She worked first as a television presenter and broadcaster for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation before moving to Australia and an appointment as a news anchor for ABC-TV in Sydney under her former married name of Beverley Bohan, while continuing musical studies at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 1963 she was awarded a scholarship to the
London Opera Centre and in 1966 won first prize in a
Royal Overseas League competition which was the launchpad for her performing career under the professional name of Beverley Bergen. The following years saw her in roles with
Glyndebourne Festival Opera,
Sadler's Wells and
Welsh National Opera. She also performed many concerts in the UK and throughout Europe. In 1973, Bergen returned to New Zealand to sing the title role in
Lucia di Lammermoor with
New Zealand Opera and sang a series of concerts with the
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Back in Europe she became a member of
Deutsche Opera Berlin and guested at numerous European houses, including Brussels, Munich and Dusseldorf as well as giving solo concert performances with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – notably in their Jubilee performances of the Verdi
Requiem. At this time she also recorded with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. After returning to Australasia to make her permanent home in Sydney she was engaged by
Opera Australia,
State Opera South Australia, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Performances included Australasian premieres of Shostakovich’s
Lady Macbeth of Mstensk for the 1984 Adelaide Festival and Strauss’s
Capriccio and Schoenberg’s
Erwartung for the Sydney Festival. She toured for the ABC, and toured to Holland with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra premiering Barry Cunningham’s
Bennelong for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. Bergen’s repertoire includes more than 30 operas and widely diverse concert programmes. Operatic highlights include
La Traviata, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, The Turn of the Screw, Jenufa, The Flying Dutchman, Julius Cesar, La Forza del Destino and
Die Fledermaus. Television opera performances include
The Marriage of Figaro for UK Channel 4,
Pelleas and Melisande and
The Gondoliers for the BBC,
La Boheme and
L’Heur Espagnole for ABC-TV. Bergen has held teaching appointments at the
Sydney Conservatorium and
Wollongong University in Australia and
York University in the UK, and has appeared as a judge on international panels for both composition and performance. After retiring from performance, in 2000 she created, produced and hosted an eight-part lifestyle series,
Aria and Pasta, for Bravo Channel in the US, interviewing major opera stars across the world. The series was broadcast internationally. == Personal life ==