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Richard Divall

{{Short description|Australian conductor and musicologist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Richard Divall

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AO|OBE}}

| image = Richard Divall Conductor 2012 LucasDejong.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1945|09|09|df=y}}

| birth_place = Sydney

| death_date = {{death date and age|2017|01|15|1945|09|09|df=y}}

| death_place =

| occupation = Conductor and musicologist

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}}

Richard Sydney Divall {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AO|OBE}} (9 September 1945 – 15 January 2017){{cite news|first=Angus|last=McPherson|url=http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/richard-divall-has-died|title=Richard Divall has died|work=Limelight|date=16 January 2017|access-date=30 January 2017}} was an Australian conductor and musicologist.

Born in Sydney,{{Cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/560085?c=people|title = Trove}} and after leaving Manly Boys High School, Divall joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a music producer in the early 1960s for nine years before working as a trainee conductor for Opera Queensland. In 1972, on the invitation of Dame Joan Hammond and Peter Burch, he became the inaugural music director of the Victoria State Opera in Melbourne, where he remained for 25 years.{{cite news|author=Richard Mills|date=25 January 2017|title=Conductor's heart shone through [web: Exemplary conductor: vale Richard Divall, Victorian State Opera legend]|type=obituary|newspaper=The Australian|page=14|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/exemplary-conductor-vale-richard-divall-victorian-state-opera-legend/news-story/0313b0b8f071027d8b54d2cd28457333|url-access=subscription}} A further five years were spent as principal resident conductor of Opera Australia. His teachers included Joseph Post, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Reginald Goodall and Wolfgang Wagner.

Repertoire

Divall conducted many concerts, ballets and 151 operas, particularly works of the late baroque, Mozart, Handel, Gounod,{{cite web|url=https://victoriastateopera.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/victoria-state-opera-faust-1981/|title=Faust 1981|publisher=Victoria State Opera|date=24 June 2013|access-date=19 March 2023}} Berlioz and Verdi. These included the complete operas of Claudio Monteverdi, Berlioz's Les Troyens and Richard Strauss' Elektra. He conducted Verdi's Don Carlos,{{cite web|url=https://victoriastateopera.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/victoria-state-opera-don-carlo-1984/|title=Don Carlo 1984|publisher=Victoria State Opera|date=18 June 2013|access-date=19 March 2023}} the first opera to be staged in the State Theatre of the Victorian Arts Centre in 1984.{{cite web|url=http://www.nla.gov.au/selected-library-collections/richard-divall-collection|title=Divall Collection | National Library of Australia|website=Nla.gov.au|access-date=15 January 2017}}

His repertoire included Lohengrin and Tannhäuser by Wagner. The most recent operas he directed were Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, Hasse's Antonio e Cleopatra, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, and Puccini's final opera Turandot at Monash University.{{cite web | url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/232745 | title=AusStage }}

Academic career

Divall was a vice-chancellor's professorial fellow at Monash University{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/monash-role-for-divall-20110323-1c6w5.html|title=Monash role for Divall|website=The Age|date=24 March 2011|access-date=15 January 2017}} and an honorary principal fellow in music at the University of Melbourne, and the University of Malta.

As a musicologist he edited over 150 works of early Maltese composers especially from the period of the knights, including the complete sacred music and operas by Nicolas Isouard (1773–1818). He was editing the sacred music and operas of Girolamo Abos (1715–1760).

Four volumes in his editions of 24 works of {{ill|Michelangelo Vella|de||fr||it||mt}} have been published by Lyrebird Press [Paris/Melbourne]. Divall was associated with several residential colleges of the University of Melbourne, first Queen's College (of which he was a fellow) and later Newman College (where he was a member of the SCR){{clarify|date=March 2023|reason=Senior common room?}}. In 2014, he was appointed an honorary research fellow at the University of Divinity, Melbourne, and in September 2014 a visiting professor of music at King's College London.{{Cite web |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/music/newsrecords/2014/sam-neill-anzac.aspx |title=King's College London – Sam Neill visits King's for commemorative CD |access-date=16 April 2018 |archive-date=12 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112142635/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/music/newsrecords/2014/sam-neill-anzac.aspx |url-status=dead }}

