Lyster Opera derives its name from William Saurin Lyster (1828-1880), an Irish born entrepreneur who made it his mission to provide opera to the growing population of Australia. Under Lyster’s auspices, Australians were given their first taste of operatic composers as diverse as Mozart, Donizetti, Auber, Meyerbeer and Wagner. Local stars such as Marie Carandini and Fanny Simonsen brought these works to a new public. Lyster’s extraordinary life and career were documented by Harold Love in his book The Golden Age of Australian Opera (Currency Press, 1981) and today the Melbourne suburb of Lysterfield is named in his honour.