Kōrero: Opera and musical theatre

The patronage of the governor and his wife was used to promote performances of William Saurin Lyster's Royal Italian and English Opera Company (not to be confused with Fanny and Martin Simonsen's Royal English and Italian Opera Company). The Lyster company staged Donizetti's La favorita and Verdi's La traviata at the Theatre Royal, then a major concert venue in Johnston Street, Wellington, in February 1880.