#3 The Art of The Prima Donna - Joan Sutherland

Some albums are shit, like Fleming x Mackerras Rusalka (the Fleming portion). Some you can tolerate - like Leontyne Price' Return to Carnegie Hall, because at that stage she could probably have run amok down the Broadway and people would still have gushed at her. Some are testaments. Living, breathing creatures of the celestial: immortal daughters of the Sacred Flame we all live to serve. These types of albums literally make careers. One such type is The Art of Prima Donna.

The Sutherland brand is eponymous to perfection. Those who adores her, though, will concede that she perennially frustrate you with such terrible diction! Anything post-that wonderful Esclarmonde is an exercise of (undoubtedly technically very sound) vocalism - or rather vowel-ism. But at 1960, Sutherland is literally perfection personified.

There is that wonderful voice, going to deep abysses in Mozart's Martern allen arten, a convincing parlando and atmosphere-invoking limpidity in Verdi's Canzon del salice. Then there's the Bellini gems Care compagne... Come per me sereno and Son vergin vezzosa (favourite track! XXX), and then she literally explodes with Bel raggio lusinghier and Sempre libera. It's hard not to gush. Very. Hard.

I however always find it strange that the Dame ever undertook Norma under her repertoire. The only thing she brought to the table was clearly only her coloratura, because no other Norma has lost my attention to the Adalgisas of the night. That said, her Casta diva is appropriately a prayer, in the tradition of lyrical approach to the role. One also find a certain warmth lacking in her Let the bright Seraphim, probably because the tessitura never goes down, but this is a very minor patch.

Other tracks are essentially textbook references of what a properly trained 17th-18th century voice would have sound like. The most perfect trill in Ah! je ris de me voir si belle, a very clean staccatissimo (she would have performed it at a slower tempo in ten years) in Caro nome and O beau pays de la Touraine (at killer tessitura, no mistake), and properly stylized da capo variations in Son vergin vezzosa and Sovra il sen (with a crazy Db acuto right out of nowhere!).

The Covent Garden crew appropriately plays divinely under Molinari-Pradelli, whom I usually hear in more verismic works like Pagliacci. There was a certain Englishness all about it, of course - the Händel and Arne excerpts are so correctly played (Hey, I'm performing a period piece in proper style! So suck it!) it was almost cold. Make no mistake here who is the prima donna though; sometimes the orchestra throws it out full blast and the Sutherland will always come soaring above it all: here is a true dramatic coloratura at work, the voice that later will battle with Turandot-type orchestrations - and win.

Verdict: they don't make divas like this anymore. Sadly.

THE ART OF THE PRIMA DONNA

JOAN SUTHERLAND soprano

FRANCESCO MOLINARI-PRADELLI conductor

Best Classical Performance Vocal Soloist, Grammy Awards 1962

Disc 1
1. Artaxerxes / Act 3 - The soldier tir'd of war's alarms
2. Samson HWV 57 / Act 3 - Let the bright seraphim
3. Norma / Act 1 - Sediziose voci...Casta Diva...Ah! bello a me ritorna
4. I Puritani / Act 1 - "Son vergin vezzosa"
5. Semiramide / Act 1 - Bel raggio lusinghier
6. I Puritani / Act 2 - "O rendetemi la speme...Qui la voce...Vien, diletto"
7. La Sonnambula / Act 1 - Care compagne...Come per me sereno...Sovra il sen
8. Faust / Act 3 - Ô Dieu! que de bijoux...Ah! je ris de me voir

Disc 2
1. Roméo et Juliette / Act 1 - "Ah, je veux vivre"
2. Otello / Act 4 - Mia madre aveva una povera ancella...Piangea cantando (Canzon del salice)
3. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K.384 / Act 2 - "Martern aller Arten"
4. La traviata / Act 1 - "E strano!...Ah, fors'è lui...Sempre libera"
5. Hamlet / Act 4 - A vos jeux, mes amis, permettez-moi
6. Lakmé / Act 2 - Ah! où va la jeune Indoué? (Chanson des clochettes)
7. Les Huguenots / Act 2 - Ô beau pays de la Touraine
8. Rigoletto / Act 1 - Scena ed Aria. "Gualtier Maldè...Caro nome"