MADAME ANTOINETTE STERLING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 141, 16 June 1893, Page 3

MADAME ANTOINETTE STERLING.

THE QUEEN OF CONTRALTOS.

With pride and pleasure we join in the general welcome which Australia is now ottering to Antoinette Sterling, the world's sole contralto. In virtue of her divine dower, and by aid of incessant study, application and faithful effort, this singer has achieved a height which none other to-day can touch. She challenges no comparison with operatic stars. Nature endowed her with that rango of voice which is inseparable from sweeb and homely music, from the songs we love the best, and from which wo learn and gain the most. Queen of Contraltos ia Madame Sterling's well-won title, singer of ballads and home songs. All her early life was homely. In a simple, well-ordered Puritan-Presbyterian household, in a village of New York State, ahe passed all her childhood's years. She was with the people and of the people. She understood their Borrows and their joys, and was, from the knowledge which comes of personal experience, qualified to join with poet and composer in their interpretation. Thirty years ago she was singing amongsb her native woods, rejoicing in the glory of tho Pentecostal spring, in the pageant of summer, the infinite beauty of autumn, and tho solemn majesty of winter, its hill topß " massed with pines," its lowlands shrouded with snow. Boston discovered her genius, and, following the advice of Boston critics, sho journeyed to the old world, and gave all her mind to following the instruction of che best teachers of the time. Her triumphal debut was in England, where for full twenty years now she has been held as the one supreme singer of those soriga which come from tho lives and appeal directly to the hearts of the people. Madame Sterling comes to ua now with her reputation at the full, and her treasure-house of old ballads and folksong enriched by songs wherein poet, cotnposer and singer ha»e met and worked together. We are to hear from her the music whose interpretative power satisfied such writers as Tennyson, Longfellow, and Kingsley, such compoaors as Hullah and Sullivan. All that was intended when "The Three Fishers," "The Lost Chord," "Crossing the Bar" and "The Better Land " were written will be experienced by us in Auckland during Madame Sterling's forthcoming concerts ab the Opera House on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 27th and 28th inst. Opportunity and privilege are here surely which will not be lightly or generally missed. The times are strenuous and their obligations many, but still we caunot afford to miss such education and delight as this when once in a lifetime it ia brought to our doors. The closing night of her performances in Adelaide and Melbourne were marked by scenes of remarkable enthusiasm. Numbers were turned from the doors, and crowds gathered merely to catch a glimpse of the famous cantatrico, who has speedily established herself as a warm favourite with Australian audiences. Tiistori and Sara Bornhardt came to us as revelations of whatmighb be achieved in tragedy, Wilholmj and Neruda showed us the witchery which lurks in the simple seeming violin. Santley disclosed the possibilities of the baritone voice, and now Antoinette Sterling comes, the contralto of her time, to show us hovr a perfect voice, perfectly educated, and controlled by a perceptive devotional and feeling mind, can lead us to heights and breadths and lengths and depohs of mueical delight such as we have not before understood. Madamo Sterling is besb known to popular fame as a ballad singer. A simple seeming phrase, but conveying to the initiated thac which is hard to be expressed. For the ballad in perfection is as the simple outlined sketch of perfect beauty. It tells its story of pathos, passion, sorrow, or joy with fulness, and yet in fewest words. It admits of no elaborations. It is eimple as the simple curve, yet how seldom is the human hand or voice created that can draw the one or render the other. The English-speaking world haa generally admitted Madame Sterling's capacity, and it is not to be supposed that New Zealand's endorsement will be lacking. Of all forms of musical expression the ballad is best "underscanded of the people,'' and ib is through the ballad that the most direct popular appeal will be made.