Florence Austral

She was born Florence Wilson, though she acquired the surname Fawaz when her mother re-married, and made her debut under that name. Her ultimate professional name was obviously a tribute to her native country. She had an unforced, powerful Wagnerian voice of uncommon lyric beauty, and sang that repertoire and other leading dramatic in the 1920s and into the early 1930s; the two often shared the role of BrŸnnhilde and the other great heroines in rotation. She had studied at the Melbourne Conservatory and in 1918 went to New York for further vocal training. The Metropolitan Oper...