An excellent question. I saw Joan in Idomeneo in Sydney in 1977. In 1989 or 1990 Opera Australia did Medea in French with Elizabeth Connell. Sensational.

A correction Idomeneo was 1979.

I never heard that before to be honest, but now I'm dying to learn some day that it IS true. lol

I even heard that it showed some incredibly powerful acting, given the power and authority she seems to posses in the photographs of her in the role, it doesn't seem surprising. I do think she must have been particularly inspired throughout this opera , just hearing the intensity in her singing.

Yes, she sounds even more committed and impressive than she was in other more "routine" performances (though Sutherland's definition of "routine" was still very thrilling, hehehe).

I saw the production twice. First with the Victoria State Opera, then in Sydney with Joan. The director said he just let her go. She was amazing. It sat in her voice like a glove. She was as exciting as Pauline Tinsley.

Donald Cant I would KILL to have been there (or any of her performances really.) Unfortunately I was born a few decades too late.

It wasn't? I've only heard large voices sing it. I saw this performance as well.

Are you kidding? Mozart would have died to have heard such a voice singing his music.

If you want acting, go to the theatre; opera is about the human voice, and no other human could do what she did. "One good octave?" You know nothing of her career if that's what you think. Listen to her recordings from 1955 to 1975: You'll never hear anything like it. And don't mention Callas, the most overrated soprano in history, who stopped singing most of her bel canto roles after hearing Sutherland sing them.

@@Eiswirth1 Callas's reputation is a bit of selective memory. At the time she was still singing she was heavily criticized and considered somewhat sad. Her reputation began to pick up steam in the 90s. And now it's pure fiction. Same thing happened with Ponselle. One comment from Callas and all of a sudden she's the greatest singer who ever lived. She barely had a high B.

@@Eiswirth1 It is completely untrue that Callas stopped singing roles after hearing Sutherland. Callas stopped singing most of her roles mid-1959, before Sutherland had sung any of the great Callas roles. You are completely correct about Sutherland's voice being huge and certainly way more than one octave. She did develop a slightly wide tremolo on long held notes in the middle voice in the very late year 1985 to her retirement but it was not particularly distracting. You are wrong that opera is about the "human voice" alone. Opera is theater and needs performing skills beyond simply perfectly singing each note. If composers had simply wanted to hear the human voice without anything else they would have written various forms of songs without words but they chose to write theater pieces. Callas was and probably always will remain the greatest singing-actress who ever performed on the operatic stage. Sutherland was always working on her acting [I saw her 13 times across 25 years] and when she was truly involved she could provide exciting acting when she found interest in the character [her Donna Anna was very exciting for example]. She also could infuse drama with voice alone as many of her recordings demonstrate [no one sings Verdi's "Santo di Patria" with anywhere near her power and feeling]. She herself admitted that her discomfort on the stage was something she always had to work on.

LOL. One good octave. Please be kind enough to reveal which one it was, because I would be hard pressed to choose just two.

@@joshuamcpherson007 The upper one. For a few years...

lets hear you sing it

And what pray tell is the mistake. Or do you not know but just feel like being a troll.