The Time Traveler's Wife: Why Joan Sutherland Was So Unique

The purity and balance of the emission, the flexibility of the instrument, the beauty of the timbre and the breath control that made the wildest fiorettature sound so apparently effortless -- Sutherland had everything to become the greatest coloratura singer of the 20th Century. She even turned her limitations -- the downright bad diction that not even her most ardent fans can seriously defend -- into her trademark.

Her talent was so astonishing that she made you forget everything else -- she's the anti-realist soprano, there's no opera as musical theater in her universe (no wonder she thought modern stagings were ridiculously beside the point). Sutherland is there, tall and gawky and who cares if she's double the size of the tenor unless the tenor is Pavarotti, she's soaring above that, bending sound to her will, creating extraordinary music that, if you listen close enough, will reveal you secrets -- it's the stuff the Sirens were supposed to do, "tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world", according to Homer (via Butler). 

Not to mention, the favorite pastime of some opera lovers, taxidermy, is ill-fitted to explain her work and her life. Thanks to an extraordinary husband -- a much better musicologist and vocal coach than a conductor, but, another of her wonders, she makes his limitations in the pit beside the point -- Sutherland made opera travel in time, bringing the past back to glorious life. She and Bonynge revived a repertory that was considered inferior simply for the lack of the right voice to bring it back to us -- they went back in time and gave a most conservative opera world an actual revolution. Her range and versatility always beat the odds, laughed at the nay-sayers (just consider her mid-career Turandot), taught us that it's pointless to look back at Malibran and Pasta and all the other great dead singers who might or might not have sounded the way we've been taught they did.

Sutherland makes nostalgia look silly -- there's no repertory that's too hard to bring back to life, if you have the talent. She makes us hope that someone else -- with the right voice and, maybe, the right mentor -- will come after her, to surprise us, to show us once again how it's done, here and now. Her work -- and Bonynge's -- remains so fresh because it's so open to new possibilities.  

But then, Joan Sutherland made everything look effortless -- the very definition of genius.

 

Comments

[Dakota]

Gorgeous. Thank you so much for this. She was a force of opera. There will never be another like her.

[flipstinger]

I still remember the very first time I saw this clip and it gave me chills!!!! I couldn't believe the accuracy of her trills and rapid scales, just BRILLIANT!

[El Cajon]

Although I posted in O.C.s previous entry about Sutherland, I'd like to add that she had an enormous voice and stayed on pitch, at least until late in her career.

Sutherland was a lot of fun in Fille, every bit as appealing as her tragic heroines and just listen to those trills in her cadenzas in the Lucia excerpt. Spine-tingling!

[Tenderly]

Amazing ob-it. She will be greatly missed. You captured the essence of Dame Sutherland.

[Les Mitchell]

One of the "greats" of opera. The only Golden Age divas that are left are Montsy and Leontyne.

[Eric]

I only worked with Joan and Richard once. They were a charming couple. When I was first introduced to her, close up... I was surprised how large her face and head was!

My favorite memory of them was during a rehearsal... Joan was on stage and Richard was occupied, in the orchestra pit. Joan was concerned about their young son's balls not dropping and she inquired with Richard, matter-of-fact, honestly and sincerely... "at what age did your balls drops?" Richard replied immediately without wincing (as if this was a valid question to ask)... "I don't recall, dear". He was such a gentleman... about everything.

Your tribute to Joan Sutherland was beautiful and moving! Thank you, OC! I still warship you!

[WILLYM]

1000 garzie ... a lovely and loving tribute to an incredible artist.

[Peter Wing Healey]

I second the Gorgeous motion. What a great piece. I haven't read anything like it and I've been glued to the computer since one of my dearest friends emailed me 36 minutes after the announcement. I've read everything and nothing can touch this. I have to say that this death moves me so much. I saw her in Lucia in Vancouver, it must have been 1963 or 64 and I was 10 and that was it for me. I never recovered. Dame Kiri is also so, so right to say, "she was the Pied Piper".

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Ruan van der Merwe]

The best coloratura of our times. There is simply no one like her and there won't be anyone like her agian. Maybe just maybe.

Long live the Great La Stupenda!

[HM0880]

The picture of Joan and Richard is so natural and sweet. When I heard the news of Dame Joan's death, I felt a deep and profound sense of loss.

There is an interview with Dame Joan on YouTube, and the interviewer asked about the physical aspects of singing. Dame Joan laughingly replied, "Well, I have a big mouth." :)

@Eric: I love that anecdote!

[Imogen dent]

Effortless indeed. For me she remains the definitive Gilda and Violetta; others may be prettier or have the acting chops, but for my money no-one has yet matched that flawless coloratura. How wonderful to have that talent, and the strength of character to use it AND to keep one's feet on the ground as well! RIP, Dame Joan...

[Zurriuss]

Sutherland was A History Of The Opera In One Human Being.