United States

A film profiling Joan Sutherland, the world's greatest opera singer with RICHARD BONYNGE and Margreta Elkins Anson Austin The National Philharmonic Orchestra The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra The Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra The Australian Opera The film, made over a period of 13 months over four continents, tells the story of Joan Sutherland and her husband, the conductor Richard Bonynge, one of music's most formi- dable teams on and off the stage and concert platforms of the world. It takes the viewer behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. the Sydney Opera House, on a concert tour of Japan and South Korea, and in recording sessions at London's Kingsway Hall and at home in the small village of Les Avants, high above Lake Geneva where their recording company tapes a new collection of songs on location Brian Adams, who wrote and directed the film, is author of the biography of Joan Sutherland entitled "La Stupenda Opera and operetta performances include excerpts from Bellini s Norma in Sydney with (Margreta Elkins), "La Traviata" by Verdi in Melbourne (with the tenor Anson Austin), Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in New York and "The Merry Widow" by Lehar with full chorus, dancers and principals at the Sydney Opera House. Songs featured in Sutherland/Bonynge recitals, record- ings and rehearsals include compo- sitions by Mascagni, Rossini, Abt, Offenbach and Gounod. In a recording session in London, Joan Sutherland sings arias from "Die Walkure and Rienzi" by Wagner with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge.