Sutherland’s successor?

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 8

Sutherland’s successor?

Christchurch music lovers who are not able to go north for the Australian Opera Company’s New Zealand season next month can hear its new star at the Town Hall on Saturday evening.

Australian music critics and opera audiences alike are raving about 22-year-old Isobel Buchanan. Richard Bonynge “discovered” the Scottish soprano, who is being hailed as the new Joan Sutherland.

In January she made her professional opera debut as Pamina, in “The Magic Flute,” with reportedly stunning success. Since then she has been busy gathering parts and acclaim, most recently as Micaela in “Carmen,” and the Countess in "Marriage of Figaro.” On some nights she received more thunderous applause than Sutherland. FLYING VISIT Her Christchurch engagement with the Royal Christ'church Musical Society is very much a flying week-end visit. She is a late replacement for Malvina Major, ! who has had to withdraw for health reasons. Next month she will be in Wellington and Auckland with the Australian company, appearing in Rigaletto.

Isobel Buchanan is determined not to let her instant success go to her head. A perfectionist, she is conscious of a need to constantly evaluate her performances and to guard against becoming complacent. The pressure to maintain the standard she set as Pamina is, she is sure, good for her. “It makes me work,” she chuckled.

A friendly, unaffected young woman, she shows no sign of temperament. And she expresses delight that the Australian company has welcomed her into their fold. No ’’bitching” at a newcomer's success, as she had expected, but lots of flowers

and presents. “Everyone has been so kind.”

Singing is a natural joy, not a job , for Miss Buchanan. Both her mother and father are accomplished amateur singers at home in Glasgow. Her young brother has just finished studying with her teacher at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, and she talks enthusiastically of a future, joint opera appearance. A home-loving girl, she has been desperately horne- : sick in Australia. To establish residency for Actors Equity she had to sit out her first six months of her three-year contract. Even the dressmaking she loves could not keep her occupied. Now she is so busy working it is hard to fit everything in. But Joan Sutherland has taught her petit point, which is, she giggled, much quieter than clacking her knitting needles during rehearsal. The demands of dedication which opera makes do not bother her. She would much rather give a good performance than go to a party, so she is quite content to turn down dinner invitations and potter about her Neutral Bay flat.

Most days she tries to fit in half an hour of singing exercises, to keep the vocal cords in trim. “Sometimes,” she confessed, smiling, “It’s just a bit of a warble in the shower.” Isobel Buchanan has come a long way since her audition for Richard Bonynge which, according to the account that is now legend, made Joan Sutherland cry for joy. She credits her rapid rise to fame to the Australian Opera Company. Only in such a young company, she believes, would she have been given leading roles at her age. So she thinks she will stay in Australia for a few years. “I’m not ready to compete in Europe yet.”