Reporters: The Diva & the Orangutans

Even more than tenors who try to upstage her, Diva Joan Sutherland dislikes reporters who crowd her. Last week La Stupenda, as her fans call her, hit a low note in her relations with the press.

Arriving at Sydney airport for her first concert in her native city in 14 years, she was distressed to see that photographers were waiting. Commanded the coloratura: “Get those people away from here.” Her husband-manager, Richard Bonynge, followed with a back handed swing at a photographer’s camera and smashed the flashbulb.

Later, Joan and husband showed up at a Sydney restaurant for a press reception. Before anyone could ask a question, Bonynge delivered a shrill lecture: “I will not allow myself and my wife to be persecuted by orangutans of the press,” he shouted. “We have been most vexatiously wearied by the impertinence of photographers at the airport, when we had given firm instructions that the press was not to know of our arrival. We do not believe in the divine right of the press.”

For a moment the press was speechless. Then one reporter mumbled: “You’re carrying on a bit much, aren’t you mate?” At that, Joan and husband stormed out, followed by the frantic restaurant manager. He had spent most of the day whipping up a special fish sauce for Joan that he said was “comparable to the peach Melba, the tribute to that other Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba.” The manager fell to his knees on the sidewalk, kissed Joan’s hand and begged her to return. She went back after some hesitation, then tried to laugh away the incident by mimicking orangutans shelling peanuts at the zoo. Richard was still sullen.

“You should realize that my wife is not a rock ‘n’ roller or a pop singer but the queen of song.”