PAUL DUFAULT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 61, 5 December 1928, Page 13

PAUL DUFAULT

MAY VISIT NEW ZEALAND AGAIN

Writing from Toronto, Canada, under date November 7, Mr. Ernest McKinlay, the New Zealand tenor (who sang in “The Messiah” in Wellington, Napier, and Auckland, last December), stated that, seeing an advertisement in the local paper that Mr. Paul Dufault was to sing at a concert in aid of “La Petite Ecole” (the little school), he took advantage of a night off to hear him once more. “The concert was timed for 8.30, but if you know anything about Canadians you are aware that they are never very punctual about anything. Well, the folk started coming in at 8.30, and by 8.55 p.m. there were about 200 present. A violinist came on and played until 9.10 p.m. Then I noticed that someone came from behind and whispered to one of the Catholic priests present, and both disappeared in the artists' room. When the violinist finished, the priests came out and said that as Mr. Dufault did not think there were enough people present the concert would be postponed until November 9. I saw Dufault afterwards, and he was very delighted to know I was from New Zealand, and asked after several people. He has a ranch 42 miles out, and asked me to come out, but as I was leaving Toronto the next day I could not do so. I asked him if he contemplated coming out to New Zealand and Australia again some day, and he said he thought he might make just one more visit. I noticed a big change in his appearance —the fifteen years since I first saw him have left their traces on him. As regards his singing I can’t say. but judging by the programmed numbers I should say he is still the goods. . . . The winter is slowly but surely creeping over this part of the world, nnd I’m wondering how I am going to stand 40 degrees below.”