SOPRANO REFUSES ROLE IN MUSICAL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31230, 30 November 1966, Page 2

SOPRANO REFUSES ROLE IN MUSICAL

(From the London correspondent of “The Press”)

Miss Beverley Bergen, the Dunedin-born soprano who recently beat Kiri te Kanawa and other New Zealand singers and musicians in a London competition, has declined a leading role in a musical based on the “Tale of Two Cities.”

The musical will open in the West End next vear.

Miss Bergen, an attractive 26-year-old blonde who was a television announcer in Dunedin several years ago, said she had considered the offer recently but decided against it.

“I want to further my career in serious operatic singing. The money might have been acceptable in show business, but I don’t think I could have stood being bottled up in a cast of a musical, which probably will have a very long run,” she said. She came to London from Sydney four years ago and studied under scholarships at the London Opera Centre for two terms before joining the Sadlers Wells Opera Company as a guest singer for three months.

Last year, under her married name of Beverley Bohan, she was in the chorus at the Glyndebourne festival and has been asked to return there next year. Decca records have also recognised her talents and she may sing in some recorded operas next summer. One of the judges of the recent Murray memorial prize competition for New Zealand musicians in London was Mr Andrew Gold, himself a New Zealander, who is head of light music at the 8.8. C. Mr Gold has asked Miss Bergen to audition as soon as possible and hopes to arrange for her to feature in some operetta presentations. Next February, Miss Bergen will sing the role of Melisande in “Pelleas and Melisande” for Morley College. “Thia is an outstanding platform for a singer trying to make a name for herself, tak-

ing a covetable role,” she said.

At Glyndebourne in April she will understudy one of the principal roles and will tour Scandinavia with the company in September. Before then she hopes to audition with the Covent Garden Company. Next March she will also give a lunch-hour recital at the New Westminster Arts Theatre.

Miss Bergen, who shares a Kensington flat with another girl and her pet Siamese cat, Ariadne still thinks fondly of New Zealand.

“1 would very much like to do a season some time with the New Zealand Opera Company,” she said. “If I fail over here—God forbid —I guess 1 would go back to New Zealand.”