New Zealanders At Sadler’s Wells

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 3

New Zealanders At Sadler’s Wells

[From the London Correspondent of “The Press”] LONDON, December 27.

A pre-Christmas survey of the artists associated with the Sadler’s Wells Theatre for the 1961-62 opera season revealed the names of so many New Zealanders that a photograph was inevitable.

In the resulting photograph (above), the conductor. John Matheson, is seated at the piano and others in the group are (from left), Estelle Valery (Vai Simpson, of Wellington), Donald Mclntyre (Auckland), Heather Begg (Auckland), John Hauxvell (Auckland), Bernadine Knussen, nee Wood (Christchurch and Wellington i. Mirri Fuller (Auckland), Denis Dowling (Dunedin), and Warwick Braithwaite (Dunedin). John Matheson has been in England since his arrival from Dunedin in 1949. He was chorus-master with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1952, the same year in which he became repetiteur-conductor with Sadler’s Wells. From 1953 to 1960 he was repetiteur-conductor at Covent Garden, and last year also he conducted at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Today he is one of the five regular conductors at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Warwick Braithwaite, who, like Mr Matheson, comes from Dunedin —Mr Matheson believes there is some distant link between the two families —is a guest conductor at Sadler's Wells, and among his performances will be the revival of Tchaikovsky’s "Eugen Onegin” and Puccini’s “Tosca.”

Denis Dowling is an Otago product, too, having been born at Ranfurly. He left his father’s sheep farm to become one of the leading operatic artists in Great Britain. Most of his career has been with the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company, for whom he has been during the last 13 years the principal baritone. Indeed, of his repertoire of more than 60 roles, 40 have been performed in that theatre, and among his most successful have been his interpretations of the Mozart operas.

Mr Dowling, who has won generous praise both from the British and continental press for his singing skill and for his versatility as an actor, will sing the Earl of Mountararat when “lolanthe” opens on January 24. Heather Begg, the Auckland mezzo-soprano, is to be the Queen of the Fairies in “lolanthe.” She has been in England for more than four years, having come to the country initially on a Government bursary.

Mirri Fuller, another Aucklander, was formerly a nurse at Green Lane Hospital. She has been singing in London for the last six or seven years. She has now had three years with Sadler's Wells chorus “singing in just about everything” after several years with the Carl Rosa Company. Donald Mclntyre, formerly a schoolteacher in Auckland, has many interesting Sadler’s Wells roles this season, including Ferrando in “11 Trovatore” and Colline in “La Boheme.” He has major parts, too, in Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” and “Rigoletto.” Mr Mclntyre came to England in 1958 on a Government bursary and studied for

18 months at the Guildhall School of Music, A bass, he made his professional opera debut with the Welsh National Opera Company in 1959 in the role of Zaccaria in Verdi’s “Nabucco.” John Hauxvell, yet another Aucklander, is now with Sadler’s Wells as a guest artist. Jie is a baritone appearing Un "La Traviata” and “11 Trovatore.”

After arriving in England in 1949. he studied in London and, later, in Italy. Estelle Valery will be better known to New Zealanders interested in swimming as Vai Simpson, a former Wellington provincial 100 yards freestyle title-holder, rather than as a soprano. With Sadler’s Wells she has sung the roles of Violetta in “La Traviata” and Mimi in “La Boheme,” and in the coming year she will appear with this company as Leonora in “Il Trovatore,” Tosca in “Tosca,” and Rosalind in “Die Fledermaus.”

On her arrival in England after studying in France under Ninon Vallin, she joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company as a principal soprano.

Bernadine Knussen (nee Wood), who was very well known in musical circles in Christchurch and Wellington particularly, is today a violist with the Sadler’s Wells Orchestra. After studying for three years with Frederick Riddle at the Royal College of Music, she joined the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. and subsequently played in the Halle Orchestra.