Joan CardenAOOBE (born 9 October 1937[1]) is an Australian operaticsoprano. She has been described as "a worthy successor to DameNellie Melba and DameJoan Sutherland"[2] and was sometimes known as "the other Joan" (a reference to Sutherland and DameJoan Hammond)[3] or "The People's Diva".[4] She was a Principal Soprano withOpera Australia for 32 years, and was particularly associated with the title roles ofGiacomo Puccini'sTosca andMadama Butterfly. However, she sang over 50 other roles, from the 18th century, including virtually all theMozart heroines, through to works by contemporary composers.[4]
Joan Maralyn Carden was born inMelbourne, an only child, in 1937. Her parents were Frank Carden (1902–1967) and Margaret Carden née Cooke (1896–1997). She attended Lee Street State School, North Carlton, and Ormond State School, Melbourne, and was dux of Prahran Technical Girls' School in 1955.[5] Her first experience of opera as a child was hearingMozart'sThe Magic Flute, and thenRichard Strauss'sSalome sung byJoan Hammond. She would later become a friend of Hammond, singing at her funeral inBowral, and at her memorial concert in Melbourne,[6] and she also received the Dame Joan Hammond Award.
In Melbourne, her first singing teacher was the English-born Wagnerian sopranoThea Phillips when she was seventeen who gave her gentle instruction.[7] Her teacher was then briefly Henri Portnoj. She was a private student atTrinity College of Music in London and won a Stuyvesant Scholarship tenable at London Opera Centre, 1966/7, where her singing teacher was the West Australian expatriateVida Harford (1907–1992),[8] with whom she studied for the remainder of her teacher's life. She won a major prize in the Munich International Music Competition in September 1967, before graduating from the London Opera Centre that year.[4] She performed in the United Kingdom, and[9] Germany. She returned to Australia in 1970, joining in 1971 the Australian Opera (nowOpera Australia) as a major principal till retiring from that company in 2003.
Her debut with OA was in 1971 as Liù inPuccini'sTurandot in 1971, then Marguerite inGounod'sFaust. In the first season at theSydney Opera House (1973–74) she sang Pamina inThe Magic Flute. At the Royal Performance in October, she sang Natasha inProkofiev'sWar and Peace.[10] Her career with OA saw her sing such other roles asTosca andMadama Butterfly many times, as well as Marguérite (Faust), Gilda (Rigoletto), Queen Elizabeth (Maria Stuarda; oppositeDeborah Riedel in the title role),[11][12] Desdemona (Otello), Leonora (Il trovatore andLa forza del destino), Violetta (La traviata), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Mimi (La bohème), most of the Mozart heroines, including Donna Anna and Elvira (Don Giovanni), the Countess (The Marriage of Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), plus Richard Strauss's Feldmarschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), the four heroines performed in English and then French, inThe Tales of Hoffmann, Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Elisabetta (Don Carlos), and the title roles inLakmé,Alcina,Adriana Lecouvreur andSuor Angelica. She also sang a concert repertoire includingVerdi'sRequiem, appearing with Sydney Philharmonia and other ensembles.[13]
Overseas, she sang Gilda (Rigoletto) at Covent Garden in 1974, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the 1977Glyndebourne Festival (in the production by SirPeter Hall)[4] and with theMetropolitan Opera in 1978. Her American debut, however, was as Amenaide with theHouston Grand Opera oppositeMarilyn Horne inRossini'sTancredi.[4] She also appeared as Constanza (The Abduction from the Seraglio) withScottish Opera in 1978.[4]
In 1980, she performed with theNational Symphony Orchestra at theKennedy Center in Washington, D.C.[4] She sang the four soprano roles in English inOffenbach'sThe Tales of Hoffmann forOpera North in 1981, and reprised these roles with Opera Australia the following year. and later in French.[4] In 1982, she sang withGreater Miami Opera as Amelia in Verdi'sSimon Boccanegra, withCornell MacNeil.
Joan Carden also sang withI Solisti Veneti, conducted byRichard Divall, and many Australian state opera companies.[13] She played the Mother Abbess in the Adelaide season ofThe Sound of Music[13][14] having begun her stage career as understudy toJune Bronhill in 1960, inThe Merry Widow.
On 26 January 1988 she was given the honour of singing the Australian national anthemAdvance Australia Fair to a worldwide audience as part of the celebrations ofAustralia's Bicentenary. That same day she also sang in the world premiere ofPeter Sculthorpe'sChild of Australia at the Opera House, with narratorJohn Howard and theSydney Philharmonia Choir andAustralian Youth Orchestra underCarlo Felice Cillario.[15]
On 11 April 1991 she was invited to share her reminiscences in an address to theNational Press Club inCanberra.[16]
She sang 'Waltzing Matilda' and the national anthem during the worldwide telecast of the1992 AFL Grand Final. In 1993 and at anAustralia Day charity concert withJosé Carreras at Covent Garden beforePrince Charles.[9] That year she received an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship.
