Visitors in the historic salon at Elizabeth Bay House during the Bel Canto in the Bush recital, 28 August 2018. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums.
Bel Canto in the bush: opera and song in Sydney, 1835-1850
Guest of honour Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE joins a glittering crowd at Elizabeth Bay House for a concert of popular song from early nineteenth-century Sydney.
On 28 August 2018, Sydney Living Museums Foundation hosted a special event, Bel Canto in the Bush: Opera and Song in Sydney, 1835–50, in the saloon of Elizabeth Bay House. Opera Australia’s Soprano Jane Ede and pianist Thomas Johnson performed arias and songs from SLM’s significant sheet music collections for Maestro Bonynge and fifty guests.
Sydney Living Museums holds an estimated 3000 individual pieces of published sheet music, dating back to the late 18th century, in its historic house collections and at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. The research value of the collection was significantly enhanced by the recent donation of the Stewart Symonds sheet music collection, with much of its contents provenanced to 19th-century NSW families.
The concert launched a fundraising campaign to conserve, digitise and catalogue the sheet music from our collections and provide online access. We now have hundreds of rare pieces available online through Internet Archive, with interest from all around the world, and are continuing to work towards our target of providing access to 2000 musical scores. Maestro Bonynge spoke eloquently about the power of bel canto, his own collecting passion, and the importance of the music project at Sydney Living Museums.
Maestro Richard Bonynge addressing the audience with Dr Matthew Stephens. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums.
Programmed by SLM’s research librarian, Dr Matthew Stephens, some of the music featured in the concert belonged to first-generation ‘currency lasses’, girls learning music in a distinctly colonial bubble far from the latest musical fashions of Europe. Many of the collections appear to have been bound into volumes at a moment of change in their owner’s life, such as a marriage or moving to a new home; with their inscriptions, interpretive markings and dog-eared pages, they amount to highly personal documents.
Rediscovering a lost musical world
The opera history annals have well documented the role of two Australians, Dame Joan Sutherland and Maestro Richard Bonynge, who, from the 1950s onwards, were part of a small vanguard of singers and conductors who were interested in promoting forgotten works of bel canto opera. Maestro Bonynge’s tireless research, performance and recording of composers such as Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, and more recently the songs and operas of Balfe and Wallace, have had a significant impact upon the choice of vocal repertoire performed over the past 50 years. Despite the international influence of Sutherland and Bonynge, questions about the early repertoire available locally are yet to be explored fully. Which opera and song composers were represented in the minds and drawing rooms of the early Australian settlers? What do we know about access to sheet music, teaching methods and style of performance at this time?
Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland at the piano, 1959. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The story of domestic music making in Australia after European settlement is inevitably one of immigration. Before the 1830s, colonists wishing to make music in Sydney relied on sheet music they’d brought with them or memorised from home, or obtained through local social networks or at auctions by those leaving the colony. From the 1840s onwards, Australian compositions began to appear alongside British works in Australian drawing rooms, but the canonic German composers such as Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann remained virtually unknown in the home until the 1860s. Far more common were the names of Michael Balfe, William Vincent Wallace, Carl Maria von Weber and Italian composers such as Gioacchino Rossini. To complement this choice of repertoire, Thomas Johnson played on the ‘Oxley Piano’ - a beautiful Broadwood square piano, exported to Australia in 1843 - and kindly made available on long loan to Elizabeth Bay House by harpsichord maker and restorer of early keyboard instruments, Carey Beebe. Along with a display of some of the original scores performed, Carey joined the audience to answer their many questions about the instrument and its history.
Pianist Thomas Johnson and soprano Jane Ede with the Oxley piano. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums.
With such a rich musical palette to explore and with access to the original instruments and historic house settings in which this music was once performed, Sydney Living Museums has a rare opportunity to bring to life a lost musical soundscape, and one that often surprises. It is a great privilege to access these scores and ask performers to enter into a conversation not just with the musical works themselves but also with their former owners.
