Summary

Souvenir programme for 'A Night at the Opera', presented by the Eoan Group. It was performed on the 18th, 24th and 25th of March 1969. Sixteen artists are listed, with 'Eoan Group chorus and dancers'. Sylvia joined the Eoan Group in 1966 and performed in a variety of operas in the chorus. She met her future husband, Lindsay Motherwell, through the Eoan Group's production of 'South Pacific'.

Sylvia Boyes (a South African-born orphan) and Lindsay Motherwell (a Melbourne-born drummer) met in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967 through their theatre connections. They fell in love but due to apartheid laws were forced to leave South Africa to marry in London. They subsequently relocated permanently to Melbourne in 1970.

Physical Description

Programme listing sixteen artists, with 'Eoan Group chorus and dancers, and Cape Town Symphony Orchestra'. Inside is a list of songs performed, with the details of the type of song, title of song, and the opera from which they came. The interval came after 8 songs, and 14 songs total were performed. On the bottom right was a list of credits, and the rehearsal accompanists. On the back is an advertisement for Shell petrol.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides a significant opportunity to represent political and personal freedom as a motivation for migrating to Australia within the international context of both apartheid in South Africa and the end of the White Australia policy in Australia. The personal narrative is well documented and the objects provide a material way to follow the lives of both Lindsay and Sylvia, both separately and where they coincide in South Africa and onwards together to Melbourne. While this is ultimately a love story, it plays out through the collection against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, sixties London and an increasingly multicultural Australia.

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