1957 Joan Sutherland as Madame Herz

Here's a rarity for you: Sutherland's only assumption of Madame Herz. This video includes only the numbers in which Sutherland sings. Originally, the excellent Rita Streich was set to sing the top notes in the trio, but withdrew due to illness, thus giving us the only recorded live Sutherland F6.
I'm inordinately proud of this one, as I was able to remove a distracting whirring sound from the recording without damaging the music. Be sure to check out the utterly delightful trio. Well, the whole thing is delightful. Here's the track listing:
0:00 No. 1 Aria - Da schlägt die Abschiedsstunde
4:30 No. 3 Trio - Ich bin die erste Sängerin
10:31 No. 4 Finale - Jeder Künstler strebt nach Ehre
Der Schauspieldirektor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Madame Herz ... Joan Sutherland
Mademoiselle Silberklang ... Naida Labay
Herr Vogelsang ... Alexander Young
Herr Buff ... Gwyn Griffith
Herr Frank ... Peter Lagger
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Bryan Balkwill
Glyndebourne, July 7, 1957

[@Alice-wk6gt]

Wow! Wow! Can't be better than this ever!

[@johnruggeri843]

Sutherland belongs with the greatest singers to have left recordings. The sheen, bounce and sheer decibels of her voice on stage is NOT completed duplicated on any recorded thing I know CF to the High D at the Trio at Act I of Norma which I heard on stage. Thank you kindly for posting-John

[@jackbulmash4247]

Agree. Not one of her recordings even though great do not give a fully accurate representation of the splendor of her live performances.

[@jimbuxton2187]

@@jackbulmash4247 ....yes... the recording process didn't capture her velvety sheen or the amazing hovering surround sound of her soaring tones!!

[@jackbulmash4247]

@@DavidoffGustav Many times.

[@soniaealonsoharden1372]

She has been my muse for years!

[@build_better_english2709]

+Sonia E Alonso Harden She was, unfortunately.

[@soniaealonsoharden1372]

Prima Donna Asoluta!

[@pietrodi1]

beyond the notes Sutherland is pure enchantment, but unlike spells that as such are destined to fade, its magic will remain imperishable, thanks to recordings like this!

[@krowapaulinka4351]

9:00 starts the phrase everyone is here for ;)

[@asdfopera7661]

I came here for 3:37.

[@debbiewoodburn6786]

La Stupenda! The Incomparable!

[@sutherland9]

This is not the only live recording of J. Sutherland singing a high F. When she sang The Magic Flute at Covent Garden the first aria was sung in the original key. That live recording exists and can be heard here on youtube.

[@bellini7verdi]

NADIE COMO ELLA PARA HACER ESTAS COLOCACIONES VOCALES.........CON EJECUCION PERFECTA.....LLENAS DE GLORIA......Y DE SOBERBIA Y ENERGIA ...SIN PARANGON...................VOZ...PURA ...SUELTA Y RESUELTA......PARA GLORIA DE NUESTROS OIDOS......

[@barbaranorthwood]

Utterly delightful. Thank you.

[@danawinsor1380]

What a beautiful performance. Joan's "Adagio" segment is truly stunning (as is the rest of the performance).

[@TheTheaterMovies]

she's perfect!!

[@MrStpendouslvforjo]

Actually, there is an F6 in the live recording from Covent Garden 1962 where she sang the FIRST Queen of the Night aria (in the original key)

[@MrQwerty88]

+george prentice Joan Sutherland never sang The Queen of Night in 1960. She didn't sing the role until January 1962. In those performances, the two arias she sings were lowered. The first aria, was lowered from B-flat major, down to A-major. The high Fs, instead were high E.

[@MrStpendouslvforjo]

+MrQwerty88 Not to be argumentative....but in the '62 Magic Flute.....the first aria is in the ORIGINAL key - with the high F You are right about the year being 1962.😊

[@skitzo429]

+MrQwerty88 Singular, there's one high F in the first aria.

[@bellini7verdi]

SUS AGUDOS EN AQUELLOS MOMENTOS CORTABAN EL AIRE............Y SU AMPLITUD TAPONABA LA ATMOSFERA....................

[@josephhapp9]

Also remember the legitimate argument against Modern Tuning Pitch A440 ,,,Verdi argued against anything above A432,,,who knows where Mozart would prefer . Time for non singers (instrumentalists conductors directors recording engineers etc) to step down and give power to the vocalist. Then we may have the Golden Age of singers again.

[@JoanSutherlandFan]

Yes! This high note is a high F! Unfortunately was "drowned" for the other voices....

[@florgano]

Priceless! Thank you for sharing.

[@Richiesutherland]

No, sorry, Sutherland is Herz and Nadia Labay is Silberklang. Streich cancelled the engagement. Joan said that they intended to switch lines when it came to the Fs (including the stretch in the finale), and had to revert to the original division when Labay came on board. I ADORE Streich--I would have loved to have heard Joan and Streich together, although this recording gives us Joan's only live Fs

[@MrStpendouslvforjo]

You did a great job! This video sounds GREAT!

[@Shahrdad]

This is great! She touches the F's with ease. I still have to hear her sustain a high F rather than touch and move on.