Margot Chinneck and Jennifer Fisher examine the program at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Visitors in the historic salon at Elizabeth Bay House during the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Carey Beebe shows details of his 1842 Broadwood square piano to guests at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Ian Innes, Jill Wran, Caroline Butler Bowdon and Edward Simpson at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Pianist Thomas Johnson, soprano Jane Ede and Richard Bonynge at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Stewart Symonds, Matthew Stephens and Ella Macens at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Robert Holden, Ian and Maisy Stapleton at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Angela Miall, Annalise Faifax Thomas and Helen Gall at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Kate Sheaffe, Helen Gall and Ruth Jaeger with the music collection at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Andrea and Elinor Wrobel with Kate Sheaffe at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Jennifer Emmerton, Jan Bowen and Richard Bonynge at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Benoit Dency, Grace Chan and Thomas Johnson at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
Cliff Connors and Megan Martin at the Bel Canto in the Bush recital.
About the author
Dr Matthew Stephens
Research Librarian
Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell.
1960s psychedelia at Rouse Hill House
In a short experimental period of music making, the talented young John Terry combined radical musical ideas with abstract imagery and the soundscape of Rouse Hill House.
A 'musical jolt' in early colonial Sydney
Imagine that moment when you first heard your favourite piece of music - something that excited, moved or surprised you. The early musical soundscape of Sydney was teeming with just such moments.
A musical tour back in time
Soprano Nyssa Milligan describes the experience of performing at Elizabeth Bay House in the recent collaboration between Sydney Living Museums and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
A paper jukebox: exploring our sheet music collections
Musicologist Dr Graeme Skinner reflects on the historical and cultural significance of the sheet music collections belonging to three of Sydney Living Museums’ historic properties.
An unassuming instrument
By delving into an old harmonium at Rouse Hill House & Farm we hope to learn when it came into the house, who played it, and how we can best look after it.
Bel Canto in the bush: opera and song in Sydney, 1835-1850
Guest of honour Maestro Richard Bonynge AC CBE joins a glittering crowd at Elizabeth Bay House for a concert of popular song from early nineteenth-century Sydney.
Colonial Caledonian: In Search of the Early Scottish Musical Experience
A new short film follows Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, on her exploration of early Scottish sheet music held in SLM’s collections.
Contemporary First Peoples Composers
Australia holds one of the oldest living cultures in the world, and First Nations music making is the oldest continuing form of music making. For the Songs of Home exhibition, Sydney Living Museums collaborated with five talented contemporary First Peoples composers.
From the collection: Catherine Hayes illustration
This sheet music cover is the only known copy of this illustration of the soprano Catherine Hayes (1818–1861), one of the world’s first international opera and concert stars.
Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845
On 28 March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds.
House Music at Your House
We invite you to join us in a new musical experiment, bringing the music of the 19th century into the 21st century.
If these walls could talk: Rouse Hill House & Farm
On the evening of 28 April 1899 the first act of a concert held at Rouse Hill House finished with a song performed by the jovial host, Edwin Stephen Rouse (1849–1931).
Jane Austen: at home with music
Jane Austen’s music albums, on display for the first time in Australia, provide a new understanding of the use of music in the author’s work and the importance of music making in the Regency home.
Listening to the past: rediscovering our musical heritage
The stories and collections of our properties contain compelling clues about the music played and enjoyed by earlier generations. Through exciting new initiatives and research we’re reviving these soundscapes for modern audiences.
Magic Lantern at Rouse Hill House
The Rouse Hill House magic lantern is a mid-19th century example of a form of image projector which dates back to the 17th century.
Music Lessons
Within a tower of yellowed receipts on a spike file at Rouse Hill House & Farm are illuminating details of the musical education of sisters Nina and Kathleen Rouse.
Music Making in Historic Houses
A new short film, 'Sweet Noise: Making Music at Vaucluse House', documents preparations for a musical performance in one of Sydney Living Museums' historic houses.
