Rating: 
Summary: The Best Lucia Available on Video.
Review: Agree that Joan's voice was beginning to show wear in this performance (I have the tape and LD) but it has a good cast supporting her and she is still worth the price of the video! The costumes and production at The Met are just fine as well. She is not my favorite Lucia, however, Ruth Ann Swenson is even better that Joan but you can't get her Lucia on video. Recommended as a memory of Joan in one of her most famous roles if for no other reason. But it stands as a credible Lucia. Recommended as a truly beautiful opera with great music!
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite opera video of all time
Review: But then, Sutherland is probably my all-time favorite soprano. I had the great good fortune to see a performance of this production at the Met when I lived in Manhattan at that time. Because the Met is such a big house (I sat in the orchestra section), the sound on the video is much better than at the live performance. Krause, in particular was difficult to hear, and Elvira's deeper voice often almost impossible to hear, even in the orchestra seats. Dame Joan is of course much older than the heroine, but her difficulties both in voice and physical movement make her seem that much more touching and vulnerable in the role, to me. The fact that her voice is not the pristine, perfect instrument is was in the 60s and 70s, also, for me, adds emotion and expressiveness to this particular production. I will always be able to enjoy this performance, and as a lover of vocal and musical beauty, that is quite a comfort to me. I highly recommend this particular version to anyone who loves the opera, and especially who love Sutherland's voice.
Rating:
Summary: Sutherland is an amazing Lucia, but so is Callas!!
Review: First of all, I would like to dispel any notion that the readers of these reviews might acquire about Maria Callas's interpretation of Lucia. If you haven't noticed, many of the other reviewers you see here produce every argument in the book why Sutherland sings the role better than Callas. Why do they have to harp on it to such an extent if Sutherland were the undisputed queen of this role?? Both Callas and Sutherland are very individualistic singers, like apples and oranges, and it's impossible to make the claim that either's interpretation is superior to the other.
One of the many indicators of Sutherland's prowess is not simply that she hits all the high coloratura notes without cracking, but that she glides up to them with perfect and even tone quality. She never belts out of the ensemble to get the notes out; her notes just provide the apex of the pyriamid, as it were, in perfect harmony with the rest of the singers on stage.
Contrary to what the other reviewers have written, Callas has no problem at all hitting the super-high coloratura parts that the role of Lucia demands. Just get any recording of her in this role to prove that. Try the live one opposite of Di Stefano. In fact, I think it's worth mentioning that Callas is one of the few sopranos, save Anna Moffo, who could master the role of Carmen, actually a lower, sensual mezzo-soprano role, as well as Lucia di Lammermoor. While Sutherland is a true coloratura soprano, Callas can sing almost any role she wants. No other soprano than Callas has ever had that much success in so many tonal dimensions!! Not to mention that Callas is also the undisputed queen of acting on the operatic stage. Her whole life was a drama on and off the stage. Sutherland, while a fabulous singer, arguably stands quite awkward there.
It should also be noted that Callas forever changed the nature of this role. Before her day, only canary-like sopranos, such as Roberta Peters or Lily Pons, sang this role. It was considered to be one for a young teenage girl forced into a wrongful marriage. Callas demonstrated a deeper level of the role with her darker tone, bringing out the greater dimensions of Lucia's insanity. So, in a way Callas paved the road for dramatic coloraturas to sing Lucia, and Sutherland and others like Edita Gruberova and Ruth Ann Swenson have followed suit. It's just a shame that the CD version of Anna Moffo's version is no longer available. With Sutherland and Callas dominating the recordings for that role, hers has been underappreciated.
Onto the criticism of this DVD, I would definitely recommend to any opera fan to obtain this recording. I need not be redundant by repeating any of the other songs of praise the other reviewers wrote. They're all true! The only thing I think needs adding is that Sutherland steals the show to such an extent in the "Mad Scene" that the opera seems to reach a climax at that point, so that the final scene of Act III with Alfredo Kraus seems like a let-down, even though his performance is also splendid apart from hers.
When you watch this DVD, you'll wish you could go back in time and see the performance live. Every time the crowd goes wild for Sutherland, you'll cheer on along with them. Lucia di Lammermoor is a great opera that builds itself around the showcase of the coloratura soprano. In this vein, it's necessary to have a true master performing it. Get this recording with Sutherland, and you can join in the excitement that everyone else also experiences about her interpretation of Lucia.
