John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I too join with the member for Parramatta and the Minister for the Arts in expressing my sympathy to Dame Joan’s husband, Richard Bonynge, and their son, Adam, and their family. As the Minister for Arts and the member for Parramatta pointed out, Dame Joan Sutherland had the voice of the century. There was no doubt about that. Pavarotti, a great authority himself as one of the world’s greatest tenors, delivered that great accolade to her. It was very fitting that when she first made her name in singing Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959 in Venice in the toughest environment that any opera singer could visit—an Italian audience—she received a long, thunderous applause and she was given the magnificent title ‘La Stupenda’, which stuck with her all her life.

I was very privileged to meet Dame Joan Sutherland on one occasion in 1976 when my music teacher, the late Austin Goldberg, who had studied with her at the Sydney Conservatorium in the 1950s, said, ‘Johnny, you have to come and hear the voice of the century.’ On that occasion I heard her sing an opera that you do not hear people talk about so much—Delibes’ Lakme. Lakme is a very difficult opera with a famous aria called the ‘Bell Song’. One is truly up in the stratosphere singing the high Ds and the high E flats in that most demanding role. For the life of me, I cannot think of anyone who has been able to achieve the recognition that she received for singing that magnificent opera. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end that particular night when I saw her.

Mr Goldberg took me backstage and introduced me to her and her husband, Richard Bonynge. It is something that I will never forget, because she was a very humble and gracious lady. You almost got the feeling that she was so honoured that someone would think so much of the performances that she gave. She signed my program, as did Richard Bonynge, and I will never forget it.

The minister made reference to La Traviata in 1982. I was in the domain on that wet night in 1982, as I was for subsequent performances she gave, such as The Tales of Hoffmann, and I estimate that there would have been something like 100,000 people who had brought a picnic to the Domain. It is a great place for concerts in the summer and as part of the Sydney Festival. I heard that magnificent voice there on a number of occasions and she gave so much joy and happiness to so many people in Sydney.

Just up the road from my electorate office in Burwood Road, Burwood is St Paul’s Anglican Church. It is a magnificent church that is famous for many things, probably it is most famous because Don Bradman got married there. The Joan Sutherland Musical Society have been holding concerts in St Paul’s for a number of years in honour of Dame Joan. Until recent years, she has attended those concerts. I did not have the opportunity to attend those concerts in her honour when she attended but I do know that the Anglican minister of that church, Father John Kohler, was just so delighted that she would come all the way back from Switzerland to Australia to go to those humble concerts in St Paul’s Anglican Church in Burwood. To the society’s credit they are going to put on a tribute concert to Dame Joan next month, and I hope to get there.

As both the minister and the member for Parramatta have pointed out, Dame Joan sang in all the great opera houses around the world: the Met, La Scala, Covent Garden and, of course, Sydney Opera House, where I had the privilege to hear her. Honestly, she gave so much joy to so many, and every time she sang one of the great arias the audience would just clap and clap and clap. There was no doubt about the uniqueness, clarity and purity of that great voice.

Some of the great recordings I have listened to are Rigoletto, Norma, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lakme, which I have mentioned, The Tales of Hoffmann and La Traviata. I was listening to the ABC last Saturday afternoon, which was doing a tribute to her, and they mentioned that she recorded something like 41 operas. It is a wonderful legacy that she leaves for all of us because, although she may have gone, we can still hear that great voice. I think it is very noteworthy that she developed that great voice through the hard work and efforts of her husband, Richard Bonynge, who himself was a great classical pianist and who became a celebrated conductor. He tricked Joan. He took her from a soprano to a coloratura. He transposed some of those great arias. He put them up a semi tone or a tone until she did not realise she was singing a high D or a high E flat, which is impossible for most mortals on this planet.

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