New musical composition: An artificial social protection
An exciting video performance of a new musical work by British composer Laura Bowler has been released online by Sydney Living Museums.
New Research Partnership
Sydney Living Museums has announced a new partnership with the University of Southampton and the Royal College of Music as part of a three-year research project exploring domestic music and heritage in the Georgian home.
Songs and scandal uncovered: The Dowling Music Project
In an exciting collaboration between Sydney Living Museums and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, performers from the Historical Performance Unit are bringing to life a previously unknown collection of sheet music which belonged to a young Sydney couple in the 1830s.
Sound Heritage Sydney: Making Music in Historic Places
On the 28th of March 2017, an international forum of invited experts spent a day at Elizabeth Bay House sharing their knowledge about music making in historic houses.
Sydney Children's Choir performs a forgotten song at Rouse Hill Estate
On a warm summer morning, long before any of us had heard of COVID-19, Lyn Williams, artistic director of the Sydney Children’s Choir, and associate artistic director Sam Allchurch sifted through some of the early 19th-century music scores at Sydney Living Museums, and now you can watch the result.
Talking about Music at Your House
SLM donors and members were recently invited to join a webinar broadcast where they heard an animated discussion about SLM’s new online program ‘House Music at Your House’.
The archaeology of music at Hyde Park Barracks
Hard as it is to imagine men and women in the government institutions at Hyde Park Barracks singing and dancing, archaeological evidence suggests that music may have been heard there from time to time.
The Art of Playing Polka
Sometimes good music takes a while to be appreciated. For the first time, on the 11th of October, a lively dance tune published in Sydney over 160 years ago will be performed at Vaucluse House as part of its centenary celebrations.
The eloquent silence of an old piano
One of Sydney Living Museums’ pianos is almost 200 years old and has not been played since at least the 1960s. We ask Bronwen Griffin, musical instrument conservator, and Professor Neal Peres Da Costa, historical keyboardist, for their thoughts on the piano’s future care.
The legacy of Stewart Symonds
We acknowledge and farewell a dedicated Sydney Living Museums supporter, whose collection of sheet music has done so much to illuminate the history of domestic music making in colonial Australia.
The Odyssey of an Early Australian Piano
Imagine for a moment if all the old pianos lying around Australia could speak. One can only guess at the stories they would tell and the emotional highs and lows they have shared with their owners through music over the years.
The Oxley piano
An unusually well-preserved 19th-century piano is helping Sydney Living Museums to authentically re-create the sounds of the early colony.
The Rouse Hill ‘Allies in camp’ music roll
Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I. It came with a Themodist attachment, a superior model which allowed the player of the pianola to control musical phrasing and thematic changes. This capacity would have been particularly desirable for one of the music rolls in the collection at Rouse Hill House & Farm
The Rouses of Rouse Hill: a family of music consumers
The sheet music shared online for the House Music at Your House program comes from an extraordinary collection at Rouse Hill Estate.
The Stewart Symonds sheet music collection
A recently acquired collection of printed sheet music provides valuable insights into Sydney’s music trade and concert scene in the 19th century and offers opportunities for musical interpretation of Sydney Living Museums’ places.
The surprising legacy of Miss Pye of Parramatta
Visitors to Richmond Villa, head office of the Society of Australian Genealogists in Kent Street, Sydney, may have met the steady gaze of a young woman dressed in the fashion of the early 1840s.
Uncovering the musical treasures of Rouse Hill House & Farm
Nicole Forsyth, a professional viola player and casual lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is currently researching the Rouse Hill House & Farm sheet music collection for her PhD.
Uncovering the trail of a lost masterpiece
Sydney Living Museums volunteer, author and art historian Robert Holden has devoted his sleuthing skills to the search for a missing life-sized portrait of Irish-born prima donna Catherine Hayes last seen in a photograph from 1917. Can you help with this ongoing mystery?
‘I think of thee’: unlocking a colonial song
The reconstruction of a unique but incomplete copy of a colonial song has allowed us to hear it 170 years after it was composed.