Margaret Nisbett

Margaret Nisbett, MBE, (born 9 January 1929) is an Australian coloratura soprano.

Margaret Nisbett was born in Preston, Victoria. She had an older sister, Coral (Capelin), now deceased.

Margaret always loved music and, as a child, performed small concerts at home with her sister, as well as at her local Church of England.

She attended Tyler Street Primary School in Preston and later Preston Girls High School until the age of 15 (typical for the time) and showed a great interest in French, History and Painting. Upon leaving school she trained as a shorthand typist and worked in that field for a time.

Margaret married Jon Weaving in 1952 and their only child (Jon Hugh Weaving) was born in 1955. They were separated in 1959.

She has one grandson, Talon Ashley Weaving, born 1985.

Margaret still lives in the family home in Victoria, Australia.

Margaret started piano and singing lessons with Thelma Ford when she was nine years old. During those first five years of training she competed in The Royal South Street Competition (Ballarat). Later, whilst working as a typist, Margaret also competed in many singing competitions and performed at concerts. She joined the National Theatre School where she studied Opera for 2 years and performed in many operas.

In 1947, at age 18, Margaret was given her "big break". While still working full-time, as well as studying, she was understudying the lead role of Gilda in Rigoletto, which was being performed at Melbourne's Princess Theatre. Due to the leading lady falling ill and with only 24 hours notice, she was asked to perform the lead role on opening night. This was a great success, receiving the first of many standing ovations and immediately establishing her as a new "star" of the operatic stage..

Margaret continued studying (her singing teacher during that time was Pauline Bindley, a famous operatic soprano of the bel canto style) and entered many of the biggest singing competitions in Australia, including Geelong, Ballarat and the Mobil Quest. Conductor and (future) TV producer Hector Crawford created the famous Mobil Quest in 1949 and it seems unlikely that any other country in the world had, at the time, the same sort of serious singing competition on radio solely concerned with "bringing to the attention of the public the best vocal talent available in the Commonwealth", and requiring each competitor to sing an operatic aria. The second winner of the rich Mobil Quest prize (in 1950) was Joan Sutherland. Margaret won the Mobil Quest in 1951 and amongst the other finalists that year were soprano June Bronhill. The finalists toured Australia with conductor Hector Crawford. Margaret Nisbett's prize included the opportunity to study opera overseas and, in 1954, she departed for England with her husband, Jon, where she continued studies under Dino Borgioli and Clive Carey, who was also Joan Sutherland's teacher.

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