Customer Reviews

The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland: A Prima Donna's Progress

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fans of Joan Sutherland will welcome this book. The Australian soprano was, of course, one of the great singers of this century. Her career was a long and honorable one, throughout which she and her husband/colleague, Richard Bonynge, always strove to maintain the highest of vocal and musical standards. This book, her long- awaited autobiography, is subtitled, "A Prima Donna's Progress," and that is exactly what Sutherland gives us. Indeed, I cannot recall another singer's biography that gives so detailed an account of a career. Sutherland provides virtually a day-by-day record of what she sang, when, where and with whom, with occasional other incidents thrown in. One suspects that not a single operatic performance, recital, recording or television appearance has gone unmentioned. This is both the book's strength and its weakness. Often this autobiography reads as if Sutherland had simply opened up her old engagement calendars and scrap books and added some connecting prose. What we do not get is any real insight into what Joan Sutherland thought about any of this, nor do we get as much as we might like of personal anecdotes to flesh out the bare-bones facts. For example, other Sutherland biographies have given thorough accounts of that legendary first Lucia at Covent Garden in 1959. Here, we just get more of the same. One hoped for more from Sutherland herself. What was it like to work with Serafin? what did she learn from him? how did he rehearse and coach? Possibly, Sutherland's (by her own admission) notoriously bad memory prevented the inclusion of much information beyond what is in her own files and diaries. All the same, at times one feels exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed by the seemingly endless recitation of performances, recitals and recordings. In spite of the surfeit of factual information, one hungers for more personal insights into Sutherland's life. Surely, she was more than the sum total of her many engagements. But then, Sutherland has always been a very private person and, perhaps understandably, this book reflects that. Its tone is casual and breezy, leavened with flashes of humor, totally lacking in cattiness, and generous in praise of colleagues. In these respects, the book is a true reflection of the personality and character of its author. And perhaps the aforementioned sense of fatigue is deliberate. The author certainly gives a very clear sense of the enormous amount of sheer hard work involved in her career, and of the utter dedication and professionalism of Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. Apparently, that is how they wish to be remembered, and it is a praiseworthy valedictory indeed.

Seeing Sutherland interviewed on television, I didn't expect much insight into her career from her -- her husband is clearly better at it. I had hoped that given time for reflection, something better than this would emerge. All that you really learn is how busy she was traveling here and there for engagements. It almost makes you believe that she wouldn't have had a career if hadn't been for Bonynge.

To be quite honest, I haven't finished reading the book. I am a big fan of the great Joan Sutherland, but the autobiography was not what I expected. As an aspiring singer, I was hoping that Dame Sutherland might write about any challenges that she may have encountered in her successful operatic career. Sutherland has an enormous voice and such a wide vocal range of any soprano that I've heard. It would have been wonderful if she had written about her voice lessons with her mother and how she came to attain an almost perfect technique (she's a dramatic coloratura, if you didn't know). (There is, of course, the very small chance that she was a natural and didn't have to work on her technique...but I doubt that).

The book contains many facts and details about where and when she performed, but it does not convey what her life was like. There was no sense of her emotions or feelings throughout the first bit that I actually did read. From reading the other comments on this book, it seems that it didn't get much better thereafter (and I didn't miss much).

How unfortunate. Perhaps one day a biographer might be able to re-create her life with the warmth and colour that make people interesting to read about.

What a dull book. An engagement book, transcribed into 'autiobiography' makes for very dreary reading. There's every step of the way here too. I'm astonished she didn't include the trams stops and the flight numbers as well. Though not as uncharitable as Rita Hunter's, or as silly as Renata Scotto's autiobiographies, this tome has none of the excitement of Beverly Sills' wonderful book. It could have been. It's almost like Sutherland herself onstage: It was all there, but it could have been so much more exciting with a tiny bit more courage to let herself go.

For a mouth-watering, page-turning, white-knuckle, at the edge-of-your-seat roller-coaster ride alla Elizabeth Taylor, this is not it. This is Joan Sutherland and as such, in and of itself I would bestow nothing less that five stars.

So the major part of this biography reads as a "Who's Who in Opera," a libretto of history without histrionics, an engagement book of touring and flight schedules, and a delightful discography. Sutherland did not have an emotionally charged temperament nor a lifestyle that would have been the product of such; otherwise she would not have lasted as long as she did in every part of the globe. She was a delightfully gifted, musically infused vessel of singing talent who, in the hands of husband and fellow countryman Richard Bonynge, developed into the greatest coloratura soprano of the 20th century (perhaps of all time, as we only know those of the past on the wings of legend). Besides, if she did write a "tell all" she would be waterboarded by Richard!

"I am amazed," she says "at those who can remember their past in great detail. I just don't have that gift."
She doesn't need any more gifts. She does remember quite a bit: her father dying in her mother's arms when she was six-years old, community support, school, friends, her mezzo-soprano mother who she imitated from the time she was age three. She remembers singing competitions, fourth place awards, first place, her journey from Australia to London, her conviction that her career at Covent Garden would be in the mezzo-soprano roles. She remembers her husband turning her away from the piano, not allowing her to see the keys as he extended her range on and upward. She remembers, almost in unworthy astonishment, a thirty-year career that took over their lives as one carried away by a tidal wave.

I remember front row seats at the Seattle Opera House for my sixteenth birthday to hear her "Lakme." I remember standing spell-bound as she signed my program saying, "Don't try to do as I do dear. Take your time." And I remember singing next to her at the Boston Opera House twenty years later in "Anna Bolena."

There is no doubt that the driving force behind this Prima Donna Assoluta was Richard Bonynge; but what a vehicle he drove! Irreplaceable. Inimitable. Immeasurable.

Informative; opera for those who love it yet can't take all the elitism and confusing jargon. Sutherland tells about her amazing career in plain language, yet it is a very good read. I too would have liked to have read more about Sutherland off stage, but the info on her life that was included was interesting and gives some insight as to what life as a prima donna is like!

Joan Sutherland is, in my eyes THE greatest singer of the century.No question about it. As a avid fan, I have been waiting for this book for a long time, and luckily I was not disappointed. The book gives you a real insight into the life and motivation of the great diva. Sutherland writes in a friendly ,homely tone, never pretending to be anything that she is not. She does survey her past glories, but frankly with a voice as phenenomal as hers, she has every right to.The real Sutherland fan, which this biography is aimed I think, gets an insight into the background story behind the prima donna.

If I had any real complaints about the book, I suppose that like every one else , I wanted to to pry into what was really going on in her head during those years she was the reigning prima donna assoluta. In this respect , Sutherland is a bit recitent and disinclined to bare her soul on the page for all to read. Consequently, I didn't really get a clear idea of how she reacted to personal matters which happened during her life. These however are only minor gripes with a really good read. If you like the soprano voice and you like opera then this book is essential,and a cracking read, if you have read some of the other biographies on Joan Sutherland to get a more balanced viewpoint on the diva.

Who cares how fantastic she was in the theatre (and she was) this is a sad excuse for an autobiography. A date book jotted down for our pleasure. What fun!

No feeling, no emotion, no humanity.

Very different from what we witnessed on stage.

Shame.