Maree Austin papers and photographs

fonds

1940-2006

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Clippings

950555

Elva Maree Austin (1931-2017), known more widely by her stage name Maree Austin, was a theatre actress, dancer and singer who was born in Sydney. She was involved in many productions around Australia.

In the 1960s she joined the Metropolitan Opera National Company in New York as a member of the chorus as well as ballet mistress for the Company’s first season. She travelled around America with her second husband Irving Rosenthal who was a trombone player with the Company which was sponsored jointly by the New York Metropolitan Opera Company and the J. F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. They performed in 79 cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Austin lived in America through the 1980s and was based in Pine Bush, New York where she was involved in directing and choreography in theatrical productions for smaller companies including Pine Bush High School in the 1990s where she lived with her third husband Vito Farinola. She visited Australia several times while living in America.

References:
Library correspondence file
The Australian Women's Weekly, October 19, 1966
For information on the Metropolitan Opera National Company (the young artists touring company where Maree Austin sang), see: 5,000 nights at the opera / Sir Rudolf Bing. London : Hamish Hamilton, 1972, pp. 238-241

Series 1: Maree Austin personal papers
Series 2: Maree Austin photographs, ca. 1947-1970, 1989, 2006