You'd have to be mad to like opera

Australia, 1979

Film
Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

Episode of Series “The Australian Opera”.
Explores the personality of opera singer Isobel Buchanan, and gives an insight into her life as an opera singer. She is seen in a number of situations which show the wide range of activities and disciplines which go towards the making of an opera. Particular emphasis is placed on rehearsal and actual performance of the opera ‘Don Pasquale’. Production manager, Roy Bissell; director, script, Karl McPhee; editor, Ian Walker; sound, Rodney Simmons; photographer, Andrew Fraser.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Karl McPhee

editor

Ian Walker

producer

Gil Brealey

production company

Film Australia

Duration

00:24:00:00

Production places
Australia
Production dates
1979

Appears in

The Australian Opera

Group of items

The Australian Opera

Explore

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

012245

Language

English

Subject categories

Music & Performing Arts → Music

Music & Performing Arts → Opera singers

Music & Performing Arts → Operas

Short films

Short films → Short films - Australia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Preservation Print (Section 5)

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/75013--youd-have-to-be-mad-to-like-opera/ |title=You'd have to be mad to like opera |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=13 July 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}