If there's one thing that one can say about Joan Sutherland is that she had the glorious and magnificent voice of all time. One can only imagine the huge ringing ping that instrument left in the world's grandest opera houses. "Vorrei Spiegarvi, oh Dio!" is just the kind of music Joan should be singing -- very flowing legato and stretched out, flowing phrases. However, this song was recorded as the end of her career, which is unfortunate because the Joan Sutherland we knew of the 1960's would have remarkable ease with Mozart's coloratura passages. At 53, her coloratura sounds slightly awkward and she has some difficulty staying above the pitch at all times. But more importantly she is involved in the acting, still has a resplendent and georgeous voice, and makes it just a beautiful beautiful song. It's actually now one of my favorite renditions. "Dich, Teure Halle" from Tannhauser and the Lohengrin arias are sung excellently. The Noel Coward pieces, as cute as they are, become terribly hammy and corney simply as a result of them being included in a compilation of Donizetti, Mozart, Wagner, Rossini, Gounod, and Massenet. The majority of the art songs were recorded late in her career, but there is some interesting interpretation. "Holy Night" is excellent! The beginning text sounds very stiff and you can't understand the words, but as it progresses this has so much feeling and movement. I've never heard her so moved by what's she's singing! The surprise high note at the end makes it all worth it.
