William Saurin Lyster

About two years later, he formed an opera company which included Madame Lucy Escott, Henry Squires, and Miss Georgia Hodson whom he married.

[3] For about seven years it gave performances of the operas of Italian, German, French and English composers, including Don Giovanni in 1861, and the Les Huguenots in 1862.

Classic operas like Lohengrin, opened on 18 August 1877, and Tannhäuser in 1878, were box office failures, although the company had included a distinguished singer, Antoinetta Link.

Among concert artists introduced to Australia were pianists Arabella Goddard and Henry Ketten, and Jules Levy, a well-known English cornet player of the period.

Lyster's companies toured the principal cities of Australia and New Zealand, but for the last seven years of his life he made the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, his headquarters.