Background To The Novel
The song of Cicada Wings is my latest novel. It’s a work of biographical fiction and is the story of an opera singing family based in Brisbane Queensland at the turn of the century. I wanted to immerse the lives of each member of the family in the wider history of Australia whilst telling their individual stories. The Richardsons are actually my family and William Albert Richardson, alias Alberto Ricardi, was my great, great, great, grandfather.
Whilst sitting in my flat with my little dog, Lester, a terrible storm was raging outside. I was on my computer doing some research and came across my family history quite by accident. I think I was looking up my grandmother and found her name on a website by a man called Rex Sinnott. Apparently his great, great uncle had married Sarah Jane Richardson who was the sister of William Richardson, the father of my great ,great, grandfather William Albert Richardson. Ver y complicated but there you have it. Sarah Jane and her brother had come to Port Phillip Bay Melbourne from Huddersfield Yorkshire England with their father who was after work in the goldfields. Their father was a well known watchmaker by trade. Anyway while their story is a great one that’s going too far back.
My story has begun with the next generation of Richardsons. The all singing Richardsons. While Sarah Jane married the dashing Captain Sinnott thirty years her senior, her brother, William Albert Richardson married Mathilde Mackarethe, a pianist. Mathilde was Scottish and a Presbyterian while William Albert Richardson was Catholic. They had met through the great William Saurin Lyster who had brought an opera company from Boston New York To Melbourne Australia. William Saurin was Irish. Mathilde played piano in his company and her husband sang all the great roles for baritone. They had eight children. Four of them became well known opera singers.
Imagine my absolute euphoria on that stormy day. At last I had pieced together my family tree. At least on the Richardson side. I was most excited to trace my family back to Yorkshire. There it was. The history of Colonialism, of settlers, of Federation, of suffragettes and priests and education and segregation. So much to explore! There was my family right at the centre of it all. It is amazing to me how little Austalians know of their own history. I learned so much writing this book. We are so much more than dirt roads and convict toil. If you think this is just another tale of downtrodden convicts then think again. Australia has always embraced the arts. Yet we have been portrayed as uncultured too often. Probably due to our propensity for sports over everything else.
The Richardsons lived in Melbourne and Adelaide but finally settled in Queensland. They travelled to England and back too. New Zealand also plays a big part in this novel as William Albert sang there many times and Edith, the eldest daughter, married and lived there. My great grandfather was Harold, one of the middle children in this novel. His son, my grandfather, Cyril, moved to New Zealand to marry my grandmother, Moira. As they say, the rest is history. The photo above is the Richardson family in the 1880s in front of their house in Vulture Street Brisbane, Queensland.
Cicadas take years to rise up from the earth and sing their little hearts out. Yet when they do they certainly make up for lost time. They can drown out everything with their song. Just as those great Australian touring opera companies long ago.
Bourgeoise Bloomers 