SINGERS AND PLAYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 14

SINGERS AND PLAYERS.

It has been decided to erect tiie monument to Wagner, which was completed a few weeks ago by Max Klinger, in front of the Church of St. Matthew, in Lcipsig.

An opera by Marziano Peroei, entitled "Pompeii." has been performed at Vienna at the Volksoper. The libretto was adapted from Bnlwer Lytton's "The Last Days of Pompeii."

Madame Sln-poffski is now in London, at Kilburn Prion, Kilbnrn. She intends returning to Sydney by the end! of the year. It is pxpeeted that she will appear at concerts and in oratorio work in Englnmk Madame Sapofifeki studied under Madame ITnieh Dyer, and later under the late Manuel Garcia.

A rather good story is told of a circus manager who, having 'become director of a small Ftp noli provincial opera house, found one day that be needed! the services of a tenor for a. special performance. He applied to an agency, who recommended to him an artist at a salary of £8 per night. "Eight pounds," exclaimed the indignant director, "for a man who only sings! Why, in my circus I had an acrobat for £2, who risked breaking his neck every time he appeared!"

■ A tale, which is given out as per- ' fectly genuine, tells of an. o/bscure baritone, who was rehearsing tihe role of Escamillo in "Carmen." Opera-goers are thoroughly familiar with the Toreador's song jn the second act. In this the baritone has to sing, "Et aonge bien qu'en combattant. Un oeil noir te regarde." He sang the phrase well enough, but remained staring as if in mortal dread. "What on earth are you staring and pointing at?" asked the conductor, for the singer held one arm at full length pointing before him. "Great heavens," replied the singer, "what should I be staring at but the black eye of the ■bull!"

Some good fairy must have looked after Miss Florence Quinn when she arrived in London (says a Sydney papery. After appearing here as Conscience (a singing part) in "Everywoman" at the Theatre Royal, the young soprano went to England. That was in May. In July she was engaged by Mr George Edwardes, of the London Gai«ty, to tour the provinces as Nattalie in "The Merry Widow." The Edwardes engagement was to start on July 20. On her arrival' in London the fortunate Australian found that arrangements were being made for the first production of "Everywoman" at Drury Lane in Sept-ember. Two actors well known in Australia had been engaged—Mr E- W. P.oyce and Mr Austin Melford- Mies Quinn was born in Auckland. She received her musical training in Melbourne and Sydney. Her first operatic appearance was as Azucena in "II Trovatore" at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, about three years apo. Madame Slapoffski was Leonora in the Verdi opera. Miss Quinn afterwards appeared in "Carmen" and "ifadame Butterfly" under the Williamson management. Then she went to New Zealand with "The Arcadians - ' company, playing the part of Sombra. A few dajs after her successful interview with Mr George Edvardcs in London the Austrnlian sinppr met three "Arcadians." Miss Gertrude Gilfiam, Miss Kavanagh. and Mr Charlie Stone, at dinner. Miss Gi|HanV» husband-was one of ths party.

Madnmc Amy Sherwin, who has nl- j ready discovered three singers—Stella i Carol. Corn Linn, and a tenor, John | TlfillfsK— onnrmnced another last month, j Hiss Louisa McCuin, 24 years of age, who: has bern working since childhood in a I Highgatr- laundry. There is quite a ro- j manee in Mine. Shcrwin's latest discovery. Miss MeCuin, who since the age of 14 has been the main support of her widowed mother and five younger sisters, was working at the laundry when a strange old man, with hollow eyes and tattered garb, playing a violin, gave a recital in the street. The girls listened to him, nnd ho reaped a harvest of coppers. In gratitude for hia reception he naked if there was any particular selection they wanted him to play. Miss MeCuin asked him for Mascheroni's "For All Eternity," and as the old man poured out his soul in the beautiful melody Mis? MeCuin eang the words of the song with him. When the last note had died away the old man nsked her where she had learned to sing. She replied that she had never learned. She just sang because she loved it and couldn't help it. Ho advised her to join the new choir of work-girls organised by Mmc Sherwin. She did so. and when she sang Madame Sherwin declared that she had never heard an untrained soprano voice of such sweetness, power, and timbre. An offer was promptly mace and accepted to (jive the g-irl a thorough musical trninI ing, and provide a home for her mother I nnd sisters. Madame Sherwin introduced ! her last month at a garden party.

A correspondent has written to a London paper, pointing out how interjesting it is to consider "the initial revela- : tion to some of those who ultimately be- ! came great singers of the fact that they 'possessed voices of a. quality out of the common, and that their true vocation ' was not the office desk, but the opera stage." lie cites the examples of many tenors who have appeared at Covent Garden. Caruso, for example, says the correspondent, was at first a mechanic; Dalmorcs played the trombone in an orchestra in a small provincial French town; Van Dj-ck -was a barrister; Alvarez conducted a regimental band; Sadeza was a maker of sandals in a ema.ll Pyrenean village; Capoul was the son of an innkeeper; so, too, was Nicolini— and so on; all fhis before these singers discovered their true vocation. Another tenor whose singing has delighted at least two seasons of London operagoers is Mr. Paul Franz —to give him his stage name—.who has sung Julien. in "Louise." which is one of the most beautiful performances that has even been seen. Mr. Franz, whose family name is none other than Gauthier (he ooxnes of an old Norman stock), was fry some years an important personage in the Parisian railway world before he discovered, more or less by accident, that he had a voice that might possibly change the whole outlook on life "fo<r 'him. True, Mr. Franz's singing powers in their embryo state were known to a few of his friends, in whose salons he was wont to sing on occasion, but he regarded himself as an amateur, and nothing more, until one fine day he was induced to enter the lists in a singing competition organised by a French theatrical journal A little diffident, he nevertheless entered the competition under an assumed name. His success was complete, and its immediate result was that Mr. Franz accepted the offer promptly made to him of an engagement at the Grand Opera in Paris, which began just four years ago. He made his first appearance in "Lohengrin," in the name-part, of course, with Miss Lorraine as Elsa. The larfcter singer, an American, as so many of the greater sopranos of to-day are," may be remembered as the giver a few years ago of a concert, the programme of which was composed entirely of the music of Royal musicians.