduisez-moi vers celui que j’adore
11 ARDITI Il bacio
12 HAHN Si mes vers avaient des ailes
13 GLIÈRE Concerto for Coloratura and Orchestra: I. Andante
14 GOUNOD Repentir (O Divine Redeemer)
15 KREISLER Sissy – The King Steps Out: Stars in my eyes
16 COWARD Operette: Countess Mitzi
17 BENEDICT The Gypsy and the Bird
18 FRASER-SIMSON The Maid of the Mountains: Love will find a way
Recording locations and dates: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 26, 27 & 29 October–3 November 1962 (Il bacio, The Gypsy and the Bird); 25–29 June 1963 (Attila); 10, 27, 28 & 31 May 1965 (O Divine Redeemer); 10, 11, 14, 16 March, 12 & 18–20 July 1966 (The Maid of the Mountains, The King Steps Out); 21–23, 26, 29, 30 March, 1 April & 2 September 1966 (Montezuma); 22, 28, 31 March, 2 April & 5 July 1966 (Operette); 8–9 May 1968 (Concerto for Coloratura and Orchestra); 10, 14, 19 & 22 August 1972 (Si mes vers avaient des ailes); 2–5 & 9–15 July 1975 (Esclarmonde); 6 July–4
September 1975 (L’oracolo); Decca Studio No.3 West Hampstead, London, UK, 7, 11, 13, 16 & 20 June 1963 (Die Zauberflöte); Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, UK, June/July 1964 (Norma); Teatro Pergola, Florence, Italy, 8–19 September, 1962 (La sonnambula); Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, 31 August, 4, 6, 7, 9, 18, 20–21 September 1969 (Le Cœur et la Main, Robinson Crusoé)
