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Royal South Street Eisteddfod
Not to be confused with the historical Ballarat Welsh Eisteddfods. The Royal South Street Eisteddfod, also known as The Grand National Eisteddfod of Australasia, is held annually in Ballarat, Australia and is administered by the Royal South Street Society. It began as a debating competition run by the South Street Society in 1891 and attained "Royal" status in 1962. It soon grew and now includes public speaking, acting, singing, music, dance and calisthenics. It is the oldest and longest running Eisteddfod in Australia. The Aria section, "competition for ''The Sun'' trophy, representing a prize of 23 guineas for an aria from Grand Opera, to be sung in English", was sponsored by ''The Sun News-Pictorial'', a Melbourne newspaper, from 1924, and continued independently as the Melbourne Sun Aria. Since 1965 it has been held in Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, Australia's oldest continually operating theatre. Situated on Lydiard Street, it was earlier known as the Academy of Music, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballarat Welsh Eisteddfods
The Welsh Eisteddfods of Ballarat was a series of traditional ''eisteddfodau'' founded by Welsh people, Welsh miners at Ballarat in the Australian gold rushes#August 1851: Ballarat, Victoria, gold rush days and revived in the early 20th century by some of their descendants. History Eisteddfods, the Welsh festival of music and singing, poetry and recitation, were held by Welsh miners at Castlemaine, Victoria, with its nearby goldfields of Mount Alexander and Forest Creek, Victoria, Forest Creek, on Christmas Day 1854. Those at Ballarat began on St David's Day, 1 March 1855. Robert Lewis, Harry Davies, Jenkin Lewis, Isaac Davies, David Davies, Ellis Richards, William Price, Evan Jenkins (died 1900), Ellis Richards, and John Humffray were named as its organisers. Its successors were: *25 December 1858 at the United Presbyterian Church, Armstrong Street *25 December 1859 at the United Presbyterian Church, Armstrong Street *25–26 December 1863 at the Mechanics' Institute, organised by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, and 1909 to 1910. He held office as the leader of the Protectionist Party, and in his final term as that of the Liberal Party (Australia, 1909), Liberal Party. He is notable for being one of the founding fathers of Federation of Australia, Federation and for his influence in early Politics of Australia, Australian politics. Deakin was born in Melbourne to middle-class parents. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1879, aged 23, additionally working as a barrister and journalist. He held ministerial office sporadically beginning in 1883, serving twice as Attorney-General of Victoria and aligning himself with Colonial liberalism, liberal and Radicalism (historical), radical reformers. In the 1890s, Deakin became one of the leading figures in the movement for the federation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December 1971 she was recognised internationally when she appeared as the Countess in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'' at the Royal Opera House in London. Te Kanawa received accolades in many countries, performing works composed in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and singing in several languages. She was particularly associated with the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi, and Giacomo Puccini, Puccini and Richard Strauss, and was often cast as an aristocrat. Her extensive discography includes three albums which featured in the top forty in charts in Australia in the mid-1980s. Towards the end of her career, Te Kanawa appeared in opera only rarely, preferring to perform in concerts and recitals. She also devoted m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Atkins
David Atkins, OAM (born 12 December 1955) is an Australian dancer, choreographer, music-theatre director and producer. Career Stage and television Atkins began his performance career aged 12 with a role in the musical ''Mame''. As an adult performer, as well as performing in shows such as ''A Chorus Line'' and ''The Pirates of Penzance'', he created and performed in his own works ''Dancin' Man'' and ''Dynamite''. World events Atkins has directed and produced major live events in various countries. These include Opening, Victory and Closing Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ..., British Columbia, Canada. Honours and awards Atkins was recognised in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denise Drysdale
Denise Anne Christina Drysdale (born 5 December 1948) is an Australian television presenter, variety entertainer, actress, singer, dancer and comedian. She is often affectionately known as "Ding Dong", a nickname invented by fellow performer Ernie Sigley. She was formerly a co-host of the morning show ''Studio 10''. Early life Childhood Born in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin, Drysdale and her family moved to Port Melbourne when she was three-and-a-half, where her parents ran the Fountain Inn Hotel. They lived there for eleven years, during which time Drysdale attended Kilbride Ladies Convent, South Melbourne. Career beginnings Drysdale's career began soon after the move to Port Melbourne. Referring to regulations for public bars to cease serving alcohol at 6pm, she observed: During that time it was the Six o'clock swill, 6 o'clock swill, and Mum didn't want her little girl seeing all that drinking, so she sent me to dancing, to May Downs. May Downs was an amazing woma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Kirner
