Austrialian-born Dame Joan Sutherland (b. 1926 in Sydney) has been referred to as La Stupenda, or the stupendous one, since her breakthrough performance at La Fenice (Venice) in 1960. One of her signature recordings, The Art of the Prima Donna, is still studied by singers-in-training today. She remains one of the all-time great coloratura sopranos in the history of recorded opera. Believe me, opera audiences are a savvy bunch with very specific ideas about what the human singing voice should sound like. It's a tough room. But when La Stupenda sang, attention was paid. Coloratura sopranos are a special and somewhat strange lot. Known primarily for easy virtuosity in the upper register, the coloratura soprano can perform blazingly fast melismata without breaking much of a sweat. Sutherland started her career following the footsteps of her idol, Kirsten Flagstad, hoping to become a dramatic Wagnerian soprano... an unusual starting point for the woman whose work became synonymous with the mid-20th century revival of bel canto opera. It's a lesson for all singers... don't let anyone tell you what your voice type is. Discover it for yourself. When it's right, you'll know it.
The clip below shows La Stupenda on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. She was at her finest... singing Ardon gli-incensi from the opera with which she is most often associated, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The camera angles used here tend to downplay Sutherland's enormous jaw, which seemed to become increasingly prominent as she aged.
My voice teacher, Sunny van Eaton, used to offer her students a dubious award called the "Dame Joan Sutherland Mushmouth Award", ostensibly a light-hearted jab at La Stupenda for her less-than-clear articulation. But frankly, with a voice like that, I just don't care.
La Stupenda is still with us as of this posting. Aged 81 years, she retired from singing in 1990. She lives in Montreux, Switzerland, on the shore of Lake Geneva.