Rating:
Summary: Sutherland is an amazing Lucia, but so is Callas!!
Review: First of all, I would like to dispel any notion that the readers of these reviews might acquire about Maria Callas's interpretation of Lucia. If you haven't noticed, many of the other reviewers you see here produce every argument in the book why Sutherland sings the role better than Callas. Why do they have to harp on it to such an extent if Sutherland were the undisputed queen of this role?? Both Callas and Sutherland are very individualistic singers, like apples and oranges, and it's impossible to make the claim that either's interpretation is superior to the other.
One of the many indicators of Sutherland's prowess is not simply that she hits all the high coloratura notes without cracking, but that she glides up to them with perfect and even tone quality. She never belts out of the ensemble to get the notes out; her notes just provide the apex of the pyriamid, as it were, in perfect harmony with the rest of the singers on stage.
Contrary to what the other reviewers have written, Callas has no problem at all hitting the super-high coloratura parts that the role of Lucia demands. Just get any recording of her in this role to prove that. In fact, I think it's worth mentioning that Callas is the only soprano who could master the role of Carmen, actually a lower, sensual mezzo-soprano role, as well as Lucia di Lammermoor. While Sutherland is a true coloratura soprano, Callas can sing any role she wants. No other soprano than Callas has ever had that much success in so many tonal dimensions!! Not to mention that Callas is also the undisputed queen of acting on the operatic stage. Her whole life was a drama on and off the stage. Sutherland, while a superior singer, arguably stands quite awkward there.
Onto the criticism of this DVD, I would definitely recommend to any opera fan to obtain this recording. I need not be redundant by repeating any of the other songs of praise the other reviewers wrote. They're all true! The only thing I think needs adding is that Sutherland steals the show to such an extent in the "Mad Scene" that the opera seems to reach a climax at that point, so that the final scene of Act III with Alfredo Kraus seems like a let-down, even though his performance is also splendid apart from hers.
When you watch this DVD, you'll wish you could go back in time and see the performance live. Every time the crowd goes wild for Sutherland, you'll cheer on along with them. Lucia di Lammermoor is a great opera that builds itself around the showcase of the coloratura soprano. In this vein, it's necessary to have a true master performing it. Get this recording with Sutherland, and you can join in the excitement that everyone else also experiences about her interpretation of Lucia.
Rating:
Summary: Dame Joan sings "Luica" at the Met one more time
Review: First off, in a more perfect world we would a performance of Joan Sutherland in "Luica di Lammermoor" that was recorded closer to the legendary debut she made at the old Metropolitan Opera in 1961 than this November 13, 1982 performance at new Met and the 1986 version recorded at Sydney. But unless they put out the 1977 televised performance of "Lucia" these are our two choices and no one is going to claim that Sutherland's voice is as good as it was a decade earlier. But that is hardly the point. This performance was Sutherland's first at the Met in four years and was clearly as much a celebration of the most memorable opera performance of the last half-century as anything else. This was an audience that came fully intending to give the diva ovation after ovation, especially at the end of the famous "Mad Scene," where they try to coax the soprano back up on her feet after her character has flung herself to the floor in despair.The assumption is that this production of the 301st Metropolitan Opera performance of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, "The Bride of Lammermoor") is something you come upon by choice. It is not intended as an introduction to opera in general or this pivotal piece in the bel canto repertoire in particular. The performance is subtitled in English and while there is not an enclosed Libretto there is an introduction written by Wil Crutchfield. The story is simple and straightforward: Lucia (Sutherland) loves Edgardo (tenor Alfredo Kraus), but her brother Enrico (baritone Pablo Elvira) forces her to wed Arturo (tenor Jeffrey Stamm) to save the family fortune. Edgardo denounces Lucia for her betrayal and on the wedding night she goes insane and kills her husband. First Lucia and then Edgardo sing a couple of arias and drop dead. In short, a perfect opera. From a vocal standpoint this earlier performance is the better of the two available for viewing, but clearly the Australian production is more of a love fest for Dame Joan, performing in her native land Down Under. Ultimately, the ovations might provide more chills than the singing, but I think it is impossible not to listen to and watch this performance without thinking what it must have been like when "the Voice of the Century" was in her prime. You feel rather sorry for the other principle singers because as long as Sutherland is on stage singing that is the only thing to which you pay attention. If for all intents and purposes you think of this as Dame Joan's curtain call, then that makes it worthwhile on those terms as well.
