Word: stupenda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...usually called the Pig." But more than anyone else, it was a 33-year-old Australian, 225 years later, who put Alcina center stage. Joan Sutherland's stupendous stamina and strength in Franco Zeffirelli's 1960 production at La Fenice not only earned her the title of La Stupenda but single-handedly brought this neglected opera back into the repertoire. Since being snapped up by New York's Metropolitan Opera for its young artists' development program in 2001, Perth-born Durkin, 31, has been groomed for world stardom. Despite a closer resemblance to Joan Collins than Sutherland, Durkin's Metropolitan...
...perhaps forgetting La Stupenda here. While Durkin admits that Sutherland's perfectly controlled career and "beautiful, bell-like sound" have been inspirations for her own stupendous rise, comparisons can also be unhelpful. She would be the first to point out that she has yet to make a recording or grace the European opera stages that forged Sutherland's fame. But in the budding boldness of her bel canto one can already sense a magical symmetry forming-of another down-to-earth spirit allied to a heavenly voice...