Singing Boys Of Mexico Form Character On Tour

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28217, 4 March 1957, Page 7

Singing Boys Of Mexico Form Character On Tour

Devotion to the task in hand and a sense of responsibility surprising in boys of eight to 14, is the keynote of the character of all the Singing Boys of Mexico who arrived in Christchurch yesterday morning to open their New Zealand tour in Christchurch tomorrow evening. The 19 boys will spend three months in Mew Zealand.

Mr Rogel'o Zarzosa y Alarcon, known to the boys as “maestro,” is 37, and was described yesterday as a-, “superman.” He is virtually mother, father, nurse, teacher, and bank to the boys. With the aid of 17-year-old Hugo Andrade, a former choir member, Mr Zarzosa has guided the boys on a world tour which has kept most of them away from Mexico for a year and seven months. /Six were replaced at Cuba.

A child singer and actor himself when he was 12, Mr Zarzosa founded the Academy of Dramatic Art for the boys of Mexico City when he was 16. Five years later he founded the present choir, known as the Orfeon Infantile Mexicano. He is a qualified lawyer.

Mexican Meal Mr C. Foster Browne, who entertained the boys at breakfast yesterday morning, managed to give them a meal of Mexican origin. It included corn on the cob. the Mexican “staple diet,” tortillas, a type of thin crisp biscuit in place of bread, and ham. “A last-minute thought in tomatoes proved successful once the boys were shown how to handle them,” said Mrs Browne. “They garnished everything with hot chili sauce, and drank the thickest, blackest coffee I could produce.” When travelling aboard ship the choir starts its day at 8 a.m., when everyone must rise to do 40 minutes’ breathing and exercises before breakfast. There is no problem about eating. “The boys have international stomachs. Indeed, they are international smallboy stomachs —never empty.” said Mr Zarzosa. Apart from drinking twice as much water and eating three times as much salt, they have no particular food fads.” Working a 14-hour day does not appear to trouble the boys. Yesterday afternoon was reserved for several .hours’ schooling, but although the Mexican boys may look solemn and serious, they never look unhappy, according to Mr Zarzosa.

As representatives of Mexican culture the boys are taught the importance of behaving correctly. They must not sit down to eat before the “maestro,” and they must always be modest and polite.

Mr Zarzosa describes as the most outstanding example of boyish diplomacy in the choir’s experience the occasion when the Governor of California, deeply moved by the concert he had just heard, said he would relinquish his post for five minutes and give

his entire authority to one of the young sopranos. “For five minutes you are governor of this state.” he said, “You may ask for anything you want and it will be provided. What is your demand?” The answer came finally: “We should all like a bottle of coke.” Work at Academy Half the boys sing alto, the rest soprano. ’ They are selected by recommendation from schools all over Mexico, and each must live and work with the academy for two weeks before he is accepted as a student. “It is the only way to judge character as well as ability,” said Mr Zarzosa. Aztec Indian songs, popular melodies, songs by Handel and Stephen Foster, and Mexican folk music are included in the choir’s repertoire. This tour of New Zealand, Australia, and pro’bably the Philippines and Japan is the sixth Mr Zarzosa has conducted. In New Zealand the boys will perform in 72 towns and cities, travelling from place to place by a chartered bus. From Christchurch they will go to Invercargill, then to Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, and probably Nelson, Greymouth and Blenheim. On April 2 they will start a twomonth tour of the North Island, at Wellington. During their stay in Christchurch the boys are being billeted in the homes of members of the Riccarton Catholic Youth Club. Most of their spare time will be occupied studying for an examination, the papers for which are being sent by the Mexican Government. Originally Mr Zarzosa had girls in his choir. “As they grew older,” he said yesterday, “their mothers began to attend all rehearsals. You know how it is with young people growing up. The girls were no trouble, but those mothers —they were so jealous. The rows became tremendous about who should sing which part, so I had to ask all the girls to please go away ( and never come back. Since then all has been harmony.”