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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.