The Fall of the House of Usher (1965 opera)

The Fall of the House of Usher is a 1965 Australian opera by Larry Sitsky. Gwen Harwood wrote the libretto based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe.

It was first performed at a 1965 music festival in Hobart. Other operas introduced at that festival were The Young Kabbarli about Daisy Bates by Margaret Sutherland, and Ophelia of the Nine Mile Beach by James Penberthy.

On 25 July 1973 it became the first opera performed at the Sydney Opera House, in a double-bill with Dalgerie by Penberthy; this was three months before the Opera House's official opening, and it was before an invited audience. On 28 July it was performed to a paying audience.

Television adaptation
The opera was filmed by the ABC for Australian television in 1970. It was the 48th opera made by the ABC but only the second Australian one, after Fisher's Ghost, although it had broadcast some operas by Australian composer Arthur Benjamin, such as Rita and Prima Donna.

It aired on 13 March 1970. Brian Bell directed.

Cast

 * Brian Hansford as Usher
 * Marilyn Richardson as Madeleine