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A Great Australian Operatic Soprano

She performed leading roles in both operas and musicals throughout her career.

June Bronhill was an internation-

ally acclaimed soprano opera singer. She

was always at the centre of things when

on stage, singing and acting with great

aplomb and a ready wit. Although she was

small, her voice easily filled the theatres

where she appeared.

June Mary Gough was born in

Broken Hill on June 26, 1929, the daugh-

ter of George Francis Gough and Maria

Isobel Daisy née Hall. In 1933, at the age

of four, June began singing and went on

singing most of her life. At six, in white

tie and tails, she beguiled the Crystal

Theatre audience with ‘Little Man,

You’ve had a Busy Day’.

A few yeas later she was the male

lead in her school’s all-girl production of

the musical A Country Girl. After that it

was concerts with the local Philharmonic

Society. While still attending Broken Hill

High School, June won first prize for her

singing. Her parents left Broken Hill to

retire in Robe SA when June was 15 years

old.

As a young girl, June was a stu-

dent of Mary Anastasia (Molly) Carrick

who was born in Broken Hill in 1893. At

age 19 she tried her luck in Sydney. By

day she worked in the NRMA office and

in the evenings she studied with the re-

nowned Maryanne Mathy, who became

her ‘second mother’. When Mathy organ-

ised a fund-raising production of Hum-

perdinck’s Hansel and Gretel at the Syd-

ney Conservatorium, she gave her favour-

ite pupil the role of Gretel.

June’s career as an opera singer

really commenced in 1949 after entering a

singing competition ‘The Sun Aria Vocal’

in which she came third. She won the

same competition the following year.

Her success came about with a lot

of help from the residents of Broken Hill

as they raised the necessary funds (₤1500)

in 1952 to send June to England to study.

Mayor Wally Riddiford and Con Crowley

formed a committee to help with the fund-

ing. The people of Broken Hill were very

proud of her.

She went to London for vocal

study with the famous tenor Dino Borgi-

oli, who also trained Joan Hammond. June

rejected her teacher's suggested stage

name of ‘Chrystal Belle’ as tarty, and took

instead an abbreviation of her birthplace,

Broken Hill. June then adopted the stage

name Bronhill, which was her way of

thanking her home town for its support.

In 1954 June auditioned with

Sadler's Wells Opera (now the English

National Opera) and immediately became

one of their principal coloratura sopranos.

She remained with Sadler's Wells until

1961 during which time she appeared in

many opera and operettas with that com-

pany.

June with Peter Grant during

rehearsals at Sadler’s Wells for

the operetta The Merry Widow.

As Norina in Don Pasquale.

As Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow.

Among her early roles with the

company were Gretel and the title role in

Flotow's Martha. Other roles included

Adele in Die Fledermaus, Gilda in Rigo-

letto and Norina in Don Pasquale. There

followed leading roles in Offenbach's Or-

pheus in the Underworld and La Vie Pa-

risienne.

Her performance as Hanna Gla-

wari in The Merry Widow at the London

Colosseum in 1958 saved the company

from financial ruin. The ‘Vilia’ aria was

soon known affectionately as ‘June’s

tune’. She took the title part of Hanna on

more than 200 occasions, and attracted a

faithful following.

That led to a succession of works

of a similar kind, both at Sadler's Wells

itself, including pieces by Johann Strauss

and Offenbach, in most of which June

took the soprano lead. Her bright voice

and piquant style were ideal in this field,

and she enhanced her worth by her perfect

enunciation of the English text, so that

every word could be heard in the further-

most parts of the house.

As Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor.

She was also adept in appropriate

parts for her coloratura voice in opera

proper. She was just right in the title role

of Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen, when it

was staged for the first time in 1961.

By then she had also traversed

such parts as the Queen of the Night in

The Magic Flute, Gilda in Rigoletto and

Norina in Don Pasquale. When the Wells

revived Richard Strauss's Ariadne Auf

Naxos in 1961, Bronhill was obvious cast-

ing for the high-wire role of Zerbinetta,

and did not disappoint her many fans.

After Joan Sutherland departed

from her huge success as Lucia di Lam-

mermoor at Covent Garden in 1959, June

took over the part with some success, but

that did not, unfortunately, lead to re-

engagement at London's senior house.

‘The voice soared amply,’ said The

Times, ‘and she negotiated the Mad Scene

with attack and accuracy and a natural un-

derstanding of Donizetti’s florid romantic

manner.’

Besides touring the United King-

dom, Australia, New Zealand and South

Africa, June remained the reigning super-

star of the London musical stage for many

June as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor at

Covent Garden on February 24, 1960.

years. Her frequent broadcasts reached a

vast audience. She was a regular guest on

Stars on Sunday, Yorkshire Television’s

religious musical programme.

She also did a lot of radio work for

the BBC during her years in the UK—

appearing regularly on such shows as Fri-

day Night is Music Night, Variety Play-

house and Palm Court. She became such a

fixture her friends started referring to the

‘Bronhill Broadcasting Corporation’!

