Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Alston Sutherland (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano. She helped revive the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Her voice was noted for its agility, precise intonation, sharp staccatos, a trill, and a strong upper register, though critics often pointed out her unclear diction. In 1962, she became the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, taking home Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist for the 1961 season. Known as La Stupenda, or "The Stupendous One," she is considered one of the greatest sopranos of all time.

Sutherland was born in Sydney, Australia, to Scottish parents and attended St Catherine's School in Waverley, New South Wales. As a child, she copied her mother's singing exercises. Her mother, a mezzo-soprano, had studied voice but never pursued a career. Sutherland began serious voice training at 18 with John and Aida Dickens. She made her concert debut in Sydney in 1947, singing Dido in Purcell's *Dido and Aeneas*. In 1949, she won the Sydney Sun Aria competition and placed third in radio 3DB's Mobil Quest; she won the Mobil Quest the following year. She made her stage debut in 1951 in Eugene Goossens's *Judith*. She then moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music's Opera School with Clive Carey. The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, hired her as a utility soprano, and she debuted there on 28 October 1952 as the First Lady in *The Magic Flute*, followed by a few performances as Clotilde in Bellini's *Norma* alongside Maria Callas. Early in her career, she admired Kirsten Flagstad and trained as a Wagnerian dramatic soprano. In December 1952, she sang her first leading role at Covent Garden, Amelia in *Un ballo in maschera*. Other roles included Agathe in *Der Freischütz*, the Countess in *The Marriage of Figaro*, Desdemona in *Otello*, Gilda in *Rigoletto*, Eva in *Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg*, and Pamina in *The Magic Flute*. In 1953, she sang Lady Rich in Britten's *Gloriana* shortly after its premiere, and on 27 January 1955, she created the role of Jenifer in Tippett's *The Midsummer Marriage*. She married Australian conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge on 16 October 1954; their son Adam was born in 1956. Bonynge gradually convinced her that Wagner might not suit her voice, and because she could produce high notes and coloratura easily, she should explore bel canto. She eventually specialized in that repertoire, spending most of her career as a dramatic coloratura soprano.

In 1957, she performed in Handel's *Alcina* with the Handel Opera Society and sang selections from Donizetti's *Emilia di Liverpool* on radio. The next year, she sang Donna Anna in *Don Giovanni* in Vancouver. In 1959, she was invited to sing Lucia di Lammermoor at the Royal Opera House in a production conducted by Tullio Serafin and staged by Franco Zeffirelli; her fellow Australian Kenneth Neate sang Edgardo after replacing the scheduled tenor on short notice. In 1960, she recorded the album *The Art of the Prima Donna*, a double LP that won the Grammy for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist in 1962; it was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2011. She sang Lucia to great acclaim in Paris in 1960, and in 1961 at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. For her Met performance of *Lucia di Lammermoor*, standees began lining up at 7:30 that morning, and her Mad Scene drew a 12-minute ovation. In 1960, she sang Alcina at La Fenice, and soon newspapers worldwide praised her as La Stupenda. Later that year, she made her US debut singing Alcina at the Dallas Opera. Her Met debut was on 26 November 1961, as Lucia. She performed a total of 223 roles there in various operas, with her last appearance a concert on 12 March 1989. Between 1978 and 1982, her relationship with the Met soured after she declined the role of Constanze in Mozart's *Die Entführung aus dem Serail* more than a year before rehearsals were to start. The management then refused to stage *The Merry Widow* for her as she requested; she did not perform at the Met during that period, even though a production of Rossini's *Semiramide* had been planned, but she later returned for other operas. During the 1960s, she added many bel canto heroines to her repertoire: Violetta in *La traviata*, Amina in *La sonnambula*, and Elvira in *I puritani* in 1960; the title role in *Beatrice di Tenda* in 1961; Marguerite de Valois in *Les Huguenots* and the title role in *Semiramide* in 1962; Norma in *Norma* and Cleopatra in *Giulio Cesare* in 1963; and Marie in *La fille du régiment* in 1966. In 1965, she toured Australia with the Sutherland-Williamson Opera Company, accompanied by a young tenor named Luciano Pavarotti. In the 1970s, she worked to improve her often-criticized diction and increase the expressiveness of her interpretations. She added dramatic bel canto roles like Donizetti's *Maria Stuarda* and *Lucrezia Borgia*, as well as Massenet's *Esclarmonde*. With Pavarotti, she made a studio recording of *Turandot* in 1972 conducted by Zubin Mehta.