Glenda Raymond, opera singer "The Melba Story"
Hyfler/Rosner
Opera singer. Born Melbourne, October 26, 1922. Died Melbourne, May 3, aged
80.
FOR many Australians, it is as a coloratura soprano that Glenda Raymond is
best remembered. Her marriage in 1950 to Hector Crawford, the father-to-be
of Australian television, was preceded by her title role in The Melba Story,
a radio serial that eventually comprised 78 half-hour episodes in the 1940s.
The series went to air weekly on Melbourne's then leading radio station 3DB
and was broadcast in 17 other countries.
Crawford, who produced the series, first heard Raymond sing in 1945, the
year he and his sister Dorothy established Crawford Productions, and offered
her a job. So, in her early 20s, she accepted the challenge of playing the
voice of the greatest singer of her day, while Australian actor Patricia
Kennedy provided the spoken Melba.
As The Melba Story proceeded, Crawford, assisted by soprano Pauline Bindley,
coached Raymond through the extraordinary range of Melba's repertoire.
Raymond was a natural singer, with a bright, true voice of exceptional
purity and flexibility that touched the listener's heart.
Her parents divorced when she was two and she was reared by her grandmother
in the loving environment of an extended family.
After attending Hampton High School, she joined the Commercial Bank of
Sydney's South Yarra branch as a teller and it was while she was working
there that Crawford asked her to work with him.
At the height of her post-Melba Story popularity she travelled to London and
was offered a contract by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She sang operas
ranging from Handel to Debussy with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under
Constant Lambert, and effortlessly segued into popular song for radio and TV
while finding time to work with Italian tenor Dino Borgioli.
On her return to Melbourne in 1950, she accepted Crawford's proposal of
marriage. Years later, Crawford was to comment: "She would have had a career
that was miles better than mine if she'd stayed in London -- she's a much
bigger talent than me."
She first appeared at a concert in the Botanic Gardens in 1944 and for many
years was a guest artist at Crawford's annual concerts.
When Clarice Lorenz brought her National Opera of NSW's The Barber of
Seville to Melbourne in 1953, she cast Raymond as Rosina. After the
formation of the Elizabethan Trust Opera Company in 1956, Raymond was
offered roles including another Rosina, Gilda in Rigoletto and the Queen of
the Night in The Magic Flute.
In 1969 she returned to the stage in Brian Crossley's production of
Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and in 1970 sang in Rossini's Count Ory. Her
farewell to the opera stage was in Cosi fan tutte, one of the operas in a
final season staged by Gertrude Johnston's National Theatre in the guise of
the Melbourne Opera, at the Princess Theatre in 1971.
Raymond was executive producer for years for one of Crawford Productions'
best remembered TV successes and a favourite of her husband -- Showcase. She
played a pivotal role in identifying talent, providing national exposure for
many emerging artists and helping launch the careers of some of Australia's
most prominent performers, including pianist Leslie Howard, violinist Jane
Peters and baritone Jonathan Summers.
She returned to the stage for just one night when, during one of Richard
Wherrett's Melbourne festivals, she sang the role of Heidi Schiller in an
unforgettable performance of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.
The true focus of her love and energy was her husband. They made a
formidable team and the arrival of their two children, Joanne in 1961 and
Timothy in 1962, completed their happiness. The Crawfords were devoted to
one another and Raymond was devastated when Crawford died in 1991.
Her lifelong love of the Collingwood Football Club endured, and she
continued to regularly attend theatre and opera.
Raymond's popularity probably skewed many people's appreciation of her true
worth as an artist. But it was her ability to sing everything from popular
song and operetta to the great operas that earned her such an affectionate
place in people's hearts.