DUNEDIN EXHIBITION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 2

DUNEDIN EXHIBITION.

OVERSEAS ARTISTS AND

ENTERTAINERS

(FROM OCR OTO CORRESrOXDEST.)

LOXDOX, February ]!>,

Mr E. J. . Grarestock has arranged for Dame Clara Butt and Mr Kennerlev Rumford to make a tour of Australia ant! Xcw Zealand. Dame Clara Bult lias recently undergone a minor operation, but she is now getting on well. The two wellknown artists will be leaving for Australia at the beginning of July on what they consider will, be their farewell tour of the Dominions. It is hoped that arrangements will be made for them to attend the opening ceremony of the Exhibition, and afterwards to give :i series of concerts in the Concert Hall.

Miss Stella Murray, the Christchurch contralto, will also be leaving England some time -in July.' She will make a short tour of New Zealand, and she will also sing at'the Exhibition. Ncgotiatigns arc now in progress with a number of other artists and entertainers with a view to their going out to the Exhibition, but finality has not been reached, and it is impossible yet to mention their names.'

It is twelve years since Mr Gravestock was in London, and lie maintains that there is a very marked development in the public taste for music. The last season has been a record one inthe concert world. The have acquired a taste for good music, which ensures, for instance, crowded houses at the Queen's Hall. Twelve years ago there were no crowded houses for classical music. This development, Mr Gravestoik considers, may be due to the prevalence of broadcasting. "New Zealanders and Australians are holding their own in the music world," he says. "Madame Rosina Buckman is still considered to be the best exponent of Puccini and Wagner." Mr Gra.vcstoclf quoted from a musical journal whose critic at one of Galli Curci's concerts asked: "But did anybody in the Victoria Hall prefer Galli Curcifs voice to that of our own Rosina Buckman?"