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Florence Austral
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Title:
Florence Austral
NFSA ID
355118
Year
1924
Florence Austral was born in Richmond, Melbourne in 1892. Famed as a Wagnerian soprano, she received great acclaim for her performances as Brunhilde and Isolde at Covent Garden in London. She also completed six tours of America.
In 1930, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and struggled to keep up with the strenuous demands of the life of an opera prima donna.
She made many recordings with the record label His Masters Voice but in those early recordings was said to be disappointed in the way the recording process reduced her powerful voice.
This photograph shows Austral dressed as the Brunhilde from the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as The Ring Cycle) by Richard Wagner.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.