Australian conductor and vocal coach Richard Bonynge was BOTD in 1930. Born in Sydney, he was a gifted pianist, moving to London in 1950 to attend the Royal College of Music. He abandoned his studies to became a coach for opera singers, including fellow Australian Joan Sutherland, who he married in 1954, and with whom he had a son. Bonynge devoted himself to Sutherland’s career, training her to reach the upper levels of her soprano range and perform the bel canto operatic repertoire of 19th century composers Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. In 1959, he coached Sutherland to success in a London production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, launching her as an operatic superstar. In 1962, Bonynge conducted one of Sutherland’s concerts when the scheduled conductor became ill. From then on, he conducted nearly all of her live performances and recordings, sensitively attuning his orchestral sound to enhance Sutherland’s vocals. Together, they had huge success with performances and recordings of Bellini’s Norma and I puritani, Léo Delibes’ Lakmé and celebrated revivals of Rossini’s rarely-performed Semiramide and Jules Massenet’s Esclarmonde. He and Sutherland had a son together, and settled in Switzerland, becoming close friends with their next-door neighbour Noël Coward and remaining together until Sutherland’s death in 2010. Rumours about Bonynge’s bisexuality and open marriage with Sutherland have circulated since the 1970s. Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novel series features an anecdote about a closeted conductor married to a famous opera singer, which is thought to be based on Bonynge.