New Zealand Bass At Covent Garden

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 18

New Zealand Bass At Covent Garden

'T'HE former blacksmith’s apprentice, and now operatic singer, Mr. Oscar Natzke. Auckland, was generously praised for his performance on the first night of the now English opera. “The Serf,” at Covent Garden. Written by 25-year-ok.l George Lloyd, a Cornishman, the scene of the opera is laid in the llaniibleion Hills, Yorkshire. The story reflects the conflict between Norman overlord and Saxon serf in King Stephen's reign, and tells of two serfs who love each other but who, like Siegmund and Sieglinde, prove to bo brother ami sister —children of their overlord. The "Daily Telegraph" commented upon the “new singer, Oscar Natzke. a bass from New Zealand, with a voice of beautiful quality, iu the part of a ‘pore noble.’ ” Th-e “Times” said that -Mr. Natzke assumed “the sonorous humility of a Gurnemanz for the part of the aged and penniless Crusader, de Fulke.”

The "Yorkshire Post” declared that Mr. Natzke “lias a deep, sonorous bass, whose low notes seem to come right from the pit of the stomach like the chords of an organ. He acted the pan of the blind Norman baron with great dignity.”