Backstage at the Sydney Opera, soprano legend Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) prepares for her career farewell performance, talking about her most beloved roles in Verdi's La Traviata and Bellini's Norma. With French subtitles.
Interview excerpt from the documentary "La Stupenda - Un portrait de Dame Joan Sutherland". From the French television show "Musique & Compagnie" (France 3, 1996).
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#opera #soprano #sydney #australia
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At the Sydney Opera House, on October 2nd 1990, Dame Joan Sutherland bade farewell to opera. As she gave her last performance, as Marguerite de Valois in The Australian Opera production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, she could look back on a professional singing career spanning 42 years, in all the great opera houses of the world. This film presents a retrospective of those years.

When she started out in England in 1951, she had a God-given voice, broad Australian accent and a large, ungainly body. With the help of her husband, the director and conductor Richard Bonynge, she learnt how to use her voice to best advantage. Coached by Norman Ayrton and Franco Zeffirelli, she overcame her physical awkwardness and diffidence to become a superb dramatic actress, capable of both moving audiences to tears and rolling them in the aisles. Her professional success was staggering; in the history of opera she will be placed alongside the very greatest singers of the past - Lind, Patti, Melba - her fellow countrywomen - and Maria Callas.

It was at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden that she achieved international stardom, in her performance as Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959. She returned there on New Year's Eve 1991, along with her friends and colleagues of many years, Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne, to make a guest appearance in the Party Scene in Die Fledermaus.
Encompassing her final performances in Les Huguenots and Die Fledermaus, interviews, a nostalgic visit to The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, newsreel footage, and a wealth of performance extracts in which she is seen in some of her greatest roles - Lucia di Lammermoor, La Fille du régiment, Lucrezia Borgia and Lakmé. Contributions from close friends and colleagues, including Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, critic Bernard Levin, Norman Ayrton, Franco Zeffirelli, and her biographer Norma Major, add to a celebration of Dame Joan's remarkable talent.

Original title: La Stupenda - A Portrait of Dame Joan Sutherland

Directed by Derek Bailey

Produced by RM Associates/Landseer Films/Film Australia
in association with BBC Television, The Decca Record Company,
Radio Telefis Eireann, RTP and NOS-TV

© 1991, Licensed by Digital Classics Distribution
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