Richard Bonynge was born in Sydney, Australia and studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and the Royal College of Music, London.  He was Musical Director of the Sutherland-Williamson Grand Opera Company in 1965 (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane); Artistic Director of the Vancouver Opera, 1974-77 and Musical Director of The Australian Opera, 1976-86.  He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by Her Majesty The Queen in Great Britain in 1977; the AO (Order of Australia) and awarded Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Paris in 1989. He married the soprano Joan Sutherland in 1954.

Richard is acknowledged as a scholar of bel canto opera, 19th century French opera and 19th century ballet music.

He has conducted at most of the world's opera houses in Great Britain, in the United States, Canada, Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

His repertoire consists mainly of 18th century opera, the great bel canto repertoire, French 19th century opera, 19th century ballet and opera, the operas of Mozart and Handel, and many operettas.

He has revived many operas which were not at the time included in the repertoire: Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer), Semiramide, Sigismondo (Rossini), La Fille du Régiment, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti), Esclarmonde, Le Roi de Lahore, Thérèse (Massenet), Medea (Pacini), Orfeo (Haydn), I Masnadieri (Verdi).

Richard Bonynge has recorded over 50 complete operas as well as the three great Tchaikovsky ballets, three Delibes ballets and countless relatively unknown ballets of Adam, Minkus, Burgmüller, Auber, Drigo and Offenbach. He has recorded several recital discs with Sumi Jo, Jerry Hadley, Deborah Riedel, Rosamund Illing, Cheryl Barker and Elizabeth Whitehouse.  His latest recordings are Le Domino Noir (Auber), Le Toréador (Adam), Die Zarewitsch, Das Land des Lächelns, Paganini, Giuditta (Lehár), Cendrillon (Nicolo), Orfeo (Haydn), Die Herzogin von Chicago and Die Czardasfürstin (Kálmán), British Opera Arias (Balfe, Wallace, Sullivan), Sacred and Profane Arias (Massenet), Puccini Arias (Puccini), La Somnambule (Hérold), Verismo Arias and Tchaikovsky & Grieg piano concertos with Simon Tedeschi and the Queensland Orchestra.

He has also made videos of Les Huguenots, La Fille du Régiment, Adriana Lecouvreur, Die lustige Witwe, Les dialogues des Carmélites, Norma, Die Fledermaus, Lucrezia Borgia, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lakmé, Il Trovatore, Die Zauberflöte and Die Czardasfürstin.

Among his most recent performances in the theatre have been La Traviata in Athens, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi in London, Norma, Lucia, La Scala di seta, Signor Bruschino, Romeo et Juliette, Lakmé in Sydney and/or Melbourne, Lucia, Norma, Faust  and La Sonnambula in the United States, La Favorite in Barcelona and I Lombardi in Buenos Aires.

Richard has just made a recording of operetta with Yvonne Kenny and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and another of late 18th and early 19th century arias with Deborah Riedel.

For Richard Bonynge's testimonial, click here.