In 2000 she stepped in at very short notice to singTosca inAdelaide for an ailing friend, Deborah Riedel who subsequently died of liver cancer at the age of 50. The story of wearing her own jewellery is apocryphal.[17]
Her farewell major role with Opera Australia was as Tosca in Sydney in 2002.[18] After her final performance she was awarded the Opera Australia Trophy at a ceremony at the Opera House.[4] In March 2003 she was given a reception in her honour by theGovernor-General, Major GeneralMichael Jeffery, atAdmiralty House, Sydney.[19]
However, she did not stop singing altogether. In 2003, she created the role of "Public Opinion", based on the Australian political figurePauline Hanson, in the Sydney season of Opera Australia's new production ofOffenbach'sOrpheus in the Underworld.[4] On 2 June 2003, Joan Carden sang at a ceremony at theMelbourne Town Hall to launchAustralia Post's new series of stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Coronation ofQueen Elizabeth II.[4]
In 2006 she sangExsultate, jubilate in a concert at the Great Hall of theUniversity of Sydney with Sydney University Graduate Choir, music director Christopher Bowen, who sponsor the Joan Carden Award for young singers, the concert in honour of the 250th anniversary of the birth ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.[20]
In 2006 also, she appeared in the musicalTitanic, as Ida Strauss. It opened in Sydney to high praise from the critics, but the run was cut short due to poor ticket sales, and the planned Brisbane and Melbourne seasons were cancelled.[21]
She sang at the memorial concert forRosina Raisbeck in early 2007.[22] That year she appeared in a straight acting role in the Melbourne season ofJohn Misto'sHarp on the Willow, a play with music about the life of the Irish singerMary O'Hara, starringMarina Prior as O'Hara. In the play, Carden and Prior sang "The Flower Duet" fromDelibes'Lakmé.[23]
She was Patron of the now defunct National Voice Centre at the University of Sydney, theVictorian College of the Arts Opera, and theMusical Society of Victoria.[13] and is a trustee of Opera Australia Benevolent Fund.
Joan Carden made a number of recordings, videos and DVDs, includingLa traviata;[24]The People's Diva, which showed her in rehearsal and preparation forMadama Butterfly;[25] andGreat Operatic Heroines, with theQueensland Philharmonic Orchestra underRoderick Brydon.[26]
Her singing of the aria "È strano! Ah, fors'è lui " from Verdi'sLa traviata is heard in the filmThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.[27]
Joan Carden is related to George Frederick Carden, a prominent Melbourne businessman, who founded the Carden Fellowship ofCancer Council Victoria.[28] There is also the G. F. CardenLeukemia Research Foundation, funding from which facilitated treatment pioneered by ProfessorDon Metcalfe that saved the life of many people, includingJosé Carreras. In 1990 Joan Carden sang atCovent Garden with Carreras and a group of Australian singers in a concert to raise funds for Carreras's own leukaemia research foundation, and she made him aware of this connection.[29][30]
Her 1962 marriage to a British steeplechase coach William Coyne produced two daughters, and ended in divorce in 1980. Their children are Vida Carden-Coyne (named after her first singing teacher Vida Harford), an arts administrator; and Prof Ana Carden-Coyne, a cultural historian and founder of the Centre for the Cultural History of War at theUniversity of Manchester.[4]
Joan Carden converted fromAnglo-Catholicism toRoman Catholicism in 1960. She sang at the funeral of Archbishop Carroll, who was both a spiritual adviser and a great admirer of her singing.
She suffered a number of heart attacks during her career, but returned to the stage each time.
In the New Year's Day Honours of 1982 Joan Carden was appointed an Officer (OBE) of theOrder of the British Empire.
In 1987 she received the Dame Joan Hammond Award for Operatic Excellence.[4][31]
In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1988 she was appointed an Officer (AO) of theOrder of Australia.
In 1992 she sang before US PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush on his Australian visit.[9]
In 2001, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by theSwinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. That year she was awarded the Australian Government's Centenary Medal. On 15 April 2004 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by theAustralian Catholic University.[32]
In 2005, the Joan Carden Award was created by the Sydney University Graduate Choir, and is awarded to an outstanding young singer.[33]
TheARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres ofAustralian music. They commenced in 1987.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Australia Day / Child of Australia (withSydney Symphony Orchestra,Australian Youth Orchestra, &John Howard | Best Classical Album | Nominated | [34] |
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