The later stage of Joan Sutherland’s career is coming home, thanks to a new 46 CD set from Decca. Joan Sutherland: The Operas 1971-1988 is the third and final collection of Sutherland’s Decca recordings, presenting the opera legend’s voice at its most mature.
Among the collection is Sutherland’s 1971 recording of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, in which she sings the parts of all four dolls. Her 1972 recording, included here, of Turandot sung with Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé and conducted by Zubin Mehta is considered one of the most famous recordings in opera history, despite Sutherland never actually singing the role on stage.
Several of the recordings included in the package number among Sutherland’s favorites ever. “My favorites have been [in] Norma and La Traviata, there’s no secret of that,” she said in a 1996 interview with the French TV show Musique & Compagnie. “Because I find that, to me, they are real people, very real people, very human people. So many of the characters I play are wonderful conceptions of an author’s mind… I’m very happy usually to sing whatever I’m singing. I’ve always enjoyed whatever role I’ve been doing at a given time.” Sutherland also said she really particularly enjoyed singing Suor Angelica, which is also included in the collection, “because it was different in musical type to what I was used to singing.” She also said that Adriana Lecouvreur, which closes the collection, “was a great favorite, but one of the wonderful pieces I think [was also] La sonnambula… They’ve all been favorites. They’ve all been wonderful things, wonderful pieces to play.”
Born in Sydney in 1910, Sutherland became the first Australian to win a Grammy in 1962 for Best Classical Performance—Vocal. Though it’s been 15 years since her death, Sutherland remains one of the best opera performers of all time in the eyes of many critics. Other standout recordings from Joan Sutherland: The Operas 1971-1988 include Verdi’s Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Ernani, and I masnadieri, and Bellini’s I puritani.