June Bronhill OBE 1929-2005

Back in London Bronhill tackled works as diverse as Martha, The Magic Flute, Orpheus in the Underworld, Janáek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Menotti’s The Telephone. And there was her highly acclaimed Covent Garden debut in Lucia di Lammermoor. ‘The voice soared amply,’ said The Times, ‘and she negotiated the Mad Scene with attack and accuracy and a natural understanding of Donizetti’s florid romantic manner.’

Her frequent broadcasts reached a vast audience. She was a regular guest on Stars on Sunday, Yorkshire Television’s religious musical programme, and on BBC radio’s light music shows Friday Night is Music Night, Variety Playhouse and Palm Court. She became such a fixture her friends started referring to the ‘Bronhill Broadcasting Corporation’!

In 1961 Bronhill returned to Australia to play Maria in Garnet H. Carroll’s production of The Sound of Music. Back in London she accepted the female lead in Robert and Elizabeth, a new musical by Australian Ron Grainer, based on the romance of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Co-starring were Keith Michell as Browning and John Clements as his tyrannical father. The show notched up 948 performances – a London run longer than The King and I and South Pacific. Though a legal wrangle prevented a Broadway transfer, Garnet H. Carroll brought the production to Australia in 1966. This time Bronhill’s co-stars were Denis Quilley and Frank Thring. In 1967 Bronhill made her debut with the Australian Opera, as Norina in Don Pasquale and Adele in Die Fledermaus.

Now firmly established as a crowd-pulling leading lady in operetta and musical comedy, Bronhill toured the United Kingdom in new productions of old favourites like The Dancing Years, Bitter-Sweet, Glamorous Night, Perchance to Dream, Merrie England and, unsurprisingly, yet another revival of The Merry Widow.

In 1975 she made her home in Sydney. Typically she was one of the stars who participated in the Cyclone Tracy fundraising gala at the Sydney Opera House – she sang ‘Vilia’ and joined Donald Smith in ‘Make Believe’. She was the second person to be honoured on the Australian version of This Is Your Life (the first was Robert Helpmann). She appeared in Rigoletto for the Australian Opera, Maria Stuarda for the Victorian Opera Company and La Rondine for the State Opera of South Australia. In the vastness of the Perth Entertainment 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 Alley (the gruelling itinerary included Coober 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. Her services to music were recognised with an OBE in 1976.