The advantage of the audience recording is, we get less of her vibrato/beat than we get from a mike right in front of her.

Just adore this music and so joyously performed

The ONLY one Norma: Joan Sutherland

I always look up the reviews from the time. Usually they are surprisingly sniffy. See here OPERA Magazine Review of the June 8 , 1966 performance (six days after this recording): "The evening began with an over -loud , over-fast and not particularly distinguished performance of the overture, but thereafter Richard Bonynge conducted with more taste and style than the spectacle he was accompanying. Indeed , the few worth-while musical numbers, like the charming trio in the second act for soprano , tenor and bass (very reminiscent of Comte Ory ), went extremely well and the chorus, when not playing the fool , sang its music with sure attack and great verve . But oh, those French accents! If they grated so horribly in a comedy, what will they sound like in a piece like Benvenuto Cellini? - which, one gathers is to be sung in French next season (a foolish decision , I would have thought) . Joan Sutherland was not in her best voice , and although the vocal fireworks were thrown off with great aplomb it was in the more elegiac portions of the score that her best singing came. Monica Sinclair overdid the comedy and made the Marquise of Berkenfield into a caricature - in fact nearly everyone treated the evening like an undergraduate romp. Not so Luciano Pavarotti who was charming in an unsophisticated way, and who sang with style; nor Spiro Malas, whose Sergeant Sulpice was rather negative."

Eh-hem @55:26

Thank goodness Nixon was recording everything!

Thrilled to have the whole performance! Joan's comics gifts on display. Thank you!

Saw this live performance…great memories!!!

As stated, this is tenor Franco Tagliavini (1934-2010), not tenor Ferruccio Tagliavini (1913-1995), nor bass Roberto Tagliavini (b. 1976, after this performance).

Due mostri sacri❤

Oh. I did enjoy! Thank you very much.

This is just amazing from beginning to end.

In what version of the English language did Sutherland sing? In any case, a Fledermaus in any language other than German is a travesty.

Splendid. Thanks so much. It's come up almost like new. This is one of the few operas she never recorded commercially. I wonder why? Sutherland was to have sung this as her Covent Garden farewell in 1990 but said she could no longer move around the set so it was the Anna Bolena in 1988 which was her last opera in London - her voice still rang out magnificently in the final cabaletta - I was there. That high B at the end of the first act seemed to go on for ever.

Omg thank you very much! I adore Judith Blegen so any new perfomanceis a delight to hear!

Instead of Johan Strauss the Whole performance sounds like Gilbert and Sullivan……

Thank you!!! How wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bravi tutti. Sutherland is my Primadonna assoluta. 👏👏👏 and Walter Skezak, a privilege, as Frosch. Bravo maestro Bonynge.

Thank you for posting this! Overture: 0:04 Act 1: 08:53 Act 2: 54:50 Laughing Song: 1:09:31 Czardas: 1:27:15 Act 3: 2:00:45 Talent Aria: 2:15:34

Bergonzi, considerado por algunos "sabios" como el catedratico del canto, ademas de saber cantar, conocia todos los trucos del canto: creo que abusaba de los portamentos. Creo, ademas, que las arias estan bajadas de tono. Yo vi la Lucia de Kraus, en lls 80' del pasado siglo, en el Liceo. Kraus mucho mejor.

Casta diva sounds on the original key as opposed to so many other versions transposed down.

Dame Joan and Howard Cossell? Unbelievable!

The ultimate Norma. I agree with Akai's observations; this has long been my favorite of her recorded Norma performances. While I do miss Dame Joan's great colleague Marilyn here (Huguette is fine, but she's not Horne), and the ovations have been mysteriously edited down, it's an epic, inspiring performance all round, including Bonynge's conducting. San Francisco was indeed a lucky place as Dame Joan returned ten years later for another run of Normas (in between she did her first US Leonora's, and a run of Fledermaus), and later made her US debut there as Anna Bolena. That company is barely a shadow of what it once was, but so is the entire world of opera.

Titans in an advanced vocal age still performing at the heights of Parnassus. These types are missed. We have some good performers today but nothing like we used to. We were spoiled

Incisive conducting by Bonynge, with thrillingly judged tempos at the key moments. Will never understand why it's fashionable to dismiss him as 'Mr. Sutherland'.

God's mercy is renewed every morning! Thanks a lot AKAI

Tourangeau, adore her. And Joan is in good voice here. Actually using chest notes too. Thank you for uploading!!

Thank you very very much. Love Sutherland/Bonynge and Norma is a masterpiece.

Many thanks for your hard work. 👏👏👏👏👏 Another great gem to listen to tonight. 💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

Sutherland superb but I don't like Horne,never totally natural,it got worse the older she got.

54:48 Luciano

I was there in the 12 row ..wondering memories!!!

Oh my!!! Joan is in stunning ( usual!) form… I’m from New Orleans but missed this…I was finishing junior high at the time, and didn’t come to opera, and Sutherland until the late 70s… what a pity to miss this legendary performance by the very greatest, and in my city…!

Gracia por estas joyas

I was in the audience at one of the Chicago Semiramides. Both singers had such enormous voices [although Sutherland's was clearly larger than Horne's] that one felt that they must be hearing this even outside the opera house on Wacker Drive. No recording I have ever heard of Sutherland captures the stunning and visceral impact of her singing [although her studio "Santo di patria" comes close].

Greetings from Kyiv! This is unique, thank you very much! Maybe you can answer the question. On the title picture, next to the title of the opera and the performers, I see the same signature as on the box of my studio recording. Do you know what kind of signature this is?

I saw a performance of Norma at the Met in April 1970 when I was in New York with my father. Standing room only tickets. Joan Sutherland's voice filled the Met. I was 12.

Grande Donizetti e grandi esecutori con un Super Luciano...

She is in science fiction voice here. I have listened to this a few times now and I cannot believe Sutherland's singing and I've heard her a LOT. It's absolutely perfect, and for Norma that is saying something. I feel like I'm listening to an undiscovered instrument being played by a magical virtuoso. It doesn't really sound like singing at all. And I'm not being critical when I say that.

A fine example of how the greatness of the voice was heard only live. Her many excellent studio recordings are treasures, but never was DECCA really successful in capturing the full glory of Sutherland's sound in their studios.

I am overwhelmed by the artistry. There will never be another.

😅🤣😂 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe ABC's "Saturday Night Live" predated NBC's show. As many will remember, what was to become "Saturday Night Live on NBC was originally called "NBC Saturday Night." I'm not sure when they changed the name of the show. Dame Joan's performance was fabulous BTW.

If you have this then you would know Irving Gutman. I listened to this at his home on his reel to reel in 1971. This and many more he had. Thank you for posting.

The day after this performance Dame Joan and Bergonzi gave a signing session in a record store near Covent Garden. I was able to speak to both of them and still treasure their autographs.

Sia le cantanti che Rossini sono arrivati a livelli stratosferici. La Semiramide è una opera strepitosa.

This, then, is the concert that made Horne world famous.

Sutherland and Horne are beyond compare.

43:53

Imagine performing your break out role on the same stage, like she does here, but it's twenty four years later? She was Incredible.