Gustave Slapoffski

[4] Anne, like her sister, was born in Sydney, Australia, where her father, British Army major William Hunter, was the military secretary to Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales.

[2] Nicknamed "Slap",[7][10] Slapoffski was appointed musical director at the Princess Theatre in Manchester before becoming orchestra leader and first violin with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, for whom he was also assistant conductor, taking part in British tours of Jeanie Deans (1894); The Flying Dutchman (1895); Carmen (1895) and Tannhäuser (1896).

In early 1897 he was still playing as well as conducting for Carl Rosa in a season at the Garrick Theatre when they presented Godard's La vivandière, Roméo et Juliette, Faust, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Mignon and Die Meistersinger among other works.

[13] By October 1897 Slapoffski was principal conductor during Carl Rosa's short season at the Royal Opera House that included The Bohemian Girl.

[11] Following on from this success, in 1900 the conductor Hans Richter suggested Slapoffski to the Australian theatre producer George Musgrove as a suitable musical director for a forthcoming season of opera in Australia.

During that 1900 season Slapoffski conducted performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and New Zealand including the Australian premières of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman.

[6] In May 1901 Slapoffski conducted a concert to celebrate the inaugural meeting of the Parliament of Australia when it was first convened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

[2][8][15] In 1902 Slapoffski was the conductor of a 50-piece orchestra for Nellie Melba's Australian tour,[16] and in 1903 he conducted The Fortune Teller for Musgrove, in which Lillian appeared as Musette, the title role.

In 1925–26 he was musical director of the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin, while in March 1931 he conducted 3,000 singers and 500 instrumentalists in a memorial concert for Dame Nellie Melba at the Adelaide Oval.