opera

Moncrieff made highly successful gramophone recordings in Australia for the Columbia Graphophone Co. between 12 October 1928 and 4 June 1935. She was a regular visitor to the company studios at Homebush, Sydney, making eighty-four titles that were released on either Regal, Regal-Zonophone or Columbia labels as ten-inch discs. These well-known musical comedy favorites sold far better than similar material by many famous overseas artists. Most of these recordings were reissued by EMI Records Australia and enjoyed healthy sales. Gladys Moncrieff had a powerful, wide-ranging, rich soprano voice, and excellent diction. Undemonstrative in behavior, she approached her singing like a craft, meticulously and unostentatiously. She dressed simply and did not shun menial tasks. Her large, informal parties were memorable for her superb cooking, especially for her pie with seventy dozen oysters. Perhaps it was also her sense of fun and tender-heartedness that attracted her large following of 'gallery girls', women who queued for standing room and followed her movements with flowers and mail. She became a legend in Australia in her lifetime, respected by her professional colleagues, and loved by her devoted public. Her autobiography, My Life of Song (Adelaide, 1971), was ghosted by Lillian Palmer. Source: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/moncrieff-gladys-lillian-7621

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The two in the front look as though they are singing. It may be a musical or an opera.

Found. This is a performance of Les Mamelles de Tiresias, a surreal opera by Poulenc, at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1981. See www.nytimes.com/1981/02/22/arts/opera-met-s-parade-captiv... Costumes and sets for all three French operas on the program were by David Hockney. See walkerart.org/collections/artworks/large-scale-painted-en... for a recreation of one of the sets by Hockney for a 1983 exhibition "Hockney Paints the Stage" at the Walker Center in Minneapolis. The man is in the role of The Husband, and is baritone David Holloway operawarhorses.com/2011/11/28/the-santa-fe-opera-apprenti... This required looking at other Gotfryd pictures at LoC but not on Flickr by following the link [hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gtfy.06988} to see the high-res image and searching for other images with the word Marmelle. See hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gtfy.06986 and hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gtfy.06987

According to archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WS... the cast was: Metropolitan Opera Premiere LES MAMELLES DE TIRÉSIAS Poulenc-Apollinaire Thérèse, Fortuneteller..Catherine Malfitano Husband.................David Holloway Theater Manager.........Allan Monk Presto..................Christian Boesch Lacouf..................Joseph Frank Gendarme................John Darrenkamp Newspaper Seller........Jean Kraft Journalist..............Nico Castel Son.....................James Atherton Elegant Woman...........Shirley Love Large Woman.............Geraldine Decker Bearded Man.............Andrij Dobriansky

Front and center is the Newspaper Seller, Jean Kraft. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Kraft and www.bruceduffie.com/jeankraft.html The Large Woman at left is Geraldine Decker, as confirmed in www.bruceduffie.com/decker.html For The Elegant Woman (at right), Shirley Love see www.naxos.com/person/Shirley_Love/84022.htm

The tall man in white blazer at the back might be the Theater Manager, Allan Monk. See operacanada.ca/allan-monk-rubies-2021-the-wayne-gretzky-o... The younger-looking man in blue/black striped blazer, might be the Son, James Atherton. See www.operalogg.com/james-atherton-american-tenor-1943-1987/