A Prima Donna's Progress: The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland

by Joan Sutherland

Traces the life and career of the Australian soprano, explains how she became an opera singer, and describes some of her most famous roles

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Rita Chapman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a record of Joan Sutherland's amazing career, not quite the personal story I was expecting and I must confess to only reading the first few chapters. I did enjoy looking at the photos!

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and not entirely satisfying read.

First, I should say, Sutherland was - for all her astounding talent - a reasonably ordinary person. Her upbringing was unremarkable, her career (while spectacular) was not a tempestuous one, her marriage and family life stable, and her hobbies included needlepoint and traveling. She was not the fiery Callas or the famously unreliable Sumi Jo. In this regard, the world wasn't crying out for a tell-all autobiography.

So, instead, we've been given what is essentially a diary of Sutherland's forty years in the business. (No, I'm not kidding, at several times Sutherland confirms she is taking this information from her diaries and elaborating on this where required.) This can of course be quite frustrating. Entire years pass in mere itemised lists of performances, colleagues, and reviews. Deaths and births are treated almost as offhandedly as the latest production of "Norma", doctors and friends get mentions largely because Sutherland didn't want to leave them out, and frequently she glosses over something it would've been fascinating to hear about. As a Melbournian arts worker, for instance, I was intrigued by her thoughts on the lack of performing venues in Melbourne until the Arts Centre came along, but she simply mentions her one (cancelled) concert scheduled there in 1985 and then moves on. (In the post-1985 sequences, more is revealed - presumably as Sutherland's memory was clearer - but it comes as quite a surprise when she expresses a strong negative opinion for once, in this instance her reaction when Pavarotti had to cancel on a recording session when it became clear he didn't know his part.)

As I mentioned above, this is not entirely surprising. A needlessly drawn out story of her childhood and training was unnecessary (and had been covered by existing biographers). As an opera buff myself, I really enjoyed this book. It's truly revealing the punishing schedule this elite art requires, and puts paid to some of the stories and stereotypes that have sprung up over the year. I really liked seeing the way works entered Sutherland's repertoire and remained there, and I'm always intrigued by how performers manage their schedule, so it was my kind of book.

Will it be everyone's? Probably not. When a paragraph exists merely to name-check the cast and venue of a performance (along with the specific dates from 1973), it's probably not going to be fascinating to all that many, particularly if you're not au fait with the opera and its roles.

Overall then, I'd advise amateur Sutherland fans or biography-hunters to seek out other material. But if you're deeply into the Dame, or if you have a connection with the world of opera, might be worth a look.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should probably stop kidding myself that I'm ever going to finish this. 11th February was when I marked it as 'currently reading'. In reality, it's actually been about a year, I'm only 100-or-so pages in, and it's still only the 1960's. What I've learned is that Joan Sutherland got a few good reviews and that her husband was totally HOT in his younger days. That's enough, no?

EDIT 2018 Can finally honestly review this, now that I've actually read it.

Bought this, brand new, when it came out and I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, keen, young soprano looking for inspiration. I'd initially eschewed a musical university education, but was enjoying a modicum of success on the (albeit somewhat limited) amateur scene, while pursuing my law degree. And there was probably that little bit of me that hoped, one day, I might be good enough, and rich enough, to try and make a go of professional singing. I looked to this book for some inspiration, finding, instead, a tedious diary devoid of any personal reflection or insight, and promptly abandoned it.

Now, 20 years later, and having long given up any ideas of any singing success whatsoever, I decided to give this another go, merely because it was annoying me that I'd spent so much money on it at the time and it was taking up too much space on my bookshelf! It still bored the pants off me and I think that, maybe, I'm quite glad I didn't ever become a professional singer. I don't know if Sutherland deliberately cloaked her personality while writing this, or became her characters so so completely that she lost her own sense of self, or that she simply didn't have much personality to begin with. In fact, the only facets of her personality that came through were slightly unpleasant ones, including repeating a racist joke of Noel Coward's. It didn't surprise me that, when I did a bit of Wikipedia research to cover her post-autobiography life, there did appear to be a bit of a racist scandal at one point.

So I'm glad it's over. But I'm also glad her recordings exist, because she really was quite an exceptional singer.

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truthfully, I almost gave up reading this, not once but twice. I decided to power through it in case it got more informative after Sutherland retired. It did not.

I love auto/biographies/memoirs and I love reading about creative people - writers, artists, songwriters and actors. I know nothing about opera which is why I picked this up in a second-hand book shop. I had never heard of her before and I will say that, halfway through the book, I looked her up on YouTube and found myself enjoying her performances with her good friend Marilyn Horne.

This possibly is just a book for opera fans because what it involves is plenty of details about the operas and concerts that Sutherland performed in. I couldn't call it a memoir, it was more of a recounting of her appointment book intermingled with lots of wonderful reviews of her work. At some point I began to speed-read ... and, then, I was reading whilst cooking and checking emails without feeling in any danger of missing something. There was no sense of her as a woman, a wife and mother. It lacked emotion which became very obvious anytime there was a death mentioned. Each person's passing - including her mother's - was announced in the most perfunctory way.

She is not a storyteller but, perhaps, this is what her publisher wanted from her. Well, if this is the case, I would have published it in a large, hardback, glossy coffee-table edition as opposed to making it look like an autobiography.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was quite a read! Joan Sutherland had a breathtaking career. What stamina and discipline accompanied that marvelous voice. It was interesting to learn more about her husband, Richard Bonynge, who had just as prolific a career as a conductor.

Unfortunately, Sutherland's autobiography reads more like a diary for the most part. The detail is staggering in this respect.

What really got me were her excerpts from newspaper reviews of performances by herself and husband, as conductor. Not just phrases but multiple paragraph excerpts. Really? Multiple paragraph excerpts? She could have shaved about 100 pages from the manuscript with a lot less of this commentary.

Overall, it was quite an interesting read, and in a good way too. A person's life doesn't have to be wrought with controversy to be intriguing. With its tedious attention to detail, the book archives an expansive list of singers of her era, particularly from Australia. I enjoyed trying to find some of these more obscure artists via youtube & iTunes.

Sutherland would have been charming to sit down and have a conversation with. Thank you, Joan, for sharing a little bit of your experiences with us.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a snooze! Her writing is so dry and way too detailed. The book is too long for someone who is still alive