Joan Elizabeth Kirner (née Hood; 20 June 1938 – 1 June 2015) was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch), Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, Legislative Council before later winning a seat in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. Kirner was a minister and briefly Deputy Premier of Victoria, deputy premier in the government of John Cain Jr., and succeeded him as premier following his resignation. She was Australia's third female head of government and second female premier, Victoria's first, and held the position until her party was defeated in a landslide at the 1992 Victorian state election, 1992 state election. Early life and career Born Joan Elizabeth Hood in Essendon, Victoria, Essendon, Melbourne, the only child of John Keith and Beryl Edith (née Cole) Hood, a fitter and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amy Castles
Amy Eliza Castles (25 July 1880 – 19 November 1951), was an Australian dramatic soprano. Family The daughter of Joseph Castles (1849-1933), and Mary Ellen Castles (1855-1937), née Fallon, Amy Eliza Castles was born in Melbourne, Australia on 25 July 1880. Her two sisters, Ethel Margaret "Dolly" Castles (1884–1971) and Eileen Anne Castles (1886–1970) were also highly regarded, talented sopranos. Education She was educated at St Kilian's primary school and St Mary's College. Career On 26 March 1910 she sang the title role in the Australian premiere of Giacomo Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'', at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. She made her United States début at Carnegie Hall in 1917. Castles never married. She lived with her sister, Dolly Castles, in Camberwell. She died at a hospital in Fitzroy, Victoria Fitzroy is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, northeast of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Yarra Local g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Grant Bruce
Mary Grant Bruce (born Minnie Grant Bruce, 24 May 1878 – 2 July 1958), was an Australian children's author and journalist. While all her thirty-seven books enjoyed popular success in Australia and overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom, she was most famous for the ''Billabong'' series, focussing on the adventures of the Linton family on Billabong Station in Victoria and in England and Ireland during World War I. Her writing was considered influential in forming concepts of Australian national identity, especially in relation to visions of the Bush. It was characterised by fierce patriotism, vivid descriptions of the beauties and dangers of the Australian landscape, and humorous, colloquial dialogue celebrating the art of yarning. Her books were also notable and influential through championing of what Bruce held up as the quintessentially Australian Bush values of independence, hard physical labour (for women and children as well as men), mateship, the ANZAC spirit and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin (18 September 1876 – 28 January 1953) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the ninth prime minister of Australia from 1929 to 1932. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), having briefly served as treasurer of Australia during his time in office from 1930 to 1931. His time in office was primarily categorised by the Wall Street crash of 1929 which transpired just two days after his swearing in, thus heralding the beginning of the Great Depression in Australia. Scullin remained a leading figure in the Labor movement throughout his lifetime, and was an '' éminence grise'' in various capacities for the party until his retirement from federal parliament in 1949. He was the first Catholic to serve as prime minister. The son of working-class Irish-immigrants, Scullin spent much of his early life as a laborer and grocer in Ballarat. An autodidact and passionate debater, Scullin made the most of Ballarat's facilit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eisteddfod
In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.Hywel Teifi Edwards (2015), ''The Eisteddfod'', pages 5–6. The first documented instance of such a literary festival and competition took place under the patronage of Prince Rhys ap Gruffudd of the House of Dinefwr at Cardigan Castle in 1176. However, with the Edwardian Conquest of Wales, the closing of the bardic schools, and the Anglicization of the Welsh nobility, it fell into abeyance. The current format owes much to an 18th-century revival, first patronized and overseen by the London-based Gwyneddigion S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Australian census, 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within months of Victoria History of Victoria#Separation from New South Wales, separating from the colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian gold rush. Ballarat subsequently became a thriving boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, in terms of wealth and cultural influence. In 1854, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against government forces. Known as the Eureka Rebellion, it led to the introduction of white male suffrage in Australia, and as such is interpreted as the origin of democracy in Australia, Australian democracy. The rebellion's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melbourne Sun Aria
The Herald Sun Aria, formerly known as The Sun Aria (because it was sponsored by '' The Sun News-Pictorial'') is a vocal competition for emerging opera singers held in Victoria, Australia, each year. The competition offers nearly $60,000 in cash prizes. The competition forms the aria section of the Royal South Street Eisteddfod, Australia's oldest and largest eisteddfod. Three of the most famous winners of the Aria competition are Wagnerian soprano Marjorie Lawrence (1928) and Dames Malvina Major (1964) and Kiri Te Kanawa in 1965. Others include June Bronhill (1950), Jonathan Summers (1973), Judith Henley (1976), Suzanne Ward (1984), Linda Thompson (1990), Rachelle Durkin (2000), and Nicole Car (2007). The heats (generally two) of the competition are held annually in September at Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, and the final is held at Hamer Hall in the Arts Centre Melbourne in early November. Finalists are accompanied by Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Maestro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
