Interview - Bachtrack, Joan Sutherland Centenary

Lisette Oropesa on Joan Sutherland: a top ten playlist

To mark the centenary of Dame Joan Sutherland's birth, Bachtrack asked Lisette to choose ten of her favourite Sutherland recordings. She talked with Mark Pullinger at the Royal Opera House, where Sutherland made her breakthrough as Lucia in 1959, about what made Sutherland's singing unique and how her recordings shaped Lisette's own bel canto.

“Sutherland wasn’t just a machine gun who was capable of singing phenomenal coloratura, but she also had a line and a colour to the voice that had almost a sad tone to it as well as the sunshine.”

Lisette Oropesa

One of Lisette's picks is the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, from Sutherland's famous 1959 performance at Covent Garden:

Thank you to Mark Pullinger and Bachtrack for the interview.

Read the full interview and the whole top ten at Bachtrack →