Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence: thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and it gives me great pleasure to join with the member for Parramatta and indeed the member for Reid in this tribute to Dame Joan. I thank the member for Parramatta for her heartfelt expressions of not just sympathy but empathy with the great work that Dame Joan did. Knowing the background, as I do, of the member for Parramatta, not just her love of the arts but her competence in performing them, it was great to be in the chamber listening to that tribute.

Lyndon Terracini, Opera Australia’s Artistic Director, put it simply: Dame Joan was Australia’s greatest opera singer. Dame Joan was also a great ambassador for Australia. She made an extraordinary contribution to the performing arts and opera in particular, both here and internationally. Her international success and her mentoring of young artists and musicians helped Australians believe that our creative talent could hold its own anywhere. Her dedication to delivering great performances to countless audiences in this country made Australians confident that we could nurture and develop a rich cultural life in our cities and towns.

Dame Joan had a unique and great talent as a singer. The member for Parramatta has taken us in great detail to that. But in marking her passing I want to speak about more than her talent—stupendous though that was. Joan Sutherland, growing up in the Great Depression, worked extraordinarily hard to become a singer. She had no overnight success. She developed a discipline and dedication to preparation and rehearsal which have become legend. Perhaps most impressively, she was prepared to work so hard at a time when the prospect of making a career as an opera singer in Australia could only have been described as a crazy dream.

It was a time when most Australian artists went overseas to prove themselves. So she did in 1951, after winning competitions here. When she became an international star with her renowned 1959 performances of Lucia Di Lammermoor it was a tribute to her determination and professionalism as well as to her artistry. She was soon in demand in the great opera houses around the world, winning audiences for works from the 18th and 19th century operas in which she could use the full strength and range of her voice for bel canto roles. She also recorded full operas and arias so she could be heard by many more people. The reviews spoke of her dramatic coloratura soprano, a combination of gleaming tone, huge range and infallible command of florid passages.

Her return to perform in Australia at the height of her international success marked the beginning of a golden era in Australian opera. Thanks to the multitude of recordings, including many of her live Australian performances, we will never forget her sublime voice—the one that Luciano Pavarotti described as ‘the voice of the century’.

Fortunately, Australian audiences could and did hear this remarkable voice because she returned year after year to her home country to perform. Opera Australia describes her as a true company member, always a star but also a team player. She gave her time generously to her chosen art form and took a real interest in the development of young singers in particular. Over the last few days many of her colleagues have told of her personal kindness and professional support as a fellow singer and musician.

Without Joan Sutherland and the excitement that she generated in the 70s and 80s with her incredible voice, there might not be an Opera Australia today. Tours and appearances by Joan meant that opera became more popular in Australia than every before. Dame Joan took on the responsibilities as well as the privileges that came with being a true diva. Audiences expected much of her and she knew that people invested a great deal of money to hear this world star. She took every performance seriously so that she could meet those expectations and she was renowned for her commitment to careful study of the score for every performance, whether it was her first or 100th performance in a role.

She sang at the first ever opera in the Sydney Domain in 1982—a free event that gave Australians an opportunity to participate in opera outside the main stage and formality of a theatre. During the first act of La Traviata it started to rain but Dame Joan was not going to let the audience down, so she went on with the second act with an umbrella and sang despite the downfall.

With the ABC television broadcasts of Australian opera performances, Dame Joan Sutherland was probably better known to Australians than many popular music stars—and even her famed predecessor, Dame Nellie Melba. A 1982 television simulcast from the Sydney Opera House of Dame Joan live in concert with Luciano Pavarotti was viewed by six million Australians and it redefined the ABC’s attitude to the arts on television.

This parliament is deeply saddened at the news of the passing of Dame Joan and offers condolences to her husband, Richard Bonynge, who is also a great Australian artist and musician, and to her son, Adam Bonynge, and their family. Dame Joan had a wonderful partnership with her husband. Their shared passion for opera and music meant that they could also share the highs and lows of an international career in a highly demanding art form. Mr Bonynge, a champion of the repertoire that Dame Joan made famous, gave her confidence and trust.

In 1961 she was made Australian of the Year, in 1975 she was honoured as a Companion of the Order of Australia, in 1979 she was made a Dame of the British Empire and in 1991 she received an Order of Merit. These are fitting honours for a woman known for her integrity, her sincerity and her dedication to her art form. She was also generous in helping others through benefit performances for bushfire appeals and a gala performance at Covent Garden for Cyclone Tracy victims.

I expect that many Australians will watch and listen to the recordings of her performances to remember her voice and stage presence now and for many years to come. I thank the members of Opera Australia, and many others, who have shared their stories of Dame Joan’s life. It seems very hard to find anyone who says a bad word about her—such was her commitment and generosity as a member of the national opera company.

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