Words that could have
been spoken only by a musical prodigy... as Richard Bonynge was. He
started playing the piano at a very early age, astonishing his parents
with his seemingly innate knowledge of music. When they realized their
only child, then barely five years old, was something special, they
decided to have him professionally trained. At age 12 he won a scholarship
to the Conservatory where he studied with Lindley Evans, who was an
accompanist for the famed Australian soprano Nellie Melba. By his early
teens, he knew the basic orchestral repertory and at age 14 played Grieg's
Piano Concerto with the Sydney Symphony.
When one day the opera class found itself without an accompanist, young
Richard, whose knowledge of opera was at the time rather limited, was
asked to come to the rescue. He did such a good job he was asked to
become a regular accompanist. And such was the beginning of Richard
Bonynge's fascination with the art of singing and his love affair with
opera - a world he would share for the rest of his life with the now
legendary Joan Sutherland. It is an affair that burns with the same
fervor to this very day.
