Princess Theatre (Melbourne)

Melbourne's Princess Theatre had been open barely fifteen months when, on Saturday 3 March 1888, the baritone Frederick Federici died in it. At the close of the first English-language performance of Gounod's Faust he was going down to hell on the Corsican trap beside C. H. Leumaine's Faust; Table Talk reported six days later that he fell onto the gasman working the stage lights just before the platform reached the cellar floor, and that his own doctor failed to revive him in the green room. The audience had already dispersed and never knew. Out of that night grew the ghost story The Argus called "Australia's greatest theatre legend" in 1946 — and that same article, the earliest printed telling this file has been able to date, names its witness, records that the legend then said Federici broke his neck, and explains away an early sighting as a street carbon light reflecting through a window in strong wind. The Marriner Group, which owns the Princess and named its bistro after him, says Federici "continues to reside" there. What it does not say, and what no source found here can date, is that a seat is still kept empty for him.

The Princess Theatre is the building Frederick Federici died in, and when he died it was barely fifteen months old. The Victorian Heritage Register records that the site was first occupied in 1854 by Astley's Amphitheatre, a corrugated-iron equestrian ring seating more than 2,000 people. It was remodelled and reopened in 1857 as the Princess's Theatre and Opera House under the Melbourne theatrical figure George Coppin. By 1886, the Register notes, it was reckoned the fourteenth theatre erected in Melbourne, of which only four were still trading. When the first Princess came down is not agreed. The Register says 1885. But The Argus, describing the replacement on 11 December 1886, wrote that "some eight months ago the old Princess's Theatre went the way of all buildings" - which puts the demolition around April 1886 and matches the nine-month build the present owner claims. The contemporary newspaper and the modern register disagree by roughly a year, and the newspaper was there. The new house was designed by William Pitt for the partnership of Williamson, Garner and Musgrove - the "Triumvirate" that included J. C. Williamson - and built by Cockram (The Argus names "Messrs. Cockram and Comley"; the Register says Cockram and Company). The Argus put the outlay at about 40,000 pounds; the Marriner Group, the theatre's owner today, says 50,000. The Argus walked its readers through the finished building a week before it opened, and much of what it described is still on the facade in Spring Street: three dominant bays whose "mansard pyramidal domes" carry crests of cast-iron scrollwork, piers of Malmsbury bluestone, a frieze festooned with laurel wreaths, the British coat of arms in relief and above it "a nicely modelled figure of the goddess or herald Fame, flanked on either side by lions couchant". The interior scheme was by the scenic artist George Gordon and used almost nothing but peacock blue, warm cream and dead gold. The auditorium was lit by electricity alone. Its famous trick was the ceiling. The Argus explained that the painted dome "is so arranged that by an easy mechanical contrivance it can be shot back, showing for a space of 24ft the sky above", calling it "a cool prospect for a crowded audience on an Australian summer's night". Cool air was also drawn in through two artificial fern grottoes with a trickling cascade, revealed between the acts. How large a claim that deserves depends on who makes it: the Marriner Group calls it "the world's first sliding or retractable roof", Wikipedia calls it Australia's first, and the Victorian Heritage Register - the statutory authority - says only that the sliding roof and ceiling, with their eight-metre circular opening, were "one of the first applications of such a feature in Victoria". Style is contested too. The Register and the owner both call the building French Second Empire; The Argus in 1886 called it "Italian Renaissance" with "occasional suggestions of the French style". The theatre opened on Saturday 18 December 1886 with The Mikado. Federici was born Frederick Baker in Florence on 23 April 1850, according to David Stone's roll of D'Oyly Carte performers. Table Talk, reporting his death, said he came "of a good English family" and was a cousin of the soldier Valentine Baker, later Baker Pasha; that he had been educated for the diplomatic service and spoke four or five languages; and that at twenty-three he turned to music, studying six years in Milan under Trivulzi and Lamperti and then with Sims Reeves. He sang first on the London concert platform, then in grand opera at Drury Lane under Mapleson, and had already played Mephistopheles in Faust in Paris before Gilbert and Sullivan claimed him. Stone traces that second career in detail: Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore from July 1879; the Pirate King in the single copyright performance of The Pirates of Penzance at Paignton on 30 December 1879; Colonel Calverley in Patience; Strephon in Iolanthe; Florian in Princess Ida; and on 27 July 1885 the title role in his company's first Mikado, which took him to New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre as Carte's first American Mikado, then to Germany and Austria, then back to New York for Ruddygore. He married a fellow D'Oyly Carte artist, Lena Monmouth, who performed as Miss Monmouth. George Musgrove telegraphed for him in 1887 and he sailed within a week. He first appeared at the Princess's on 16 July 1887 as Florian in the first Australian Princess Ida, and in eight months played Harry Sherwood and Squire Bantam in Dorothy, the Mikado, the Pirate King, Dick Deadeye, the Marquis de Pontvert in Erminie, Colonel Calverley and Strephon. On Saturday 3 March 1888 the company gave the first performance of Faust in English, and Table Talk's account six days later is the fullest contemporary description of what happened. Federici sang Mephistopheles; C. H. Leumaine sang Faust; and at the close of the opera the two men went down together to "the infernal regions" on the Corsican trap, so named because it was first used in The Corsican Brothers. Federici was seen to raise an arm feebly, "indicating that he was completely worn out". Just before the platform reached the cellar floor the gasman working the steam pipe that regulated the stage lighting saw him lean forward as if fainting, and the next instant Federici fell onto the man's shoulders; Leumaine, who "felt the dying man's touch", fell off the platform. He was carried to the green room. Dr Wilmott, his own physician, was in the house and reached him quickly, applied a galvanic battery and other restoratives, and failed. Table Talk described the scene precisely: the dead man lying full length in the red costume of Mephistopheles, his crimson hood, pointed shoes and cap scattered near him, surrounded by colleagues still in costume and by his wife. The cause it gave was heart disease "from which he had for years been a sufferer", aggravated by overwork and first-night nerves. The funeral left his lodgings in Gipps Street, East Melbourne, at two o'clock on Monday 5 March, with a plumed hearse, four mourning coaches and a long train of private carriages, and went to the Church of England portion of the Melbourne General Cemetery, to a grave near those of the actors F. M. Bates, Gerald Eyre and Phil Day. The pall bearers were J. C. Williamson, Arthur Garner, George Musgrove, Herbert Fleming, W. Forlonge, Knight Aston and Leumaine. The Rev. E. H. Goodwin, visibly shaken from the start, collapsed in a fainting fit as the coffin was lowered and could not finish the service; at the pall bearers' request the actor Charles Warner read it instead. The Princess' Theatre closed that evening as a mark of respect. The theatre did not stay the building he died in for long. The Register records that in 1922 the theatre architect Henry E. White re-planned and reconstructed both auditorium and stage and redecorated the interior in a delicate "Adam" style; the house ran as a full-time cinema from 1942 to 1947; and a 1989 restoration by Axia, Greenhatch and Allom Lovell installed a new flytower. It was entered on the Victorian Heritage Register as H0093 by a gazettal of Wednesday 9 October 1974.

