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Opera great Joan Sutherland dies aged 83
Source: Agencies |
October 12, 2010, Tuesday
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AUSTRALIAN opera star Joan Sutherland, known by her legion of fans as "La Stupenda", has died in Switzerland aged 83.
Her family told the Sydney Morning Herald that the soprano, once described by Luciano Pavarotti as "the greatest voice of the century", died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning after suffering a long illness.
She died in Switzerland where she had retired to live near Montreux.
"She's a very important person all over the world, but for us this is our family and we're just trying to come to terms with this," her daughter-in-law Helen told the Australian daily.
The daughter of a gifted singer, Sutherland studied piano and voice with her mother, and made her singing debut in a concert performance of Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" in Sydney in 1947.
Her operatic debut came in the title role of Sir Eugene Goossens's "Judith" in 1951.
The following year Sutherland was accepted into the company of London's Royal Opera House, where she first performed as the First Lady in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute".
She sang a wide range of roles, but her husband and long-time collaborator, the conductor Richard Bonynge, was convinced that her future lay in the florid passages of the coloratura repertoire.
Although initially doubtful about the change of style, Sutherland achieved lasting fame in 1959 when she sang Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" in a Franco Zeffirelli production at Covent Garden.
Descending a staircase in a bloodstained nightgown in Lucia's mad scene, Sutherland was hailed as a star for a performance dubbed by one critic as one of the greatest sensations in operatic history.
Her performance of the same role at New York's Metropolitan Opera was equally well received.
"Joan Sutherland came, sang, and conquered," one reviewer wrote in 1961.
She won a Grammy award that year and another one in 1981.
Sutherland appeared in nearly 50 operas, singing with the greats of her generation and making dozens of acclaimed recordings.
Her family told the Sydney Morning Herald that the soprano, once described by Luciano Pavarotti as "the greatest voice of the century", died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning after suffering a long illness.
She died in Switzerland where she had retired to live near Montreux.
"She's a very important person all over the world, but for us this is our family and we're just trying to come to terms with this," her daughter-in-law Helen told the Australian daily.
The daughter of a gifted singer, Sutherland studied piano and voice with her mother, and made her singing debut in a concert performance of Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" in Sydney in 1947.
Her operatic debut came in the title role of Sir Eugene Goossens's "Judith" in 1951.
The following year Sutherland was accepted into the company of London's Royal Opera House, where she first performed as the First Lady in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute".
She sang a wide range of roles, but her husband and long-time collaborator, the conductor Richard Bonynge, was convinced that her future lay in the florid passages of the coloratura repertoire.
Although initially doubtful about the change of style, Sutherland achieved lasting fame in 1959 when she sang Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" in a Franco Zeffirelli production at Covent Garden.
Descending a staircase in a bloodstained nightgown in Lucia's mad scene, Sutherland was hailed as a star for a performance dubbed by one critic as one of the greatest sensations in operatic history.
Her performance of the same role at New York's Metropolitan Opera was equally well received.
"Joan Sutherland came, sang, and conquered," one reviewer wrote in 1961.
She won a Grammy award that year and another one in 1981.
Sutherland appeared in nearly 50 operas, singing with the greats of her generation and making dozens of acclaimed recordings.
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