DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND PASSES

 

One of the great opera singers of the 20th century, Dame Joan Sutherland, has died aged 83.

The Australian soprano died at her Swiss home after a long illness.

Known as La Stupenda - the stunning one - for her incredible voice and performances, she was well known in the opera houses of Europe, North America and, of course, her native Australia.

She had been suffering ill health for some time and died at home with her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, and son Adam at her side.

In later years she had retired to a Swiss town near Montreux and had made few recent public appearances.

Opera singers and directors from around the world have been praising the prodigious talent and generous spirit of a woman credited with sharing her knowledge with many up and coming young performers.

Dame Joan came to prominence in the late 1950s and soon earned her nickname after a performance in Italy in 1960.

She performed with many great singers during her career, including Luciano Pavarotti, who described her as having "the voice of the century".

Her most famous role was the lead in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, which she performed 233 times. One performance of the role in 1959 was acknowledged with a 19-minute standing ovation.

The young Joan Sutherland grew up in Sydney. She earned her fare to Britain by singing at local clubs and working as a typist at Sydney University.

Her father, a tone-deaf Scottish immigrant, died when she was six

In 1981 she spoke to the BBC about the influence her mother had had on her career choice.

"I think I learned a great deal at her knee. I used to sit down underneath the piano stool while she practiced," Sutherland said.

"She used to practice, although she didn't sing professionally, she still kept up her scales and exercises and vocalese and I learnt so many of these from about the age of three.

"We used to stand around the piano and sing duets and trios and so on.

"I wasn't actually trained by my mother. She said she never taught me, but she was a great singer herself."

Against the advice of her mother, Bonynge encouraged her to sing in lighter, higher roles that better suited her voice.

"I would notice when she wasn't consciously singing, that she was singing quite differently in a very natural way, and to me, a much more beautiful way," Bonynge said.

"The voice at the top just didn't want to stop. It was effortless."

Soon, all the world's top opera houses were calling. She had assumed all the bel canto roles from the most famous operas of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The extent of her repertoire was immense: 54 leading roles from Handel to Mozart and Puccini to Verdi.

A 40-year career ended with final performances at the Sydney Opera House and at Covent Garden in 1990.

She was a Dame of the British Empire, a Companion of the Order of Australia, and was bestowed with one of the rarest of gifts from the Queen: an Order of Merit.