POOR GIRL WINS FAME

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 292, 5 September 1931, Page 4

POOR GIRL WINS FAME

Dream May Come True STAR IN OPERA SONG Seven years ago singing in little church concerts; to-day acclaimed by critics as ono of England’s finest operatic singers. This is the record of a 19-year-old Bar-row-in-Furness girl, Miss Olive Dyer. When 12 years of age Miss Dyer was taken by her parents to Australia. Through her love of singing she gained the interest of a wealthy Melbourne namesake, Mrs. James Dyer ; who paid her music fees at the Adelaide Conservatory. At a students’ concert, Dame Nellie Melba heard Miss Dyer sing, and her praise was so encouraging that Mrs. Dyer decided she would send h v er protegee to London for further instruction. Now, by her performance as the lame boy in “The Piper,” the opera at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, she has jumped into the limelight overnight. “I'm so happy I can hardly realise it Is true yet,” Miss Dyer told an interviewer recently. “I have always been keen on singing, and my great ambition—like all other singers—is to appear at Covent Garden. Now it almost seems that there is a possibility that one day my dream may come true. “Before I went to Australia, when I was still a schoolgirl in Barrow-in-Fur-ness, my mother told me that I had either to win a scholarship to pay my fees at school or else she would have to stop letting me have music lessons. “My father is an electric welder, and there was never very much money for luxuries for myself or my two brothers. However, I worked hard and won that scholarship, and also carried on with my music.”

Mrs. James Dyer and Miss Dyer are in no way related.