Rating:
Summary: Dame Joan sings "Luica" at the Met one more time
Review: First off, in a more perfect world we would a performance of Joan Sutherland in "Luica di Lammermoor" that was recorded closer to the legendary debut she made at the old Metropolitan Opera in 1961 than this November 13, 1982 performance at new Met and the 1986 version recorded at Sydney. But unless they put out the 1977 televised performance of "Lucia" these are our two choices and no one is going to claim that Sutherland's voice is as good as it was a decade earlier. But that is hardly the point. This performance was Sutherland's first at the Met in four years and was clearly as much a celebration of the most memorable opera performance of the last half-century as anything else. This was an audience that came fully intending to give the diva ovation after ovation, especially at the end of the famous "Mad Scene," where they try to coax the soprano back up on her feet after her character has flung herself to the floor in despair. The assumption is that this production of the 301st Metropolitan Opera performance of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, "The Bride of Lammermoor") is something you come upon by choice. It is not intended as an introduction to opera in general or this pivotal piece in the bel canto repertoire in particular. The performance is subtitled in English and while there is not an enclosed Libretto there is an introduction written by Wil Crutchfield. The story is simple and straightforward: Lucia (Sutherland) loves Edgardo (tenor Alfredo Kraus), but her brother Enrico (baritone Pablo Elvira) forces her to wed Arturo (tenor Jeffrey Stamm) to save the family fortune. Edgardo denounces Lucia for her betrayal and on the wedding night she goes insane and kills her husband. First Lucia and then Edgardo sing a couple of arias and drop dead. In short, a perfect opera. From a vocal standpoint this earlier performance is the better of the two available for viewing, but clearly the Australian production is more of a love fest for Dame Joan, performing in her native land Down Under. Ultimately, the ovations might provide more chills than the singing, but I think it is impossible not to listen to and watch this performance without thinking what it must have been like when "the Voice of the Century" was in her prime. You feel rather sorry for the other principle singers because as long as Sutherland is on stage singing that is the only thing to which you pay attention. If for all intents and purposes you think of this as Dame Joan's curtain call, then that makes it worthwhile on those terms as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Available Lucia!
Review: Firstly, the video and sound on this DVD transfer are quite good, especially considering the dates of the original production. That said, the important business at hand is the performance of the greatest Lucia the world has ever seen. Sutherland made this role her own from the 1959 Covent Garden debut onward. Whilst there are many commentaries and opinions about how influential the people surrounding her on this original project were, even the opinion of Callas says it all: "That I would do for no one!" (Referring to Sutherland's moving about the stage so much and falling over backwards down a flight of stairs at the end of the Mad Scene.) Callas had launched the Bel Canto revival with the idea that a large voice could perform the coloratura--Sutherland took THAT to the next level. While a comparison of this Met performance with her 1962 (or was it 1961?) performance of the Mad Scene on the Bell Telephone Hour shows how the voice had aged and lost its bright sparkle of her early days, this performance shows the experienced and dramatically developed Sutherland at home and secure in herself. There are places when one can hear a slight beat beginning which marked her very last years, but even with the first half of the mad scene transposed downward, the top notes are stellar! For a woman her age at the time (56!) Sutherland gives us more than most other opera stars could hope for in a career. The Regnava... is quite fine and this DVD also gives us an insight (especially for those who never heard her live) into just how large this voice was. The column of sound is HUGE and when she sings with others it is startlingly obvious. It is a shame that Kraus was the Edgardo since he is obviously suffering more from age than Sutherland. If only this had been one of those many Sutherland/Pavarotti events at the Met... In summary, although this may not be Sutherland at her peak, there is so much good and so much advantage in having this document of her signature role performance that any disadvantages are easily washed away!
Rating:
Summary: Well worth watching.
