Joan Sutherland Triumphs At Met.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 17

Joan Sutherland Triumphs At Met.

IN Z Press Association-Copyright) NEW YORK. November 27. Joan Sutherland, the most sought-after soprano in the world, overwhelmed her Metropolitan Opera audience last night in a brilliant debut in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

The 34-year-old, auburnhaired Australian coloratura brought down the house before she sang a note. After her first great aria. "Regnava nel silenzio,’’ she received a roaring ovation reserved only for the greatest of the great, said United Press International's opera critic. Frederick Winship. She was beautifully teamed with Richard Tucker, the American-born tenor who is considered by many critics to be the greatest tenor in the Italian wing of the opera company. Their first duet, outstanding for purity of tone and essence of drama, left the audience almost breathless in admiration, Winship said. Miss Sutherland’s first-act curtain calls were perhaps the most enthusiastic since Maria Callas, with whom ■Ute is often compared, made her debut at the Metropolitan a few years ago. The tali diva was stunning in a blue 18th century gown with a red tartan cape as Lucia, the Scottish noblewoman who falls fatally in love with her family's worst enemy. No other musical event of 1961 has stirred as much interest as Miss Sutherland's special Sunday night, nonsubscription perfojmance for the benefit of the opera production fund, the U.P.I. critic said. Orchestra and box seats sold for 25 dollars (about £11). The “New York Times" music critic. Harold Schonberg, said: “Old timers in the press room of the Metropolitan Opera could not re-

member an equivalent reception. "The audience refused to let the final scene continue, and carried on with the yell* and cheers," he wrote. “Well it might. It would take a long memory to recall a ' similarly finished virtuosic piece of tinging from ’Lucia.' and Miss Sutherland's work last night, on the occasion of her Metropolitan Opera debut, upheld her reputation as one of the greatest singing technicians," The United Press International critic, describing the scene at last night’s debut, said the audience stood and roared its approval for 20 minutes after the mad scene in the opera. Neither Maria Callas, Brigit Nilsson nor Leontyne Price—all of whom have had memorable debit* In this decade—received the stamping, yelling, whistling, chanting ovation given Miss Sutherland during 14 curtain calls. The audience stood en masse during the seventh curtain call and did not let Miss Sutherland retire until she was clinging to the golden curtains from exhaustion. The moving demonstration came in the third act at the end of the famous mad scene, the most taxing coloratura aria in the entire opera repertoire, said U.P.L The audience interrupted the scene for five minutes to cheer after the first section of the aria until tha diva knelt and lowered her head almoat to the floor. When the curtain fell at the cloae of the hair-ratsingly difficult second section, pandemonium broke loose.