Joan Sutherland's Infamous La Traviata - Act I finale (Genova, 13/03/1983)

Here it is the final aria and cabaletta from Act I of Traviata sang impressively by Joan Sutherland (maybe her last complete Violetta?) in the infamous performance in Genova, where the tenor Lamberto Furlan goy booed!! He was chosen personally by the clueless Bonynge for this La Traviata and of course got booed, together ,unfortunatelly, with Joan Sutherland. Bonynge was so appalled that he left together with Joan the perfomance after the audience heavy booing and interupting the "parigi o cara"! Nevertheless Joan sings in AMAZING VOICE her Act I "Ah forse Lui" & "Sempre Libera"!!!!! At 57 She ROCKS!! Hope to enjoy!!!!!

[@joshuamcpherson007]

Violetta's demanding music still under her command at this late stage of career...legendary stuff. All those high notes, and perfectly delivered.

[@bowenpeyton4087]

a tip : you can watch series on kaldrostream. Been using it for watching a lot of movies lately.

[@malcolmraphael6677]

@Bowen Peyton Yup, I have been using kaldroStream for years myself =)

[@javierzachariah9396]

@Bowen Peyton definitely, I have been watching on kaldroStream for since november myself :D

[@jaxtonjerry6685]

@Bowen Peyton yup, been using Kaldrostream for months myself =)

[@MrStpendouslvforjo]

Thank you OperaMyWorld!! I've been wanting to hear this performance since I first read about it in Time magazine the year it happened! I remember being a teenager and seeing Joan's picture in Time or Newsweek and the article describing her walking out! I am so happy to finally hear her in that very performance! I really hand it to you OperaMyWorld!!

[@OperaMyWorld]

I will upload more today or tomorrow

[@edwardamosbrandwein3583]

@@OperaMyWorld thx! Please do it!

[@OperaMyWorld]

@@edwardamosbrandwein3583 kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJzMiZh8pJ6KhZI

[@davidallen508]

My one and only Violetta forever.What a lucky audience ! Thank you for this gem.

[@marylambcarter]

UNBELIEVABLE

[@LohengrinO]

I cant believe my eyes in this photo....

[@ChrisStockslager]

Booooooooooobs 😝

[@crazyorganist1609]

@@ChrisStockslager she was a woman. Bound to have boobies

[@romainlefranc3760]

Ça fait peur

[@blessOTMA]

She's amazing. The beauty of her voice is overwhelming.

[@-giakhanh--kayden-8337]

Amazing singing as always. Beside the point, the costume designer really went there with this one

[@Sutherland2]

The Genoese were lucky to have Sutherland and Bonynge in their backwater opera house. No important singers go there anymore. Cesspool of opera queens living in the past.

[@jeffreymiller4814]

This is her FINAL Violetta. She’s 6 months shy of 57 years old and in 1983 there wasn’t a soprano alive that could surpass her in this Act 1 finale, ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT of all Verdi cabalettas (along with Carlo vive, Tutto sprezzo, and Salgo già). A very few could match her, but she still reigned supreme then.

[@Antonio-qm3bi]

What about "ah dal sen di quella tomba"? (Regarding Lyric Sopranos)

[@jeffreymiller4814]

@@Antonio-qm3bi Yes, plus Attila Da te queste, Macbeth Or tutti sorgete, and many other lesser known Verdi cabalettas. I believe Sempre libera is still among the most challenging-2 octave range, fast ascending AND descending scales, trills and leaps to exposed high C’s. The Aroldo you mentioned was recorded by Caballé on her Verdi Rarities Lp and it’s a stunner (the live performance on KZbin is even better). Unfortunately Callas waited too long to record it and was no longer able to overcome all the hurdles. Saioa Hernandez, a Caballé protégée, performed it 11 years ago with little excitement. Many singers simply just slow it down in order to get through it. 😴 P.S. da capo means “to the top” or “back to the beginning”. It’s very common in Bach and Handel aria forms, and was an opportunity for singers to improvise on the written notes. There was a time when improvisation was part of a singer’s voice study. Today most singers rely on some scholarly person to write out non-improvised embellishments for the “da capo.” I do know for a fact that Julianne Baird wrote her own. Her Handel CD is brilliant.

[@Antonio-qm3bi]

@@jeffreymiller4814 Caballé's version amazes me. Like the cabalettas of Il Trovatore. Many of them are difficult because they have trills in low notes, like "Semper Libera" or "carlo vive"

[@romearomeo]

LA STUPENDA ❤️

[@meto2854]

Wow what?? I had no idea this has happened in her career. Pls tell us more details?

[@ahogbin2644]

Still in astonishing voice. I gather that all the tenors they had suggested were unavailable and that Furlan was a very last-minute choice. I've heard the entire performance and he was pretty bad, although I've heard worse. Sutherland walked off in the last Act but the performance resumed with her understudy but Furlan still singing. The mob (because that is what it sounded like) screamed "but it is still the same tenor"! I'm sure Bonynge would have preferred Pavarotti or Kraus but we can't always have what we want!!!

[@ahogbin2644]

@@OperaMyWorld So who is the tenor on this recording? I believe Sutherland only sang the first performance of the scheduled run so I am puzzled.

[@OperaMyWorld]

@@ahogbin2644 The Tenor is Lamberto Furlan! He continued till the end of the Perfomance but Sutherland and Bonynge walked out!!

[@Sutherland2]

Yours sounds like the most reasonable explanation. People get sick and replacement singers happen, can't always have the best. But when you look at the totality of the Sutherland/Bonynge career, they mostly chose VERY wisely. This was an anomaly and it's pathetic, stupid, for the Genoese audience to disrespect Our Joan for something beyond her control. That mob of dopey opera queens is just trying to pretend that Teatro Carlo Felice is still relevant. It's not.