For 45 years, Divall pioneered the study of, and edited and published many volumes of early Australian music. He was the chairman of the Marshall-Hall Trust,{{Cite magazine|url=https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/2331303/review-14.pdf|title=The Marshall-Hall Trust|magazine=Review|number=14|date=December 2001|author=Richard Divall|access-date=16 April 2018 |archive-date=30 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330031642/https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/2331303/review-14.pdf |url-status=dead }} and was completing an edition of the complete works of the English baroque composer Michael Christian Festing, and the complete sacred music of Girolamo Abos.{{Cite web|url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/richard-divall-1945|title=Richard Divall AO OBE, b. 1945|website=portrait.gov.au}} Divall worked in several fields at Monash, was a member of the committee for the construction of the new Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, as well as assisting the staff and students at that school. In 2015 he was the co-producer of the ANZAC Commemorative CD Gallipoli – A Tribute, which was sponsored by the Ian Potter Foundation and Monash University.{{Cite web|url=http://future.arts.monash.edu/monash-great-war-centenary/gallipoli-cd/|title = Arts}}

Publications

  • Complete works of Carl Linger, 1971
  • Symphonies, Cipriani Potter, Samuel Wesley, 1980
  • Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 29 by Charles Edward Horsley (Melbourne: Lyrebird Press, 2008){{cite web |url=http://www.lyrebirdpress.com/music/australiana/lbp002/ |title=Horsley – Concerto for Violin (Op. 29)|website=www.lyrebirdpress.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725064105/http://www.lyrebirdpress.com/music/australiana/lbp002/ |archive-date=25 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}
  • Edited works by Gluck, Rameau, Handel, Wesley, Bellini, Verdi, the complete sacred music of Nicolo Isouard, and the complete works of Michael Christian Festing (1705–1752).

Recordings

=Audio=

=DVD=

  • Alcina by George Frideric Handel, Joan Sutherland, Sally-Anne Russell, Wendy Dixon, Elizabeth Campbell, Glen Winslade, Stephen Bennett; conducted by Richard Divall. Australian Opera, Australian Opera Chorus. Sydney 1987{{cite web|url=http://www.operapassion.com/dvd1810.html|title=DVD: Handel: Alcina – Sutherland – Russell – Dixon – Campbell – Winslade – Bennett; Divall|date=1987|website=Operapassion.com|access-date=15 January 2017}}

Honours

{{More citations needed|section|date=March 2023}}

Divall was awarded honorary degrees from Monash and Australian Catholic University and a PhD in theology by the University of Divinity [Catholic Theological College] in church history and 18th century Maltese sacred music. He was an officer of the Order of Australia (2009), an officer of the Order of the British Empire (1981) and was awarded a Spanish knighthood in 2008.

He was a fellow of Queen's College, Melbourne, and was on the SCR of Newman College at the University of Melbourne. He was a Knight of Malta in solemn religious profession and was active in hospitaller and charitable works in that order.

  • Professor Richard Divall AO, OBE{{cite web|url=http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?breif=true&page=1&search_type=quick|title=It's an Honour – Honours – Search Australian Honours|website=Itsanhonour.gov.au|access-date=15 January 2017}}{{dead link|date=March 2023}}
  • Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE (1981)
  • Officer of The Order of Australia, AO (2009)
  • Officer of the Most Venerable Order of St John, OStJ (2012)
  • Fellow, Royal Numismatic Society (1985)
  • Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society (1985)
  • Fellow, Queen's College, University of Melbourne in 1987
  • D. Lett (Hon Causa) Monash (1992)
  • Doc. Univ. (ACU) 2005)
  • PhD. UD. (2014)
  • Dame Joan Hammond Award in 1988
  • Bayreuth Prize in 1990
  • Cavaliere di Giustizia (Order of Malta), Cavaliere di San Giorgio (Spain)
  • Commendatore al Merito Melitense, DLett (Hon Mon) in 1989, for historical research
  • FRAS, FRNS.
  • Professor Richard Divall AO OBE D Lett (Hon Mon) Doc Univ (ACU) PhD (UD) FRNS FRAS

=Bernard Heinze Memorial Award=

The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.

{{awards table}}

! {{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}}

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| 2004 || Richard Divall || Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award || {{yes2|awarded}} || [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Divall-Richard.htm Bach Cantatas]

|-

{{end}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/560085|title=Divall profile|publisher=Trove|access-date=4 March 2024}}

{{Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Opera|Classical music}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Divall, Richard}}

Category:1945 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Australian conductors (music)

Category:Australian musicologists

Category:Officers of the Order of Australia

Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:University of Divinity alumni

Category:Knights of the Order of St John

Category:Musicians from Sydney