South Australia's Clara (Kleinschmidt) Serena's three-octave range thrills Covent Garden audiences in 1920s/30s

Clara Serena (Kleinschmidt) as Delilah in Samson and Delilah. Her musical education was sponsored by pastoralist Peter Waite.

Lobethal-born contralto Clara Serena built an international opera singing career at Covent Garden, London, and beyond in the 1920s/30s.

The daughter of Hermann and Ida Kleinschmidt, Clara was 14 when pastoralist Peter Waite saw her potential, took her into his family and set up the Serena Trust for her education, including tuition with Guli Hack at Elder Conservatorium.

Waite's daughter Elizabeth became her friend and chaperone when Clara won a scholarship in 1908 to the Royal College of Music, London, where J. H. Blower and Albert Visetti were her teachers. She qualified in 1911 with a diploma with credit, and after more study in Italy and Germany, she took the name Clara Serena.

Returning to Adelaide at World War I, Serena sang in concerts for the British (Australian) Red Cross Society.

But she upset Peter Waite when she married her accompanist Albert Roy Mellish in 1917. Waite forbad his children any contact with Serena but was disobeyed by his daughter Elizabeth MacMeikan who, when she died in 1931, left a generous annuity to Clara.

Serena returned to London in 1922 where she made her operatic début. In 1924 she created the title role in Rutland Boughton’s Alkestis at Covent Garden and in 1926 appeared in Vienna, Berlin and Paris. During seasons at Covent Garden in 1928, 1929 and 1931 her roles included Amneris, Delilah, Erda and Waltraute. She joined the British National Opera in 1937 and worked with conductors including Thomas Beecham, Henry Wood, Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli. In 1939, an American tour was foiled by the start of World War II and she retired and returned to Adelaide, with Mellish, in 1951.

A dramatic contralto, Serena had a range of three octaves extending to a top B flat. She could sing fluently in many languages and her height enabled her to withstand the rigorous training. Also accomplished as an oratorio artist, especially in Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Elijah, she recorded for Vocalion and Columbia Records.

During her career, she was befriended by other Australian singers Nellie Melba and Ada Crossley.