June returned to Broken Hill in

1960 after her last performance when she

played the leading role in The Merry

Widow which had just finished in London.

The people of Broken Hill rolled out the

red carpet and welcomed her home. The

amount of people congregated at the local

airport was the largest crowd since the

visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1954. Hundred

of cars jammed the airport road to greet

her. George and Daisy Gough returned to

Broken Hill to see June as they had not

seen her for eight years.

In 1962 she was lured back to

Australia to take part in a revival of The

Sound of Music, where she had the Julie

Andrews role of Maria, which ran for 16

months.

June as Maria in The Sound of Music

with Barbara Llewellyn as Brigitta at the

Tivoli Theatre, Sydney.

June as Norina in Don Pasquale

with Neil Warren-Smith.

June with Elizabeth Fretwell

in Land of Smiles.

June as Leila in The Pearlfishers.

She returned to the Wells for a re-

vival of Strauss's The Gipsy Baron in

1964. There followed another foray, this

time in London, into musicals, as Eliza-

beth in Robert and Elizabeth, directed by

Wendy Toye. She also played the leading

role in Robert and Elizabeth, when it

opened on May 21, 1966 at the Princess

Theatre, Melbourne.

This was a new musical by Austra-

lian Ron Grainer, based on the romance of

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.

Co-starring were Keith Michell as Brown-

ing and John Clements as his tyrannical

father. Though a legal wrangle prevented

a Broadway transfer, Garnet H Carroll

brought the production to Australia. This

time June’s co-stars were Denis Quilley

and Frank Thring.

After touring with that show in

Australia, she was back at the Wells again

for performances of The Merry Widow,

and then undertook the role of Magda in

Puccini's La Rondine for the English Op-

era Group.

Now firmly established as a

crowd-pulling leading lady in operetta and

musical comedy, June toured the UK in

new productions of old favourites like The

Dancing Years, Bitter-Sweet, Glamorous

Night, Perchance to Dream, Merrie Eng-

land and, unsurprisingly, yet another re-

vival of The Merry Widow.

From 1975 onwards she appeared

as guest artist for the Australian Opera,

Victorian State Opera, South Australian

Opera and West Australian Opera compa-

nies. Her career continued unabated and

once again June returned to the opera

stage to sing leading roles in Rigoletto,

Maria Stuarda, Don Pasquale, La

Rondine, The Barber of Sevilla and Il Se-

raglio. All this was in addition to club,

concert and television appearances all

around the country.

In 1975 she decided to move back

to Australia permanently. Typically she

was one of the stars who participated in

the Cyclone Tracy fundraising gala at the

Sydney Opera House—she sang ‘Vilia’

June as Lucy in The Telephone.

and joined Donald Smith in ‘Make Be-

lieve’. She was the second person to be

honoured on the Australian version of

This Is Your Life (the first was Robert

Helpmann).

In the vastness of the Perth Enter-

tainment Centre she sang in Gilbert and

Sullivan and at Rockdale Town Hall she

was an enchanting Madame Armfeldt in A

Little Night Music. She was everywhere!

There was The Maid of the Mountains in

Brisbane, HMS Pinafore in Canberra, a

whistle-stop South Australian tour of

Robyn Archer’s Songs from Sideshow Al-

ley (the gruelling itinerary included Coo-

ber Pedy, Alice Springs and, naturally,

Broken Hill), and a national tour of The

Masters, Brian Crossley’s celebration of

the words and music of Noel Coward and

Ivor Novello, in which Bronhill shared the

stage with Dennis Olsen.

In April 1977 June received an

OBE at Government House for ‘Services

to the Performing Arts’. And she was al-

ways ready to try something new, the

more controversial the better! When the

diminutive Ronnie Corbett toured Austra-

lia she joined him on television for a spoof

June in 1977.

of La Traviata, made all the funnier by the

fact that she, too, was short, only 150 cm.

In 1980, twenty years after her

Covent Garden triumph in Lucia di Lam-

mermoor she was delivering outrageous

double entendres as Mrs Slocombe in the

Australian version of Are You Being

Served? in a cast that included the original

Mr Humphries, John Inman.

In 1981 she travelled to the UK

just one more time to appear as the

Mother Abbess in the London revival of

The Sound of Music. Petula Clark played

Maria but it was June who stopped the

show every night with her soaring rendi-

tion of ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’.

At home there was still more Gil-

bert and Sullivan—Ruth in the Victoria

State Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance in

1984. The following year she was a rum-

bustious Sally Adams in Call Me Madam

in Canberra, and at Sydney’s Footbridge

Theatre she cavorted with Judi Connelli

and Maria Venuti in the raunchy spoof

Women Behind Bars.

More sedately she featured in a

1988 revival of the Australian musical The

Sentimental Bloke at Parramatta Theatre

Centre, and then played Mrs Higgins in

Rodney Fisher’s production of My Fair

Lady at Her Majesty’s in Sydney. Fisher

also directed her as the impresario of an

outback opera company in the TV mini

series Melba.