The Princess Theatre is a working commercial theatre, not a museum, and that governs how you can see it. There are no public heritage tours: the way inside is to buy a ticket to whatever is on. The address is 163 Spring Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, opposite Parliament Gardens. The Marriner Group, which operates it, gives a capacity of up to 1,500 across three levels - Stalls, Dress Circle and Grand Circle. In August 2026 the theatre was playing the musical A Beautiful Noise, billed as running from 5 August; check the operator's site before travelling, because the programme turns over. One practical warning about sources: the old princesstheatre.com.au domain no longer works - its certificate has expired and the host was serving a suspended-account page in April 2026. Current listings, tickets, seating and access information are on marrinergroup.com.au. Getting there is easy. Parliament station is about 150 m away; the nearest tram stop is Nicholson Street, stop 10, on routes 86 and 96; the nearest taxi rank is at the Windsor Hotel, a five-minute walk; and drop-off and pick-up work best on Spring Street directly outside. City parking is limited, though Marriner offers Princess patrons 20% off at nearby First Parking sites. The theatre asks patrons to arrive at least 30 minutes before curtain, and bags larger than A4 must be cloaked - cloakroom space is limited, so travel light. Marriner publishes a separate accessibility page covering mobility and wheelchair access, hearing support, assistance animals and quiet spaces; contact the venue in advance rather than relying on a summary. Federici Bistro, named after him, is inside the theatre and opens 90 minutes before each scheduled performance, serving small plates with local wine, beer and cocktails. It takes no bookings and welcomes walk-ins, so it is the one part of the building you can get into on the day without a ticket to the show. If you only want the architecture, the facade is free and best read from the far side of Spring Street: the three mansard-domed bays, the balustrade of urns, the coat of arms with the gilded figure of Fame above it. The open balconies that flanked the central bay in 1886 were infilled with stained glass around 1901, and the verandah dates from the early 1890s, so what you are looking at is the 1886 design as amended. Federici's grave is elsewhere, in the Church of England portion of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton North - a public cemetery, open to visitors, roughly 3 km north of the theatre. Do not expect the trapdoor: the Corsican trap belongs to a stage that Henry E. White reconstructed in 1922, and the understage cellars described in 1946 are not open to the public.