Recorded in her 59th year, this was one of Sutherland’s last studio recordings. The notes are by Richard Bonynge, the indefatigable mind behind the research of much of this repertoire.
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Il castello di Kenilworth: Par che mi dica ancora…Fuggì l’immagine
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Attila: Liberamente or piangi ..Oh! nel fuggente nuvolo
VINCENZO BELLINI
I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Eccomi in lieta vesta..Oh! quante volte
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Betly: In questo semplice modesto asilo
La Favorite: L’ai-je bien entendu? … O mon Fernand … Mon arrêt descend du ciel
GIACOMO MEYERBEER
L’Africaine: Sur mes genoux
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Guillaume Tell: Sombre forêt
Il barbiere di Siviglia: Una voce poco fa
Joan Sutherland, soprano
Welsh National Opera Orchestra
Richard Bonynge
Recording producer: Christopher Raeburn
Recording engineer: Colin Moorfoot
Recording Location: Walthamstow Assembly Hall, September 1985
‘How good, for instance, that Sutherland should still be exploring. Everything here is new to her discography, and the solo from Il castello di Kenilworth will be new to most of her listeners … The fine tragic sweep of the violins in the Attila solo, the plaintive elegance of Bellini’s cantilena, the simple good humour of Betly’s ‘tralla las’ – none of these is too familiar to be welcome, and in the last of them Sutherland’s gaiety is vividly personal and expert in timing. Of her French arias the Africaine is probably most successful, with its emotions imaginatively caught’ Gramophone
‘There is such obvious joy in her singing’ MusicWeb