The Essential Sutherland

Description

Dame Joan Sutherland, together with her husband, conductor and director Richard Bonynge, introduces operatic highlights from her extensive repertoire, including many of her greatest roles - Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma, La Fille du r giment, Lucrezia Borgia, Adriana Lecouvreur and Lakm . Also featured, singing with Dame Joan, are Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. Sutherland and Bonynge place the performance extracts within the context of Dame Joan's remarkable forty-two year singing career and explain the charm and attraction of each role from the performer's point of view. Highlights from her greatest roles including: Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma, La Fille du regiment, Lucrezia Borgia, Adriana Lecouvreur, Lakm . Performing with Joan Sutherland are Robert Allman, Anson Austin, Heather Begg, Monique Brynnel, Malcolm Donnelly, Graeme Ewer, Robert Gard, Clifford Grant, Marilyn Horne, Cynthia Johnston, Patricia Price, John Shaw, Ronals Stevens, Huguette Tournangeau and Gregory Yurisich. Recordings by Opera Australia from the Sydney Opera House.

Customer Reviews:

Wouldn't have missed it for the world.......2006-09-18

These are excerpts (frequently 2 from the same opera) from some of Sutherland's operas. Some excerpts are truncated. Don't like any of the Strausses or Poulenc. Otherwise it was sublime and fascinating. Sutherland and Bonynge sat on a sofa and said a few words introducing each opera and excerpt, sometimes historical, sometimes fitting it into Sutherland's career. The music was glorious and the introductions filled in many gaps in my knowledge of Sutherland and/or the operas. Would give teeth to have some DVDs of Sutherland singing (like the ice breaker of the renaissance of bel canto, her Lucia at Covent Garden) when she was very, very young. That would be worth a king's ransom. If you like Sutherland or bel canto or both (they go together like coffee and cream), I highly recommend this DVD. About 2 hours long. It's companion piece, "The Best of Joan Sutherland," is also wonderful though it has fewer operas on it and there are some duplications. Bonynge is very serious. Sutherland is happy and laughs a lot. Bonynge made one very good remark about Sutherland's singing in "The Merry Widow." He said some people think she shouldn't have done it, not someone who sings Norma, Traviata or Lucia. Then he just espostulated, "Nonsense!" Clearly they both know music like I know my own name, and both exude intelligence and erudition and culture and class while being very nice, very down to earth people. I just painted myself into a corner. What I mean is they are both educated and brilliant, but are not snobs or phonies at all. Loved both DVDs.

La Stupenda indeed!.......2006-06-07

I've always been a fan of Dame Joan, and this DVD immediately caught my attention. It has clips of scenes from many of her different signature roles, such as Lucia, Norma, La Fille du regiment, The Merry widow, Lakme, A very stirring duet with Marilyn Horne, a lovely duet with dear old Pavarotti, and many others. As an added bonus, each clip is introduced by Dame Joan and Her Husband, Richard Bonynge. Some people complain that she is not a very good actress in her recordings. Well, from watching this DVD and being able to SEE her sing, I would have to say that she is a very good actress. In closing, it was very nice to be able to see this incredible woman performing selections from her glorious 40+ year career. Any "Stupenda" fan should have this DVD.

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