Vale Dame Joan Sutherland

It was announced this morning that La Stupenda, Dame Joan Sutherland, has died. She was 83 and hadn't sung for about a decade, but it's a huge loss nonetheless.

The Collaborative Piano Blog has collated links to coverage here.

I saw her perform only a few times, but was lucky enough to see her Lucia, at the Palais of all places. Despite the size of the theatre her pianissimos could be hear at the back of the stalls - she was running around the stage in the mad-scene and producing this  extraordinary sound. A truly amazing tour de force. I have a few of her recordings, though not a lot as it is mostly repertoire I've never been a huge collector of. But today I'm overdosing by listening to ABC FM which is, quite rightly, devoting much of their airtime to reminiscences and recordings.

Picture linked to at Collaborative Piano Blog