Dame Joan Hammond 1912-1996

When war broke out, Hammond was still in London; it remained her home for the next 25 years.
She joined the Women’s Voluntary Service, driving an ambulance around the city’s blitzed East End. The war thwarted plans for her to sing at La Scala, and for two years her singing was confined to the concert platform, broadcasts, troop concerts and the recording studio. In September 1941 she recorded ‘O My Beloved Father’ from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. It immediately found a place in the hearts of the thousands whose family lives had been thrown into turmoil by the war. It went on to sell more than a million copies and won Hammond a coveted Golden Disc. It has never gone out of print. The Carl Rosa Company resumed its activities in 1942, and recruited Hammond for Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, Faust, Il Trovatore, La Bohème and Tosca.

After the war Hammond toured Germany with the Sadler’s Wells company as Butterfly, then in 1946 returned to Australia for a four-month ABC concert tour. In 1947 she went back to Vienna to sing Tosca, Violetta and Mimi. Later in the year she toured South Africa. She made her Covent Garden debut in 1948 as Leonora in Il Trovatore and sang there until 1951 in Fidelio, Tosca, Aida and Butterfly.

In 1949 Hammond toured the United States, appearing at the New York City Centre as Butterfly, Aida and Tosca. She sang in Scandinavia, East and Central Africa, the Soviet Union, India, the Far East and Canada. In 1952 she was contracted for a British film on the life of Melba, but this was cancelled when another similar project took precedence. She returned to Australia in 1952 for a gruelling 40-concert ABC tour, this time with conductor-pianist Walter Susskind. She lent her support to the newly formed Elizabethan Trust Opera Company, singing in Tosca and Otello in 1957 and Salome and Madama Butterfly in 1960.

The Slav repertory suited her tone and her complete identification with a role. In 1959, capitalising on the success of her recording of the aria ‘O Silver Moon’, Hammond was in the first British staging of Dvorak’s Rusalka at Sadler’s Wells. She also sang in many operas for BBC radio and television. Her voice was particularly suited to Puccini and Verdi; she sang the Verdi Requiem countless times under conductors such as Victor de Sabata and John Barbirolli, and always to critical acclaim.

In 1965, at the height of her career, Hammond suffered a coronary attack which precluded further singing engagements. She returned to Australia, building a retirement home in the bush at Airey’s Inlet in Victoria. In 1970 she published her autobiography, A Voice, a Life. She was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 1974.