A Voice for the Century

Today, on 7 November, the world marks what would have been the 100^th birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, the Sydney-born soprano known the world over as La Stupenda, “The Stupendous One”. Here at Penrith Conservatorium of Music, we feel that milestone in a particularly personal way. Every day, our students, teachers and families walk through the doors of a building that proudly carries her name. To celebrate, we are sharing a little of her story, a little of ours, and two special performances, to honour the artform she championed so brilliantly.

Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney on 7 November 1926 and learned to sing at her mother’s side. After making her debut in Sydney in the late 1940s, she moved to London in 1951 and joined the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the following year. It was her husband, the conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge, whom she married in 1954, who recognised that her future lay in the florid coloratura repertoire of the bel canto tradition.

In 1959, Covent Garden revived Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for her, and the performance launched an international career that took her to the great opera houses of Europe and North America. Her greatest roles included Lucia, Bellini’s Norma and La sonnambula, and Handel’s Alcina. She was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1978, was Australian of the Year in 1989, and retired from the stage in 1990.

Her voice combined beauty and power with extraordinary agility and a dazzling upper register. For generations of Australian singers, her success proved that a career on the world stage was possible.

Dame Joan Sutherland OM AC DBE. Lewis Morley (n.d., printed 1992)

The Building That Carries Her Name

The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre opened in 1990 with a community celebration and a Gala Concert by Dame Joan herself, accompanied by Richard Bonynge. It was the year she retired from the stage, which makes the occasion all the more special for Penrith.

The Centre first housed Penrith Conservatorium of Music, the Richard Bonynge Concert Hall and the Allan Mullins Studio. In 2005 it grew to include the Q Theatre, extended Music facilities and a large atrium foyer. Today, “The Joan” is one of Sydney’s busiest performing arts complexes. It presents the best in music and theatre, with nationally and internationally acclaimed artists performing on the same stages that host community festivals and events.

On 27 February 2000, ten years after the Centre opened, Penrith City Council held a civic reception in Dame Joan’s honour in the Council’s Nepean Room. Dame Joan and Richard Bonynge were presented with the Key to the City of Penrith. It remains the only public performing arts centre in the world that Dame Joan personally allowed to use her name, an honour we do not take lightly.

Dame Joan Sutherland receiving the Key to the City in 2000 with then Mayor John Bateman.
Penrith City Libraries (2000)

Dame Joan is remembered above all for the bel canto (“beautiful singing”) repertoire, but her art spoke to everyone who loves the sound of the human voice.
To mark her centenary, two of our performers share arias from two operatic worlds.

Brea Holland (Soprano)
Song to the Moon from Rusalka

Soprano Brea Holland, accompanied by Benjamin Harris on piano, performs Antonín Dvořák’s Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (“O moon high up in the deep, dark sky”), from Act I of Rusalka.
In this much-loved aria, the water nymph Rusalka asks the moon to carry her love to the human prince she longs to meet.

Video by Eddy Summers & Steve Broadbent

Yasmin Arkinstall (Mezzo-Soprano)
Il segreto per esser felici from Lucrezia Borgia

Mezzo-soprano Yasmin Arkinstall, also accompanied by Benjamin Harris on piano, performs Gaetano Donizetti’s Il segreto per esser felici (“The secret to being happy”), from Act 2 of Lucrezia Borgia.

It is a lively drinking song and a showpiece of the bel canto style that Dame Joan loved.

Video by Eddy Summers & Steve Broadbent

A Home Worthy of the Voice

Every week, the corridors of The Joan fill with music: scales drifting out of teaching studios, a string quartet warming up, a young singer trying out a new aria for the very first time. This is the everyday heart of Penrith Conservatorium of Music, and it is exactly the kind of place we like to imagine Dame Joan would have loved.

Music for Everyone

At Penrith Con, there is no such thing as the “right” kind of music student. We welcome learners of all ages and abilities, from children picking up an instrument for the first time to adults finally getting around to the lessons they always wanted. Our teachers are working musicians who love to share what they know, and they bring the same curiosity, patience and joy to every lesson, whether it is voice, piano, strings, guitar or drums. Dame Joan once had a first teacher, too. Somewhere in our studios, the next great voice may be having a first lesson right now.

Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge at the gala performance.
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (1990)