at the Cremorne Theatre by Bob Geraghty. Post-war After the War, the Cremorne's role faded despite occasional professional use under strong competition from cinemas and a general decline in demand for live entertainment. From 1949 onwards, local groups used it for productions. In particular, The Brisbane Opera Society and the Theatre Guild of Queensland appeared there regularly. It was in fact with the Brisbane Opera Society, under the musical direction of George English, that arguably Australia's most famous operatic tenor Donald Smith (tenor), sang his first operas. Some of these operas included "Merry England" by Edward German, "The Bohemian Girl" by Michael William Balfe, "Maritana" by William Vincent Wallace, Gunoud's "Faust" and Ruggero Leoncavallo opera "Pagliacci". John McCallum leased the theatre to Universal International Pictures in 1951 and by mid-1952 the building had been converted for use as offices and storage facilities for film distribution. The last recorded program is for a production by the Musical & Theatre Guild of Queensland of "The Desert Song" on 3 May 1952. The Theatre burnt down in 1954 and was never rebuilt. Legacy Fifteen years after the Cremorne Theatre's demise, in the late 1960s, proposals were put forward for a theatre complex for the city, but these did not progress until the impending loss of Her Majesty's Theatre in 1974. The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) was the result and was completed in 1985 on a site just around the corner from the old Cremorne Theatre. The QPAC management makes claim to be continuing the heritage of the Cremorne Theatre as part of a "cultural precinct". There is a new Cremorne Theatre within the QPAC complex, although it is the smallest theatre within the complex at 312 seats. The four QPAC theatres – the Concert Hall, Lyric Theatre, Playhouse and Cremorne Theatre combined have a seat capacity at 4,950 which is about two third's higher again than that of the original Cremorne Theatre at its height. The Theatre building includes, at ground level, a Gallery used for theatre exhibitions, for example, in 2016 "Theatres of War" which included a poster from the original Cremorne Theatre's own wartime service in World War II. Today's Theatre References External links Queensland Performing Arts Centre website Cremorne Theatre Programs Catalogue 28 November 1920 to 3 May 1952; Fryer Library, University of Queensland, 2011 Austlit Sources for Cremorne Theatre AustLit is an authoritative database about Australian literature and