“Frightening Prospect” For Conductor

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 14

“Frightening Prospect” For Conductor

Twelve weeks of rehearsing with 12 orchestras was “quite a frightening prospect,” said the conductor of the Australian Ballet for its world tour (Mr N. W. F. Smith) in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Smith, who arrived in Christchurch earlier this week to take up his position as senior conductor, is musical director for J. C. Williamson Theatres, Ltd., in Sydney.

“We have a different orchestra everywhere,” he said. There were resident symphony orchestras in Honolulu, Vancouver, Montreal and Mexico City. In South America resident opera company orchestras would be used.

“It will involve, over a period of 12 weeks, rehearsing with 12 orchestras—it is quite a frightening prospect There are going to be language problems, particularly in South America, although French may have to be spoken in Montreal,” said Mr Smith. “I have taken a crash course in Spanish, and local interpreters will help us in each centre. “This is a big reason why I am hoping to take New Zealand’s Peter Zwartz as assistant conductor. The time element comes in whereby each

new orchestra will have to be rehearsed before opening. In some cases, rehearsals conflict with performances in preceding centres. A second conductor is needed.” Mr Smith said it was two years since he last saw the ballet. He was the conductor for the Australian Ballet when it began in 1962, and held the post for three years. “Then, in 1965, J. C. Williamsons offered me the position of musical director at Sydney, and because I was married with a family I reluctantly felt I had to leave.” Mrs Smith was formerly a professional dancer, Rosemary Milder, who toured New Zealand with the Australian Ballet and the Borovansky Ballet.

Mr Smith said he was delighted with the standard of the company and with the performances of “Raymonda” he had seen. Mr Smith graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and studied conducting under Nikolai Malko. He was musical director for Fonteyn and Nureyev on the Australian tour in 1964. He hopes to conduct several performances in Christchurch, probably the “Display” and “Gisellq,”