June Bronhill 琼·布朗希尔

June Bronhill (26 June 1929 – 24 January 2005) was an internationally acclaimed Australian coloratura soprano opera singer, performer and actress, She was well known for light opera and musical theatre in London West End theatres and Australia as well as on the opera stage. Bronhill was born June Mary Gough in the inland Australian city of Broken Hill, New South Wales to George Francis Gough, born in Essex, England and Mary Isobel Daisy Hall. Her stage name, Bronhill, which she used from 1952, was an abbreviation of Broken Hill, which was her way of thanking her home town for its support in raising money to send her overseas for professional training as a singer. Her European vocal teacher misheard "Broken Hill" as "Bro-n-hill". She won the Sun Aria, now known as the Sydney Eisteddfod McDonald's Operatic Aria, in 1949.Bronhill trained in London and gained early exposure with the English National Opera (Sadler's Wells Opera) company inMozart's The Marriage of Figaro. She also sang leading roles in Die Fledermaus, The Gypsy Baron, Menotti's The Telephone, Flotow's Martha and Hansel and Gretel. Her roles in Offenbach's operas, with the Sadler's Wells company, included Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld and Gabrielle in La Vie parisienne. In 1961 and 1962, she appeared as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music on the Australian stage. In 1964 she appeared as Elizabeth in the musical Robert and Elizabeth at the Lyric Theatre, London alongside Keith Michell as Robert Browning, a show she took to Australia in 1966. She also appeared in England in tours of two Ivor Novello musicals, Glamorous Night and The Dancing Years, the latter playing a season at the Saville Theatre in London. She also appeared as the Mother Abbess in the 1981 London revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Bronhill was perhaps best known for the title role of Hanna Glawari in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, which she sang with the Sadler's Wells Opera (now known asEnglish National Opera), with Thomas Round as Danilo in 1958 and revised in 1960 Bronhill made frequent visits back to her homeland, singing in operas such as The Merry Widow, Orpheus in the Underworld, Die Fledermaus and Rigoletto at theSydney Opera House in 1975. In 1976, she decided to move back to Australia permanently. In Australia she appeared in operas such as Il Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) and a Victoria State Opera production of Donnizetti's Maria Stuarda in July 1976, directed by Robin Lovejoy with a cast including Nance Grant conducted by Richard Divall. She played operetta roles such as Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore), Phyllis (Iolanthe) and Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance). She also had roles in The Maid of the Mountains, Call Me Madam, A Little Night Music, Nunsense, My Fair Lady and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as well as appearing in the non-musical plays Arsenic and Old Lace and Straight and Narrow. Bronhill also appeared in the role of Mrs Crawford in the television comedy series Are You Being Served?, the Australian version of the British comedy series, as well as in Lipton Tea television advertisements singing an adaption of Fugue for Tinhorns. Bronhill was a patron of the Australian Girls Choir from the choir's beginning. There is a scholarship in her name, the June Bronhill Encouragement Scholarship, awarded each year to the chorister with the most choral prowess. Bronhill married twice, first to Brian Martin in 1951 in Sydney, New South Wales and second to Richard Milburn Champion de Crepigny Finny, in January 1953. Both marriages ended in divorce. She had a daughter, Carolyn Jane Finney in May 1963 by her second marriage. <a href="<a href=" https:="" en.wikipedia.org="" wiki="" june_bronhill'="">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Bronhill'>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Bronhill