Verdi: La Traviata (complete opera recorded in 1962)

"Sutherland's performance puts lovely things in the listener's way at every stage"
(Gramophone)

"What singing it is! Listening to "Sempre libera" is like a comfortable trip to the moon: every note is perfectly placed, the sheer joy of singing is in every bar, there's never a doubt that a phrase will be sculpted in any manner other than perfectly. Sutherland's huge tone is limpid, her passagework almost terrifying in its precision-but without the usual high coloratura's automatic-pilot type of glibness." ClassicsToday

The role of Violetta is one that Joan Sutherland would sing throughout her career and is a personal favourite, and in this now-legendary recording we hear her at her most exuberant

As Alfredo Carlo Bergonzi is peerless and his elegant, stylish singing is perfectly suited to the role

Sir John Pritchard was regarded as one of the finest post-war British opera conductors; he worked with Joan Sutherland on a number of occasions during her early career and this recording is testimony to his outstanding conducting.