Guide to the Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland collection, 1741-2015

Summary

Collection number:

MS 10757

Creator:

Bonynge, Richard, Mr, AC, CBE

Extent:

(214 ms boxes, 436 music boxes, 13 small folio boxes, 75 medium folio boxes, 58 large folio boxes, 8 map folios, 3 small phase boxes, 2 large phase boxes, 2 oversized phase boxes, 604 sound/av carriers)

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland collection, National Library of Australia, MS 10757 [class number, box number and series, sub-series, and/or file or item number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Part permission required for research; part not available for research. Not for loan.

Cultural Sensitivity Advisory Notice:

Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other First Nations people are advised that this collection includes content that may be distressing and/or culturally sensitive, including language and/or images that could cause offence and may not be considered appropriate today.

Background

Content Summary:

MS 10757 encompasses Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland's working career archive and research library, with the most substantial component comprising a vast array of music manuscripts, published scores and sets, sheet music, photocopies, and music excerpts. The archive contains a collection of singing methods, vocalises, and treatises ranging from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, used to research and develop singing techniques appropriate to different time periods and styles of vocal repertoire; as well as numerous scores and parts annotated and used by both Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland, including arrangements by Douglas Gamley for recordings and live performances, and Joan Sutherland's annotated libretti and performance notes.

The archive also reflects the depth and breadth of Richard Bonynge's interests as a researcher and collector, and includes multiple formed collections relating to music, singing, theatre, and performance. Groupings of material acquired or curated by Richard Bonynge include a collection of Anna Pavlova ballet scores and parts; collections of music organised by genre, region, language, style, or composer, including a collection of Australian sheet music and music hall ephemera; and collections of theatre programmes, news cuttings, advertising ephemera, sheet music, postcards, costume designs, and research notes relating to figures such as Dame Ellen Terry, Sir Henry Irving, Adelina Patti, Noel Coward, Ivor Novello, and Dame Nellie Melba.

Additionally, the archive contains 52 large custom scrapbooks of news clippings, programmes, letters, cards, and photographs documenting Dame Joan Sutherland's career, including her farewell tour; awards, medals, and honours; publications by and about Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland; portfolio editions of the late nineteenth-century theatrical broadside The Stage and its Stars; and a complete set of custom bound Opera (UK) magazines from 1948 to the present.

The archive also includes a substantial audiovisual component, with over 600 recordings of performances by Richard Bonynge and/or Joan Sutherland.

Biographical Note:

Conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge AC, CBE (1930 –) and dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland OM, AC, DBE (1926 – 2010) married in 1954. Together they formed one of the most influential operatic partnerships of the twentieth century, with Richard Bonynge conducting most of Dame Joan Sutherland's operatic performances from 1963 until her retirement in 1990.

Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney and studied piano and voice with her mother from a young age. In 1951 she won Australia's pre-eminent opera competition the 'Sun Aria' before moving to London to study at the Royal College of Music. Sutherland's breakthrough performance came at London's Covent Garden in 1959 in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Her critically acclaimed performance quickly attracted invitations to perform the role in Paris, Milan and New York.When the Australia Day Council Chairman Sir Norman Martin named her the 1961 Australian of the Year, he proclaimed: 'She is the Nellie Melba of our time – no doubt about that. Joan Sutherland has restored Australia to the glittering centre of the musical world.'

Joan Sutherland sang in Venice, Vienna, Dallas (Texas), Paris, Barcelona (Spain), Genoa (Italy), Milan, San Francisco, Chicago, and Sydney. Her later successes include Norma in Vincenzo Bellini's opera of that name, Cleopatra in George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare, and the three sopranos in Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, in addition to her internationally acclaimed concert performances.

Joan Sutherland was a leading international soprano for three decades before her retirement in 1990. Luciano Pavarotti once described her voice as 'certainly the greatest voice this century'.

Richard Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School. He studied piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Lindley Evans; he was subsequently offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Herbert Fryer, a pupil of Busoni. During this time his activities as a pianist and accompanist developed into the realm of vocal coaching and research.

He served as Music Director of the Sutherland-Williamson Grand Opera Company in 1965 (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane), as Artistic Director of the Vancouver Opera from 1974-77 and Music Director of The Australian Opera from 1976-86. He has conducted in many of the world's major opera houses, in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. He was a regular guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, making his debut in1966 and conducting his last performance (to date) in 1991.

Maestro Bonynge's accomplishments as conductor and musical scholar were recognized when Queen Elizabeth II, during her Silver Jubilee Celebration in 1977, made him a Commander of the British Empire. In the summer of 1989, the French government honoured him with the rank of "Commandeur de l'Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres".

Reading Room Access Note:

For preservation reasons, we are unable to deliver digital and audiovisual carriers to the Special Collections Reading Room. Please contact Ask a Librarian to enquire about access.

Provenance:

The collection was acquired from Richard Bonynge in five instalments, from 2009 to 2016.

Arrangement:

The collection has been arranged into four classes, described in detail in the finding aid:

Class 1: Music

Class 2: Personal and professional archive of Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland

Class 3: Richard Bonynge as researcher and collector

Class 4: Audiovisual

Each class comprises multiple series and sub-series groupings, retaining the original arrangement where a meaningful order could be inferred.

The most substantial component of the archive comprises music scores and parts annotated and used by Richard Bonynge and/or Joan Sutherland, published music, photocopies, and excerpts. For undated published music, the publisher's plate number has been included, where known.

The archive includes numerous smaller formed collections. Richard Bonynge's lifelong commitment to collecting, curating, and preserving a wide range of music manuscripts, rare editions, and theatrical ephemera is reflected in Class 1/Series 1.2, Music collected and organised by Richard Bonynge; and Class 3, Richard Bonynge as researcher and collector. Meaningful groupings have been retained in the finding aid, with the subseries reflecting the principles and types of organisation maintained by Richard Bonynge.

Conditions Governing Access:

Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information: (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn6807518).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland collection, National Library of Australia, MS 10757 [class number, box number and series, sub-series, and/or file or item number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

Contact us