Joan Sutherland & John Alexander - "Verranno a te sull'aure" LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (Donizetti) 1965

From recently discovered original quarter-inch tapes of performances of the historic 'Sutherland-Williamson Grand Opera' tour of 1965, here is an excerpt from Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Australian soprano, Joan Sutherland, alongside the brilliant American tenor, John Alexander. They are captured in the Act I duet between Lucia and Edgardo - "Qui di sposa eterna ... Ah! Verranno a te sull'aure". This performance comes from Melbourne's His Majesty's Theatre on July 10th, 1965.

[@chrisryan9071]

I was a very young teenager who saved up paper-round money to be able to attend this very performance! Thank you Brian Castles-Onion for a very precious souvenir ...

[@joannilson2900]

Is the complete performance available anywhere?? I remember seeing this in a catalog ears ago, but not available for order....Thx so for posting.

[@sutherland9]

Is that harp glissando at 2:10 in the score? I have attended countless performances of "Lucia" over the years and I have never heard that. Perhaps Ricky, whom I assume was conducting, added it for some reason.

[@richardholmesmusic2128]

I’ve never heard that before or since. My guess is that one of the tenors went off-pitch in a performance putting Joan in the wrong key to begin “Verranno a te” and the harp was to give Joan a pitch sense when she began. Also, I’ve never heard the sequence of notes Alexander sings on his last solo line: Gs A-Bb-F, instead of just Hs and an F. A little experiment?

[@sutherland9]

@@richardholmesmusic2128 yes, at 6:07 on the phrase "rammentati ne stringe il ciel" Mr. Alexander sings pitches that differ from what is in the published score. It is not history making, but maybe a different manuscript of "Lucia" has the notes he sang.