During the late 1980's June began

to suffer health problems. In 1987 she was

diagnosed with breast cancer. During her

illness she was supported by actors Stuart

Wagstaff and Michael Craig and the Op-

era Benevolent Fund and Ladies Variety

Club

In the same year she published her

autobiography, The Merry Bronhill, and

EMI Australia produced a compilation

disc with the same title to publicise the

book. She went on a National Tour to

launch her book, published by Methuen

Hayes.

1990 she appeared in the comedy

musical Nunsense and the following year,

at the Sydney Opera House Drama Thea-

tre, she and her old friend Gwen Plumb

romped through Peter Williams’ revival of

Arsenic and Old Lace, which went on to

tour nationally.

There was just one more musical:

the starry 1993 Gordon/Frost production

of How to Succeed in Business Without

Really Trying, in which June played

alongside Tom Burlinson, Georgie Parker,

Noel Ferrier, John Gregg, Bruce Spence,

Garth Welch and Robyn Arthur. This

opened at the Footbridge and was later

seen in Brisbane and Perth. In 1994 she

played a naïve mother in Peter Williams’

production of Straight and Narrow, a gay-

themed British comedy. It was her last

stage role.

By 1994 she was going deaf at the

age of 65. June’s final years were less

happy, as her deafness stopped her from

doing the two things she loved most: per-

forming and talking to people. Her last

years were difficult and lonely. She de-

clined an invitation to attend an Opera

Anniversary centenary celebration in the

Sydney Opera House in 1996 out of con-

cern her deafness might upset fans.

She died on January 24, 2005,

aged 75, in her sleep at a Sydney nursing

home. The opening night of Opera Austra-

lia’s Tosca was dedicated to her, and her

daughter, Caroline Finny, attended as

guest of honour. Her hometown, Broken

Hill, honoured her by declaring a minute's

silence during the 2005 Australia Day

celebrations two days after her death.

June Bronhill’s body was returned

to Broken Hill by the Royal Flying Doctor

Service aircraft. The cost of the flight was

paid for by John Connelly, a business man

and former local. June was a great ambas-

sador for Broken Hill.

Official invitations were extended

to State and Federal members, around

250, including her family, and well-noted

people attended her funeral. Her daughter

Carolyn Finny came with her husband

Murray Chapman to Broken Hill from

New Zealand. June was cremated in Bro-

ken Hill. Her ashes were scattered locally

on Tuesday, January 24, 2006.

The soprano, whose biggest fans

included former British prime minister

John Major, was best known for her roles

in light opera productions, such as The

Merry Widow and the Sound of Music.

She played operetta roles such as

Josephine (HMS Pinafore), Phyllis (Iolan-

the) and Ruth (The Pirates Of Penzance).

She also essayed roles in The Maid Of the

Mountains, Call Me Madam, A Little

Night Music, Nunsense, My Fair Lady and

How To Succeed In Business Without

Really Trying, and starred in the straight

plays Arsenic And Old Lace and Straight

and Narrow.

June was a prolific recording artist

and throughout her career recorded some

30 LP record albums, very few of which

are presently available on compact disc

unfortunately.

However, Screensound Australia

(National Screen and Sound Archive Can-

berra) has most of her commercial re-

cordings, as well as some concert and club

performances archived. These can usually

be purchased, subject to copyright

June in her later years.

approval, for personal use, although the

cost is rather high.

Former Opera Australia artistic di-

rector and ABC opera presenter Moffatt

Oxenbauld remembered his former col-

league: ‘She had a very crystal clear, dia-

mond bright coloratura soprano.’ Perhaps

the best feature of her talent, he said, was

‘absolutely impeccable diction. … She

could sing the English language in a way

that audiences heard every word.’

‘It's a unique sound, a special

sound that belonged to nobody else. …

She was one of those people who make a

rapport instantly with an audience.’ Con-

trary to the shy off-stage persona often

attributed to audience-seducing perform-

ers, June's great love of people never fal-

tered.

‘She was a good party girl but …

she never ever let her audience down,’ Mr

Oxenbauld said. He recalled stretches in

the late 1960s when Bronhill would per-

form every night of the week, plus two

matinees, ‘and never changed—she was

partying quite a bit during that time. …

she loved to get together with friends and

colleagues after a show; she adored pranks

onstage.’

Another Australian Opera star,

Marina Pryor, recalled being taken under

June Bronhill's wing during their shared

onstage experiences. ‘She was just such

an extraordinary mentor and wonderful

supporter of young talent’, she said. ‘A

stage mother, I used to call her—my stage

mum.’

As for June's performing abilities,

Pryor remembered a radiant talent with a

sense of fun. ‘She just had that sparkling,

bright, light sound that was just unique—

quite an angelic, pure sound’, she said.

‘She also had extraordinary comic timing

and a wonderful mischievous quality on

stage too.’

June summed up her attitude to

performing: ‘I like to exercise my voice

and the best way to do that is in front of

an audience.’

June married twice, first to Brian

Martin, and second to Richard Finny.

Both marriages ended in divorce. She had

a daughter, Carolyn, by her second mar-

riage.

June’s Platinum Collection

from EMI Australia.