AustLit

'Les Darcy is "the Maitland Wonder" and rates with Don Bradman and Phar Lap as a sporting legend. Les Darcy was 22 years old when he died in the USA on 24 May 1917. But how many of us know that Les Darcy was an amateur violinist? When he prepared to fight Fritz Holland, a renowned vaudevillian and cello player, he calmed himself by playing violin, while his opponent did likewise on cello. The Flight of Les Darcy is a new chamber opera that unites art and music and will be staged in a boxing ring in City Hall.'

Source: Ten Days on the Island program.