I was very sad to just read of opera singer Dame Joan
Sutherland’s passing. The New York Times reports that she died this morning at the age of 83.
I first heard her voice when I was producing a project about
Mozart’s Don Giovanni. I listened to as
many recordings of the opera as I could find and chose my favorite selections
from each. From all those recordings, Joan Sutherland was my favorite Donna Anna, and she remains so years later.
Since then, I’ve heard quite a few of her other beautiful
recordings. Dame Sutherland said: “As
far as recording is concerned, I find that it’s somewhat dehumanized. But I
think that we are fortunate that we are able to leave behind such a reasonably
exact record of the sort of sounds we make”
I feel fortunate to have these sounds to which we can
continue to listen. I have a few links below, and I’d welcome any suggestions
for more listening in honor of this great artist.
Update: Here are links to more tributes to Dame Joan and a comment from listener/reader Mary-Bess Halford:
"Thank you for your nice tribute to Dame Joan whom I remember seeing at the Edinburgh Festival in the '67. She was in Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice with Gedda as her Orfeo. They both made a great impression on me for the beauty of their voices."