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Title: Trained Seal?
Review: The problem with Sutherland was actually more serious than the "poor diction" mentioned by most critics. She seemed to have no concept whatsoever of opera as music drama. If you ignore the text in an opera, you cannot deal with issues of character or dramatic incident. You cannot even phrase musically. It is very easy to think of Sutherland more in terms of a circus act than as a musical artist. She was "husbanded" by Bonynge as a voice machine and never progressed. (Interestingly, listen to her 1959 Donna Anna under Giulini's guidance - she almost seems to be singing Italian. It's one of her rare fully "operatic" performances). The shame is that the voice fetishists ate it up, giving her no impetus to grow as an artist.
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