Joan Sutherland’s father, a tailor of Scottish descent, died when she was six years old leaving his family with little means of support. Her mother, who had herself received voice lessons and was a keen amateur vocalist and pianist, taught her daughter to sing; while other family members regaled her with music-hall songs and recordings of the great singers of the past such as Caruso and her compatriot Dame Nellie Melba. Although Sutherland sang at school, after leaving she learnt typing and shorthand and took a secretarial job with an agricultural supplies firm. In her late teens however she gained a scholarship to study singing formally with John and Aida Dickens in Sydney.

In 1947 Sutherland made her concert debut as Dido / Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) at Sydney Town Hall and two years later won the Sun Aria Competition, Australia’s most important singing contest. She was cast by Sir Eugene Goossens in the title role of his opera Judith for its first performances at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1951, the year in which she sailed for England accompanied by her mother and entered the Royal College of Music to study with Clive Carey.

Having joined the young Covent Garden Opera, at the Royal Opera House, London, in the autumn of 1952 and made her debut as the First Lady / Die Zauberflöte (followed by the Priestess / Aida and Clotilde / Norma opposite Callas), Sutherland was soon also thrust into substantial roles such as Amelia / Un ballo in maschera (1952) and later Penelope, Lady Rich / Gloriana, Agathe / Der Freischütz (both 1954) and Jenifer / A Midsummer Marriage (1955), while also serving time as a Rhinemaiden and Valkyrie in Der Ring des Nibelungen and in other smaller parts such as the Overseer / Elektra and Frasquita / Carmen. In 1956 she graduated to Pamina / Die Zauberflöte and during 1957 sang Eva / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Gilda / Rigoletto, Antonia / Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Micaëla / Carmen; and in 1958 Madame Lidoine / Dialogues des Carmélites and the Woodbird / Siegfried.

During her ‘galley years’ at the Royal Opera House, in 1954 Sutherland married the pianist and conductor Richard Bonynge, who had been a fellow student in Australia. He played a key role in encouraging her to sing coloratura roles, such as the title part in Handel’s Alcina, in which she created a sensation with the Handel Opera Society at St Pancras Town Hall in 1957. Earlier, in 1956, she had made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as the Countess / Le nozze di Figaro and the First Lady; while in the autumn of 1958 she received high praise for her interpretation of the Israelite Woman in Handel’s Samson with the Covent Garden company.

Sutherland’s breakthrough at the Royal Opera House came in February 1959 when she sang the title role in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Tullio Serafin and sympathetically directed by Franco Zeffirelli. She immediately won international acclaim and henceforth was recognised as one of the greatest stars of the contemporary operatic world. Later Covent Garden roles included Violetta / La traviata (1960), Amina / La sonnambula (1960), Alcina (1962), Elvira / I puritani (1964) and Marie / La Fille du Régiment (1966), as well as the title roles in Norma (1967), Maria Stuarda (1977), Esclarmonde (1983) and Anna Bolena (1988).

To some extent Sutherland’s great success as Lucia had been prefigured by her Donna Anna / Don Giovanni at the Vancouver Festival of 1958 and later in the EMI recording of the same opera by Giulini (released in 1959). In 1960 she sang this role at Glyndebourne, as well as Elvira, and made her debut at the Paris Opera as Lucia. When she sang Alcina at La Fenice in Venice in that same year, she was hailed by the Italians as ‘La Stupenda’: a highly appropriate title, given Sutherland’s ability to astound throughout her career. During 1961 she sang for the first time at La Scala, Milan and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on both occasions as Lucia and receiving high praise. She sang at the Met regularly until 1989, apart from a hiatus between 1978 and 1982.

Encouraged by her husband, who conducted virtually all her performances from the mid-1960s onwards, Sutherland now added many unusual bel canto roles to her repertoire, such as the title parts in Donizetti’s Beatrice di Tenda (1961), Rossini’s Semiramide and Marguerite de Valois / Les Huguenots (both 1962). Her first appearance as Marie in La Fille du Regiment in 1966 displayed an unexpected talent for humour on stage and this too provided another string to her operatic bow.

During the 1970s Sutherland continued to develop. In 1972 she recorded the title role in Puccini’s Turandot with Zubin Mehta conducting (although she did not sing this role on stage); began to explore the lesser-known operas of Massenet, such as Le Roi de Lahore and Esclarmonde (first sung in San Francisco in 1974 and later regarded by Sutherland herself as her finest achievement); continued to explore the bel canto repertoire through the title roles in operas such as Lucrezia Borgia and Maria Stuarda; while not neglecting the traditional repertoire in the form of Leonora / Il trovatore (1975). At the same time she worked to improve her diction, which initially was criticized and may have suffered through her penchant for sculpted legato singing of the highest quality.

Even during the 1980s Sutherland was indefatigable in her exploratory work, adding Ernani, I masnadieri and Adriana Lecouvreur to her repertoire as well as Handel’s Athalia. Her final complete opera performance was as Marguerite de Valois at the Sydney Opera House in 1990, followed by her last public appearance in a gala performance of Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden on New Year’s Eve, 1990.

After her retirement Sutherland maintained a private life away from opera, although she did develop close links with the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She was made a DBE in 1979 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1991. Off-stage she was quite without pretension and was warm, friendly and supportive.

Sutherland’s voice combined huge power with great flexibility, agility and range. Although physically imposing, she was able to convince on stage in frail portrayals such as Lucia; while at the same time she could be extremely impressive when required in roles such as Norma, and also very funny, for instance as Marie. The exclusive contract with Decca Records which she signed in 1959 was extremely advantageous to all parties, providing an outlet for her and her husband’s musical explorations and ensuring that their musicianship was heard globally. She can now be recognised as a unique operatic phenomenon who, to quote her family at the time of her death, ‘gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people’.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).