A NEW ZEALAND SONGSTER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 123, 18 February 1935, Page 8

A NEW ZEALAND SONGSTER

New Zealanders should experience a thrill of pleasurable surprise at the news that a gifted young artist from their own country has been awarded the Dame Nellie Melba scholarship provided for annually under a bequest by the famous diva for the x encouragement of women singers. By a felicitous coincidence Miss Hinemoa Rosieur’s career is identified with her own country by her Christian name. ' Should she attain future eminence in the world stage of operatic art it may be hoped that she will retain it. Miss Rosieur is considered.to be the best dramatic soprano heard at the Conservatorium since Florence Austral. That is high praise, betokening the possession of a voice well worthy of the attention about to be given it in the special diploma course of study prescribed for scholarship winners. The late Dame Nellie Melba always insisted that the qualities of greatness in a singer depended not upon the voice alone, but also upon the right background of education essential to the highest form of interpretative art. Miss Rosieur is only twenty years of age. By the tin;e she has covered the course of study planned for her, which includes silking, the' theory of music—harmony, counterpoint, musical form and analysis—the history and aesthetics of music, interpretation of works, languages and physical training, her art as well as her voice should be much more matured.

To the great diva the world of music had no frontiers, and it is characteristic of keenness shown by her-in her lifetime to discover latent genius in dinging anywhere and everywhere that she placed no restrictions of nationality upon the conditions of scholarship candidature. Australia, which has produced so many distinguished singers in addition to that queen of song, Melba herself, no doubt presented many candidates of great merit on this occasion, and Miss Rosieur’s success- is therefore the more noteworthy.