"Beautiful Music, Beautiful City"

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30846, 3 September 1965, Page 14

"Beautiful Music, Beautiful City"

“A beautiful city and beautiful music,” Professor W. Gruner said yesterday when commenting on Christchurch and the New Zealand Opera Company's performance at the Theatre Royal on Wednesday night.

Professor Gruner, who arrived in Christchurch from Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. has been professor of singing at the Guildhall School of Music, London, for the last 20 years. On Wednesday night he attended the opera and yesterday morning he went sightseeing in Christchurch.

The standard of the singing at Wednesday night’s performance was “unexpectedly high . . extremely high.” he said when asked for a comparison of singing in New Zealand with that overseas. In Sydney hb had also attended a performance of the National Opera which was very good but on Wednesday night he was “staggered by the beautiful voices and musicianship" of the New Zealand Opera Company's performance.

The standard was so good that he felt several of the singers would not remain long with the company and New Zealand would lose them. That was a pity as the main problem was building up. but if a singer had ambition he or she would want to move overseas.

“However, I had a feeling during last night’s performance that the public at large did not realise what first class fare they were being offered.” he said.

Yesterday, Professor Gruner addressed members of the opera company and others on opera and will give another such lecture today. Next week-end he will conduct a course on lieder music in Wellington before returning to London through Tahiti and Mexico. Professor Gruner said he was traveling through Mexico as he could not stand the tension in the United States. In Mexico he would see something closer to nature and he did not want to see vast industrial areas.