Bonynge was born in
Epping, a suburb of
Sydney, and educated at
Sydney Boys' High School before studying
piano at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music and gaining a scholarship to the
Royal College of Music in London, where his piano teacher was
Herbert Fryer. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for singers. One of these was Joan Sutherland, whom he had accompanied in Australia. They married in 1954 and became a
duo, performing operatic
recitals until 1962. When the scheduled conductor for a recital of operatic arias became ill and the replacement conductor was involved in a car accident, Bonynge stepped in and, from that time on, he conducted virtually all of his wife's performances. His debut as an opera conductor took place in 1963 in
Vancouver, where he conducted
Faust. The same year, also in Vancouver, he conducted
Norma for the first time, starring Sutherland and
Marilyn Horne. He conducted the
English Chamber Orchestra in many recordings. While researching
Massenet and Italian
bel canto composers, Bonynge discovered Massenet's own statement that his opera
Esclarmonde was his "best achievement". This made Bonynge curious, because
Esclarmonde had sunk into almost total oblivion and had hardly been performed at all since the end of the 19th century. He obtained a tattered
vocal score of it in Paris, and subsequently bought the full orchestral score at an auction in New York City. Although Sutherland was initially sceptical about
Esclarmonde, Bonynge became an enthusiast of the work and eventually convinced her that she should perform the role of Esclarmonde herself. The
San Francisco Opera and
Metropolitan Opera premieres of
Esclarmonde took place in 1974 and 1976 respectively. at the
Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation Bel Canto Award in 2016In 1977 he was the founding music director of the
Vancouver Opera Orchestra, when he conducted
Le roi de Lahore there (in which his wife also took part). Bonynge made his Metropolitan Opera debut on 12 December 1966, and his last performance there was on 6 April 1991. Most of his conducting there between 1966 and 1987 was with Sutherland singing. From the 1960s until the early 1970s, his speciality was music of the 18th and early 19th century, mostly bel canto repertoire of
Rossini,
Bellini and
Donizetti. Bonynge gradually added middle
Verdi (
La traviata,
Rigoletto,
Il trovatore),
Offenbach (''
Les Contes d'Hoffmann), and Massenet (Esclarmonde
and Werther''). Bonynge has recorded extensively in the
ballet genre:
Delibes's three ballets –
La Source,
Coppélia,
Sylvia;
Riccardo Drigo's
The Magic Flute and
Le Réveil de Flore;
Jacques Offenbach's
Le papillon;
Friedrich Burgmüller's
La Péri; and
Tchaikovsky's three ballets –
Swan Lake,
The Sleeping Beauty,
The Nutcracker. One of Bonynge's most valuable contributions to ballet music is a 10 CD "Compendium of Ballet Rarities", rarely recorded but often performed by established ballet companies, such as several famous
Pas de deux and ballets performed in operas. His recordings also include some works with no operatic or balletic associations, such as the
Harp Concerto in E-flat by
Reinhold Glière, with harpist
Osian Ellis. Commencing in 2007, he has conducted a series of performances in a few opera houses around the US (
Florida Grand Opera,
Michigan Opera Theatre), and now is mostly involved with the
Opera Australia company (
Lucia di Lammermoor in August 2008, and in 2006 for
Opera Queensland;
I Capuleti e i Montecchi in
Melbourne and Sydney in middle of 2009). He lives in
Les Avants,
Switzerland, and maintains a home in Sydney. He is regularly involved in the philanthropic activities of the
Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation, often chairing the panel of judges for their annual Bel Canto Award. ==Videography==