In passing: Joan Sutherland, opera great
Geneva, Switzerland – Joan Sutherland’s radiant soprano stretched effortlessly over more than three octaves, with a purity of tone that made her one of the most celebrated opera singers of all time.
Acclaimed “La Stupenda” – “the Stupendous One” – during a career spanning more than four decades, Sutherland was known in the opera world as an “anti-diva” diva whose warm, vibrant sound and subtle coloring helped revitalize the school of early 19th-century Italian opera known as bel canto.
She died Oct. 10 at her home near Geneva, Switzerland, after what her family described as a long illness. She was 83.
Superlatives were attached to Sutherland’s name from the moment she made her Italian debut in the title role of Handel’s “Alcina” in Venice in 1960.
Luciano Pavarotti proclaimed hers “the voice of the century,” while to English-speaking operagoers she was “The Incomparable” for her mastery of coloratura – the ability to effortlessly sing difficult trills and rapid passages in high registers.
The late tenor Pavarotti, who joined with mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne in Sutherland’s farewell gala recital at London’s Covent Garden on Dec. 31, 1990, called her “the greatest coloratura soprano of all time.”
Mandelbrot, mathematician
Cambridge, Mass. – Benoit Mandelbrot, a well-known mathematician who was largely responsible for developing the field of fractal geometry, has died. He was 85.
His wife, Aliette, said he died Thursday of pancreatic cancer. He had lived in Cambridge, Mass.
The Polish-born French mathematician founded the field of fractal geometry, the first broad attempt to quantitatively investigate the notion of roughness. He was interested in both the development and application of fractals, which he also showed could be used elsewhere in nature.
For years, he worked for IBM in New York. Later he became Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University.
MacCorkindale, British actor
London – British actor Simon MacCorkindale, who starred on British television in “Casualty” and in the United States in “Falcon Crest,” has died at age 58.
MacCorkindale died Thursday of bowel cancer in a London clinic.
Once talked up as a potential James Bond, MacCorkindale’s career proved more modest. He won the starring role in “Manimal” as a crime-fighting college professor capable of metamorphosing into any animal, but it survived for just eight episodes on NBC in 1983.
He had better luck on CBS’ “Falcon Crest,” appearing in 59 episodes from 1984 to 1986 as womanizing lawyer Greg Reardon.