Waltzing Matilda Theatre and subsequently touring twelve regional centres in Queensland. The show was created by Jason and Leisa Barry-Smith and Narelle French. The story line used the fictional process of Banjo Paterson writing the poem when he visited Queensland in 1895 to present episodes of four famous Australians: bass-baritone Peter Dawson (1882–1961), soprano Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931), Bundaberg-born tenor Donald Smith (1922–1998), and soprano Gladys Moncrieff, also from Bundaberg. The performers were Jason Barry-Smith as Banjo Paterson, Guy Booth as Dawson, David Kidd as Smith, Emily Burke as Melba, Zoe Traylor as Moncrieff, and Donna Balson (piano, voice). Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing
The Carnival Is Over "Myfanwy", by Joseph Parry, written earlier, though the Russian folklore possibly predates them both. The original lyrics of the song, written in 1883 by the poet and Povolzhye region ethnographer Dmitry Sadovnikov to a folk melody, told about an episode of the 1670–1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Stepan Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess, by throwing her into the water from his boat. According to the Dutch traveller Jean Jansen Struys (1630—1694), the murder was meant as a sacrifice with which Razin hoped to appease the much loved and feared Volga River. Sadovnikov in his text