Born in Sydney, Richard Bonynge studied piano at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and later with Herbert Fryer in London. He made his con ducting début in Rome in 1962 with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and has since conducted at most of the world’s opera houses.
Richard Bonynge was Artistic Director of Vancouver Opera and Musical Director of Opera Australia. He was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, Officer of the Order of Australia in 1983, and promoted Companion in 2012, Commandeur de l’Ordre national des arts et des lettres in 1989 and made “Socio d’onore” of the R. Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna in 2007. He was married to the late soprano Joan Sutherland.
Maestro Bonynge has recorded over fifty operas, as well as videos of various operas and numerous ballets. He has also revived many operas which were not at the time included in the repertoire: Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer), Semiramide, Sigismondo (Rossini), La Fille du Régiment, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti), Esclarmonde, Le Roi de Lahore, Thérèse (Massenet), Medea (Puccini), Orfeo(Haydn), I Masnadieri (Verdi). As a conductor, he is widely regarded as being extraordinarily sympathetic to singers on the stage and his instinct, knowledge and feel for voices have become legendary. He is acknowledged as a scholar of bel canto opera, and in 18th and 19th centuries opera and ballet music.
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