[@nanborg65]

You'll never hear it. She didn't have it. Her vocal mechanism carried with it a more-or-less firm ceiling at E6. To sustain notes comfortably even one note past that would have required a registral shift (i.e., towards flageolet register) which her voice was not capable of. But remember, her physiological voice was something in the area of a lyric mezzo, so in a sense she built a whole technique on registral "violations" and overcompensations that probably shouldn't have existed in the first place. That's what was so amazing about her. This voice almost shouldn't have existed at all!

[@Shahrdad]

I think you're exactly right. I always loved the sound of her highest notes, but I know what you mean. One thing I have thought for a long time was that the highest notes in young, fat Callas's voice sounded more natural and more easily produced that Sutherland's. In the excerpt of Turco (Non si da follia maggiore) from 1950, the E-flat just pops out so easily, "easy as drinking water, as Simionato described Callas's E-flats. Someone left a great comment on a video that whereas Callas had very easy and seamless access to the highest notes in her prime, Sutherland had to flip a switch to activate that part of her voice, usually with a slight pause as she prepared the note, which was always magnificent. There is an audible shift in the position of the sound which Sutherland herself talked about, saying it felt like the sound didn't feel like it came out of her mouth, but out of the back of her head. She said in one interview that once when she was making a recording, one of the chorus members behind her told her, "When you hit those high notes, it sounds like you're singing backwards!" which confirmed to Sutherland that the sensation of the voice coming from the back of the head was not false. It was a truly magnificent instrument, and especially in those early days, before she started making her voice heavier, it had such a beautiful crystalline sound. I've always said she was a freak of nature!

[@LohengrinO]

Sutherland was a lyric mezzo with that weak bottled atrophic indifferent middle voice and a C6, D6 and E6 that could destroy the Universe? I will never stop being amazed by the stupidities I read from Opera fans :D

[@Shahrdad]

I don't think she was a mezzo either. Her low register was always too weak to have ever been a mezzo. One can make a better argument that Callas's natural voice was a mezzo, since her low register was always magnificent, but I'm not quite convinced that she was.

[@joshuamcpherson007]

@@Shahrdad I believe that Sutherland had a very unique instrument, but was fundamentally a soprano. As a young singer she believed herself to be a mezzo, and actually won prizes singing as a mezzo early in life. She sings this mezzo aria, including the low A, quite easily and naturally. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIPcfnypj7Gtnck

[@CaptFitzbattleaxe]

@sutherland9 A biography of Dame Joan says that she sang the two arias down a half step and whole step respectively. Adjusting the recordings accordingly produces a more natural result. (ie sounds more like her in 1962)

[@Richiesutherland]

Do remember that Mozart's F was closer to our E natural, so, despite the many wonderful QoN's I've heard, it really is a falsification to make sopranos scream it up a half tone from where Mozart actually wrote it. And stated below, Joan didn't need a high F. With a voice that could have encompassed Isolde, taking the voice night after night after night up to high Eb with ease is an unheard of feat (remember, for years, she rarely sang an opera or a concert with many Ds and and Eb or two!

[@lakehayden]

well done!

[@herrbrucvald6376]

the voice sounds quite different, such that I mightn't think it to be her. but how could someone at the Garden hear this and not give her a bel canto role??

[@photo161]

-- like great music, stupidity endures forever...

[@hester1955]

Did you not hear? They did.

[@CaptFitzbattleaxe]

@asdfopera @asdfopera I used Audacity, a fabulous open source program that is my constant companion in making these videos. Agreed about high F. I mean, E6 isn't high enough for us? :) But really: after high E, soprano notes tend to sound unnatural to me, as though there's a barrier that only a couple sopranos can successfully breach. Fs, F#s, Gs tend to sound weird and mechanical to me. E-flat is the sweet spot. At least, it was for Joan.

[@CaptFitzbattleaxe]

"Sutherland and Bonynge: An Intimate Biography" by Quaintance Eaton

[@AkaiGX]

9:00

[@AntonGerzenbergPiano]

Still, I don't understand why she didn't sing the F at the Schlussgesang... I mean, it's written by Mozart, so there is no possibility in not singing it. The thing she did, didn't sound natural. I agree, btw, the Trio is very delightful. The adagio-part is worth it alone.

[@familypondman]

This is her real voice and not from later, making it dark to became the big roles and the high notes didn't come that easy anymore and more onnatural vocals!

[@baritonebynight]

Singers must have a note or two above what they will perform in public.She probably vocalized up to top F and G, but they were never comfortable. Have you ever sung an aria that was too high for you? Its not fun, you worry about your high notes and it takes away from the aria. Even world class singers have their limits. I think that Dame Joan's high notes were great, but they do not make her as an artist....that was the beauty of the instrument itself.

[@fabriziomariagarzi5534]

Soprani di oggi....imparate!

[@manonscate69]

where in the video you hear the high f?

[@skitzo429]

+manonscate69 9:07

[@MadonnaImperia]

Which biography is that?

[@infundomaris]

13:35 Sutherland didn't sing the last coloratura to the F. She had enough lol

[@skitzo429]

She only sings the one F at 9:07, there are a couple more later in the role that she omitted.

[@Tsunade3Sannin]

are you sure it isnt streich singing Silberklang and labay who was supposed to sing Herz? just sounds like streich there to me