When Austral Sang: the Biography of Florence Austral by Michael Elphinstone and Wayne Hancock A project that has taken more than 10 years to realise, When Austral Sang is not only a meticulously researched and annotated account of the life and career of one of Australias most important singers but, in terms of its scope and content, it sets new precedents for future works of Australian biography. The standard life story of Florence Austral is here scrutinised, corrected and amplified; in bringing to light new material on the sopranos family background, her relationship with flautist John Amadio, her début in professional opera, her recordings, her overseas tours and her medical history, the authors have answered the numerous questions inadvertently raised by Australs previous biographers. Ample discussion is moreover devoted to the artistic circles in which Austral lived and worked, thus placing her musical activity in a wider socio-historical perspective. As might be expected of a volume its size (655 pages), When Austral Sang is generously illustrated. It also contains two appendices (one of them a complete discography of Australs recordings for HMV together with details of LP reissues and transfers to CD), and an extensive bibliography. Idolised by gramophone enthusiasts but an obscure figure to the public at large, Florence Austral (1892-1968) occupies an ambivalent place in the annals of Australian music. In actual fact, she was the successor to Dame Nellie Melba and the predecessor to Dame Joan Sutherland, and forms with them a triumvirate of truly great Australian sopranos the like of whom come along all too rarely. At first glance, a claim for Austral to be placed alongside two such supremely celebrated artists may appear tenuous, for neither her fame nor her musical achievements can even begin to approach theirs. And yet in terms of the magnificent quality of her voice at its peak, Austral was unsurpassed. She was a veritable vocal phenomenon held in awe by virtually all who heard her, and hailed time and time again as having one of the most impressive soprano voices in the world. Austral was the leading dramatic soprano in Britain in the 1920s. She was a famous Brünnhilde, Isolde and Aida at Covent Garden, heavily in demand as a soloist at Wagner orchestral concerts, and equally as busy as an HMV recording artist in the early days of the gramophone. She was also a superb recitalist, often sharing the platform with her husband, Australian flute virtuoso John Amadio. The overseas tours she undertook from 1926 to 1937 saw her perform throughout North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Holland. Unfortunately, Austral suffered from a high quota of personal and professional misfortune. Various hardships, coupled with a relatively early vocal decline, prevented the soprano from reaching the highest echelons of international stardom. Hers was a placid and genial personality, but she was beset with an underlying insecurity that compelled her to cloak isolated failures of her career in a shroud of anecdotal half-truths and outright lies. As a result, a distorted picture of Austral has been handed down to us, a distortion exacerbated by the biographical accounts of several recent writers who have blindly taken the singer at her word. When Austral Sang, by Michael Elphinstone and Wayne Hancock, dispels once and for all, by means of documented evidence, the fabrications concerning Florence Austral that have long been held as fact. With the almost mythical Austral of yore finally put to rest, the sopranos art can once more be assessed entirely on its own merits. Hyde Park Press, Richmond, South Australia ISBN 0 646 44033 0
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:22:57 +0000
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