The story of young Australian opera singer whose career was cut short by WW1. This is an easy-read ebook for Adult EAL Level 2 (ACSF) prompting easy calculation practice.

Shooting Star 

Sheet music paper

My parents were poor. They sold rabbits and fish from a cart on the streets of Fitzroy. It was a poor suburb in those days. They saved their money and later bought a fruit shop on Gertrude Street.

My name is Dora. I was born in Russia in 1888. I came to Australia with my family in 1899. Can you guess how old I was when we arrived in Melbourne?

I am Dora's brother, Henri.&nbsp; Education was very important to our family. When we were teenagers, mother and father sent us to study music in Italy. We left Melbourne in 1902. We stayed in the city of Naples for eleven years and then we went to Milan.

Can you guess what year we left Naples?

In 1913 Dora was a star. She sang at the most famous opera house in the world, La Scala. She was ready to sing in all of the great opera houses across Europe. However, World War One started the next year. She had to cancel her tour.

In 1915 Dora died of Typhus.

She is buried in Milan. How old was she when she died?

At La Scala in 1913, Dora performed the role of Paolina from the opera by Gaetano Donizetti called "Poliuto" Here is a short video of an aria Dora sang from that opera.

Maria Callas sings Poliuto at La Scala in 1960 (Stereo Sound)

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.