Soon after the first Royal South Street Society competitions began in 1891, a competition for operatic arias was added to the vocal program (c. 1896). In 1922 the Sun News Pictorial was born and the committee approached the Sun for sponsorship. The Sun had appointed Thorold Waters – a self- professed ‘serviceable tenor’ as its music critic, and he took up the cudgels on behalf of RSSS – and the rest is as they say, is history.
The first “Sun Aria” was staged in 1924 and the original idea, to capture the imagination of the public was to create a link with our recently returned servicemen from WW1. To that end, returned servicemen could deduct the number of years’ service from their age to meet the age requirement for entry. Indeed, one young Ballarat singer, Edward Hocking was persuaded to take advantage of the provision and entered in 1926. Edward was born into a Salvation Army household and music was in his DNA. Often at night-time he would stroll through the trenches stopping every now and again to entertain the resting troops with songs from home, evoking applause from the trenches of the opposing belligerents, and in 1926 – he won!
In several of the Royal South Street Society disciplines, competitors were coming from all over Australia and in some cases New Zealand as well. The “Sun Aria” was no exception and indeed the first winner, Lawrence Power, was from South Australia. By now South Street and the Sun were firmly wedded and the Sun for many decades also sponsored the Graceful Girl competition in Calisthenics. A former corporate affairs manager of the Sun (and later Herald-Sun) Rick Swinnard used marvel at this unique and enduring partnership between a not-for- profit organisation and a major Australian corporate entity.
Over the years, winning the Sun Aria proved to be the launching pad for many a successful career on the world stages of opera. Names like Kiri Te Kanawa (pictured), Jonathan Summers, John Fulford, Malvina Major, John Pickering, Brian Hansford, Raymond Myers, John Pringle, and many more; but equally the number of semi-finalists over the years who have gone on to command brilliant careers has been notable – way too many to single out.
The aria has enjoyed a name and reputation second to none, and has been since the 1890’s, the oldest competition of its type. It continues strongly today, only halting briefly during the Second World War and the Covid 19 pandemic. This year, the centenary year, we salute the many illustrious competitors; we salute giants along the way like Ellinor Morcom BEM (official accompanist from 1945 to 1982; Richard Divall AO OBE who brought the orchestra to the final; the many adjudicators and writers; the legendary MC’s like Geoff McComas and Don Kinsey who brought the aria alive to the audiences of 3DB – 3LK; Sun music critic Tony Gould AM; the magnificent support of the Herald and Weekly Times Limited.
In this centenary anniversary year, we salute you.
Written by Peter Zala, 2024
