Living off singing

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 23

Living off singing

I Anthony Benfell.] tenor with the New Zea-I land Symphony Orchesitra at the final Arts I Festival concert in !Christchurch this week,: lis doing a new thing on i the musical scene in New Zealand. He is the [only opera singer who I has found enough work lin New Zealand to give ' him a wage he and his ' family of four can live 'off. i 1 51 He grosses more than the

(average New Zealand wage of $lOO a week, and managed to soend all last vear

, Lt/ opctiu in i iaoL ■ living off the income he earned from singing the classics through New Zealand. ! He is a builder by trade, ■but now keeps his trade as a i stop-gap occupation, not because he needs the money, but because he wants to occupy himself during the few weeks break he has during the year. He is a tenor, one of the ■ three or four in New Zea- ! land who sings opera and 'oratorio, but the only ond

'who has made a full-time career out of it. He said in Christchurch yesterday that he was in a oetter position than basses, baritones, and sopranos, be- : cause there were more of these, they could only share work was available, which was not enough to c...H«oy any of them full time. In the next month alone, he said, he would be rehearsing in Christchurch to sing with two other soloists Britten’s “A Spring Symphony’,, thence to Palmerston North and New Plymouth to tour with “Madame Butterfly,” after a season with it in Wellington,

home for a day, then to . record St Matthew Passion for an Easter broadcast, then to Wellington to take a part in St John Passion. Almost immediately after that, although that look him through to mid-April, he had ■ to rehearse for the “Missa Solemnis” in Auckland, and prepare for three different! concerts of “Messiah.” Before the year is up he will also have sung in Puccini’s “Turandot” in Wanga- ! nui and Wellington, and!

iVerdi’s “Aida” in Christ-; : church. His rise to “stardom” had i hardly been meteoric, how- j ever, he said. He had been: singing for twenty years,! and used to compete with Kiri Te Kanawa. Had he been single when he began' singing, he would probably,: like many of the young and ambitious vocalists, have wanted to leave New Zealand. He could still probably have gone, he said, but experience overseas was often nard got, and vocalists could return to New Zealand toi find they had to work to! win their" audiences back. Thprp war nn rinnht hnw.l

uieie was no uouor, now-; ever, that New Zealand; could now support him, not: only because tenors were few and far between, but be-1 cause opera was growing. Mr Benfell will sing with! Lauris Elms, and Beverley! Bergen in the final Arts Fes-. tival concert on Saturday; under the baton of the Britlish guest conductor, Sir Charles Groves. It will be the first performance of Britten's “A Spring Symphony” in New [Zealand.