Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s.
Sutherland in 1975
Sutherland in 1962
Sutherland in 1990
Sutherland's grave (right) with a bust of her at the cemetery of Clarens in the Swiss canton of Vaud with Lake Geneva in the background. On the left is the future final resting place of her widower.
Bel canto —with several similar constructions —is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing.
Bel canto–era composer Gioachino Rossini
Hand-written note by contralto Marietta Alboni about the decay of bel canto in the late 19th century. The French text reads: "The art of singing is going, and it will only revert with the sole real music of the future: that of Rossini. Paris, 8 February 1881." (signature)
Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), a leading Paris-based teacher of bel canto sopranos