Gertrude Johnson OBE 1894-1973

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There were two opera seasons at the Princess in 1949, and annual festivals of opera, ballet and drama from 1951 to 1954. The operatic repertoire expanded to include Britten’s Albert Herring, and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and The Consul; the latter, in 1953, with its harrowing and topical theme of communist oppression in Eastern Europe, provided a spectacular showcase for the talents of young Marie Collier. The great Australian baritone John Brownlee, who had sung with Gertrude Johnson in London at Melba’s Farewell, appeared in Don Giovanni and The Barber of Seville; and Marjorie Lawrence, though paralysed from polio, created a sensation as a throne-bound Amneris in Aida in 1951. In 1953 the National’s Opera Company travelled to Sydney and the Sydney equivalent, Clarice M. Lorenz’ National Opera of Australia, visited Melbourne.

The National’s drama offerings at the Princess were not numerous, but they were still interesting: Shakespeare and Shaw rubbed shoulders with Tennessee Williams, and there were even Australian plays, like Ray Lawler’s Cradle of Thunder in 1952. Most of the National’s drama activity, however, remained centred on the little theatre at Eastern Hill.

The National’s professional dance activities premiered at the Princess in 1949 under the direction of Joyce Graeme, who had come to Australia with Ballet Rambert. The company toured widely in Australia and New Zealand. Its achievements included the first-ever Australian staging of the four-act version of Swan Lake, in 1951, and the land-mark Corroboree, to John Antill’s score. Gertrude Johnson was awarded an OBE in 1951.

Johnson’s proudest moment came in 1954: on 1 March the National Theatre presented The Tales of Hoffmann at the Princess for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Joseph Post conducted, Stefan Haag directed, and Louis Kahan designed the sets and costumes.

Had Miss Johnson and Miss Lorenz been able to work together, their enterprises might well have developed into a truly national opera company; instead each company swiftly withered, to be replaced in 1956 by the Australian Elizabethan Trust Opera Company – today’s Opera Australia.

After the establishment of the Australian Elizabethan Trust and the introduction of television, most of the National’s theatrical presentations were smaller-scale student productions. Somehow the National’s schools survived a series of re-locations and the disruptions caused by a string of disastrous fires.