[@aprendizercomygor]

Sutherland was extremely respectful and eagerly defensive of her operatic colleagues. Once someone questioned her why she was willing to sing with such lesser singers as those she performed with in her opera seasons in Australia, much less talented than her, and she gave such a fiery defence of their colleagues, pointing out that whatever the level of their skills and natural talents were they were in an extremely demanding and tiresome profession that took them years of study and preparation, that I'm sure that the guy repented having asked that in such an insensitive way. I'm sure that's why she was appalled by the behavior of Genoese audiences. They didn't wait to boo the tenor in the end of the performance or even let him calm down and sing the best way he could that day. They were intent on humiliating him, that's something else, interrupting his concentration all the time. She wouldn't have put up with such uncivilized behavior even if it were La Scala or the Covent Garden.

[@baritonebynight]

By that time Pavarotti was probably too expensive for that place.....they couldn't afford him AND Dame Joan together.

[@amedeofolco9988]

Lei quella sera era FAVOLOSA!!! Basta giudicare male una serata di lei in funzione di chi aveva accanto. Furlan era improponibile,ma lei era la Somma di SEMPRE!!!

[@Shahrdad]

I'm rather surprised she didn't transpose Sempre libera down at this point. I heard her around this time, and she transposed down to avoid the E-flat. I'm so glad I heard her live.

[@machovoce6826]

Listening to her on YT is not hearing her live I can assure you.

[@baritonebynight]

I'm not because it's more complicated than "does the singer have the note or not". It has more to do with the tessitura than a single note...it also has to do with how the note is approached and what one has to do with it. Dame Joan probably had a top E flat up until she retired, but felt more comfortable singing many of her roles transposed a step down or so because they were more comfortable that way. Nothing is worse than having to sing when you are uncomfortable....she knew her instrument very well.

[@joshuamcpherson007]

@@baritonebynight Very true, the lower tessitura conserves physical energy and strength...which is needed to make the highest notes... and just finish the performance! So in some roles Dame Joan would transpose, in others she would not. The voice tends to "sit" lower as singers age too, causing the singer to reach for some notes that, formerly, didn't require reaching. That said, she never transposed a performance of La Traviata that I am aware of.

[@lastupendaboy]

She did the Lucia Ebs still in 1985, London… she limited them, but didn’t avoid all

[@robertmwoodley1502]

The portrait is from her Australian Opera performances in one of Michael Stennet's wonderful costumes. The black Act II crinoline was astounding! ... And he wasn't a clueless Bonynge! He was a dedicated friend to Mr Furlan and probably didn't realise how ignorant and rude the audience would be. The cretins had just heard a legendary soprano and destroyed the night.

[@OperaMyWorld]

@@robertmwoodley1502 For me Bonynge many times choosed second or third rate tenors or baritones to sing with Sutherland! She deserved the best!

[@malcolmattwells]

At any age the best ever!!!

[@machovoce6826]

Bravo.

[@jjlungdoc7472]

Infamous? Non capisco I don’t get it. No entiendo. Je ne comprends pas She is glorious, never mind this is late in her career! Or in any language what JS deserves: 👍👌🎉🙏✋️

[@jtdavis6937]

Bonynge wasn't "clueless" and while Lamberto Furlan did have difficulties with his voice on occasion, when he was in form, he was outstanding, as good as a De Stefano or Del Monaco. His 1983 Cavaradossi with Leonie Rysanek, conducted by Cillario, is excellent, in one of the best Toscas ever performed.

[@Dinki-Di]

I heard Furlan live in Sydney a number of times. He was always excruciating to listen to.

[@juanjosedubal]

Great!

[@Rodrigo-rx3nf]

Perfetta come di solito

[@Un_Gordo_De_Derecha]

It would be amazing if instead of that guy was Pavarotti, i'm right?

[@rakellcolotta3675]

She sounds glorious

[@fabriziogarzi9396]

Il tenore? C'è ne fossero oggi di così.

[@octaviohernandez18]

Was this her last public performance of Traviata? The make up and dress are not becoming, but who cares? The voice still holds.

[@edwardamosbrandwein3583]

Yes, this was her LAST TRAVIATA

[@baritonebynight]

@@edwardamosbrandwein3583 Yes, according to Dame Joan's autobiography, that was the last time she sang the role of Violetta. However, she continued to sing from Traviata in recital right up until her farewell performance New Years Eve 1990/91.

[@edwardamosbrandwein3583]

@@baritonebynight thx

[@janm.c.munich3513]

The Genoese should call themselves lucky that a star like Sutherland graced their rural backwater. All that place is known for is collapsing bridges.

[@Un_Gordo_De_Derecha]

Bonynge is a guy that believe that Pavarotti never studied singing

[@Un_Gordo_De_Derecha]

By the way can You upload the parigi o cara?

[@juanjosedubal]

@@josephhapp9 "Possibly due to language barrier."......from what? English? jajajajaja!! even 3 years old childs learn engish fast...

[@Un_Gordo_De_Derecha]

@@josephhapp9 Actually Pavarotti know how to read scores, but sometimes he was just too lazy, for example, hear the 1967 ingemisco, that recording is the definition of technical perfection and amazing vocal habilities

[@Sutherland2]

Luciano, after being discovered and promoted by the Bonynges, behaved like a pig on many recording dates and in the house. He deserved Bonynge;s vendetta. Luciano had a great voice but he was a pig.

[@joshuamcpherson007]

My understanding is that Bonynge was referring to Pavarotti's inability to read music, saying he was lazy for not learning to do so properly. If he ever said Luciano never studied singing, I am unaware of that.