Elvira with 20 years from each other...
"[...] It was an exciting evening, and it is no disservice to the other participants to give Miss Sutherland most of the credit. For, where most of them were good, she was spectacular. And it must be said that when she sings, it is an event and realized as such by the audience. Something of the glamour and electricity of a vanished age of prima donnas stalks the house when she is in action. [...]" The New York Times, 14 February 1964
Photo: Elvira from a performance at ROH, London. Circa 1964.
*Decca recording of I Puritani from 1973.
"[...] This 'Puritani' performance should have been an object lesson for young singers, demonstrating that the combination of a strong technique and intelligent career management can preserve a superior voice into what for any singer must be termed very late maturity. [...]" Donal Henahan for The New York Times, 15 November 1986
Photo: Joan as Elvira from a performance of Bellini's I Puritani in Sydney, circa 1985.