Review: I have just returned home from a week in Burgundy with the family. On our arrival back home, in the ususual English rain storm, we found this DVD waiting for us on the dining room table. We decided to phone out for a pizza and crash out to watch this Met relay; an opera that I have to confess that we have always been very fond. Funnily enough, whilst in France we had been listening to the 1976 Chicago relay (available on a Bella Voce CD) - with Pavarotti: in my view amongst the best Lucia's available. So it made an interesting comparison to watch Sutherland in this 1982 relay. I am confused as to why people expected Dame Joan to be in the same wonderful voice as she was 10 to 15 years before. What I think is amazing is that she can still sing with such flexibility and magnetism. I thoroughly enjoyed her interpretation, even though her voice has undoubtedly lost some of it's flexibility. The mad scene is just stupendous and I am just sorry that this version has never been available to buy in England. Thank goodness the Met has put it out on DVD so that the British Isles can enjoy it too. Pablo Elvira is excellent as Enrico as is Paul Plishka as Raimondo. The sextet deserves every second of the tremendous ovation it receives from the audience - luck things, I would have given my back teeth to have been there. Oh dear, I am sure I shouldn't speak ill of the dead - but my wife always describes the late Alfredo Krauss as having dead fish eyes which seem to lack emotion. I have to say that I agree - I know I will be up setting his millions of fans aound the globe, but he doesn't move me at all. He sings well, he acts well - but for me he doesn't have that final oomph or charisma to lift him into the great singers category. Sorry. What a shame the Met didn't have Pavarotti or Carreras to sing Edgardo. However, this is an excellent production - which would have sounded less pedestrian with James Levine in charge of the excellent Met orchestra. Bonynge just leaves it a touch slack - my problem always with his conducting. But it is a good document to show why the world went wild for Dame Joan back in those early days at Covent Garden. It is worth getting, even though Dame Joan has to work harder to achieve the same vocal results of her past. We found it a very enjoyable evening, worth coming home from holiday for - and of course school tomorrow!!
Rating: 
Summary: THE AUSTRALIAN LUMBERJACK
Review: i hope that the title of this article is enough to describe my feelings towards this australian singing extravaganza....Dame Edna is more elegant than Joan Sutherland....i had the chance to see her live in La Scala, period 82-83 singing La Fille du regiment.......thank god Alfredo Kraus was singing with her........a lady of about 100 years old trying to act like the young Marie.....poor Joan...i remember the words of Zeffirelli when he first saw her: "she was huuuuge!i was wondering how the hell ma i gonna do Lucia with this creature".........oh, And By The Way.........the last that Sutherland has been towards Callas is JEALOUS.....i have a taped interview of Sutherland saying that even in her wildest dreamest she could ever do Traviata as Callas did....well, in order to sing traviata you just gotta have one thing : THIS HOLLY GREEK FIRE BURNING INTO YOU, THE FIRE OF SOME THOUSAND YEARS OF CIVILISATION THEATRE AND TRAGEDY...............CALLAS WAS A DRAMATIC?WAS SHE ALSO A COLORATURA??A LIRICO??? I WOULD LOVE TO SEE SUTHERLAND SINGING TOSCA (DONT MENTION THE HILARIOUS STUDIO TURANDOT)....BUT CALLAS WOULD SING PURITANI AND THE NEXT DAY BRUNHILDE!CAN YOU IMMAGINE LA STUPENDA WITH HORNS ON HER HEAD???TERRIFYING!!!!
Rating:
Summary: If only it were recorded sooner...
Review: I'd like to list severals pros for recording this so late: 1)Sutherland had a lot of experience to use for this Lucia 2)Here she does more than just singing beautifully, she's acting well too! Before I start with the cons I'd like to correct several reviewers who've shown how ignorant they truly are: 1)Sutherland didn't force Callas into retirement, Callas never officially retired! 2)Callas does NOT crack 25% of the high notes, whoever came up with this lie? 3)As for the bestselling Lucia that isn't bestselling now because everyone already has it... Does the person who wrote this notice that he's negating the "fact" he's trying to prove? The Sutherland-Lucia is magnificent. (The one from 1971) But, and I work in the business, it's not the bestselling Lucia of all ages, I dare say it's far too expensive. The cheaper early Lucia with Sutherland and Cioni outsells the later performance without any problem. As do the early Callas-performances on EMI. Now to this DVD: I'm really sorry but IMHO La Stupenda sounds too old and worn out for young Lucy. Her high notes are edgy not glowing anymore. Still, it is a fabulous DVD, better late than never!
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