Michael Shmith's Australian musical anecdotes / firewood by Dame Joan Sutherland.

Includes index.

Foreword -- Introduction -- Early History -- Classical -- Conductors and Composers -- Divas -- Jazz -- Country and Western -- Musicals and Operetta -- Radio -- Rock -- Index.

"Australia, music and anecdotes belong together, given Australians' propensity for yarn-spinning and performing and occasionally making fools of themselves and others. There is something about the Australian character and its ability to deflate pomposity that has always given it a special licence where music is concerned. Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland, for instance, as well as being two of the greatest prima donnas of the century, were quite capable of rejecting the superfluous and cutting to the quick of the matter.
In this exhilarating collection of anecdotes Michal Shmith has produced a concise history of musical performance in Australia from European settlement to the present day" -- Book Cover.