AustLit

'The first opera [to be] written, composed, and submitted to an Australian theatre', Don John of Austria's libretto, according to the Australian Journal's theatre critic, is 'the work of a gentleman and a scholar' and its music 'the outpourings of a Maestro, whose effusions have delighted both hemispheres, and the whole arranged with a degree of energy and power rarely, if ever, witnessed on these boards' (29 April 1847, p2561). A few days later the same journal records that although 'it is by no means the first opera which has failed to dazzle and astonish on its first appearance... like many productions, now of standard excellence, it awakens attention, excites pleasurable emotions, and commands approbation' (11 May 1847, 2581).

There is some question as to the claims that this was the first opera composed in Australia, with historical evidence suggesting that Nathan's Merry Freaks in Troublous Times (1843) was the first to achieve this honour. However, because that work has never been performed before the public, Don John of Austria does have the distinction being the first Australian-written opera ever performed in the country.

A vocal score (by an unknown copyist, with additions and corrections by Nathan), ca. 1846-7 is held in the Mitchell Library (State Library of New South Wales).