D'ALVAREZ CONCERTS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 84, 6 October 1922, Page 3

D'ALVAREZ CONCERTS

'M- EMPHATIC SUCCESS.

Mme. D'Alvaies, in herseoond concert at the Town, Hall last evening, questioned the wisdom of the .cobler sticking to his last. Her programme \wm remarkable for the wide field, it.covered, and for .the varying success with which she sang her often .utterly dissimilar numbers There was the decidedly French "Agnus Dei"- of Bizet, in contrast with the recitative and air, "God •Shall Wipe Away all Tears," from Sullivan's "Light of the World"; tiiere was "The Blind Ploughman," in contradistinction to the great arias from "Samson and Delilah," of Saint-Saens; there was the ecstatic Spanish song "El Pemo" (The Silversmith) of Schindler's arrangement, to compare with an Irish song "Top 0' the Mornin' " —altogether a programme of sufficiently varied Aaractej; to please the tastes of a large and receptive audience, one—as it proved— | fired with enthusiasm, which it was at no .pains, long before the end, to repress. At the same time, as in her "Carmen" numbers, the ''Habanera" and . "SeguidilH,""D'Alvarez „wa£. Jnore at her best' when interpreting songs or operatic arias of a-Latin character than when singing numbers that were more or less Teutonic in feeling and spirit.; "The Blind Ploughman" was a case in point. It is .essentially^,Anglo-Saxon in spirit, it smells'of the*ireshly upturned soil of England, and the ploughman himself is arr'Englislim'iijj, with the sirong but unostentatious /heroism "of"hi«''!race, and his deep faith (in the case of a Christian man) in the Divine ordering o£ things in love, even to the extent of permitting blindness of the eyes, as the song says, "that my soul might see.'' Elgar has* caught the idea and set it to music m a wonderful war memorial to the Worcesters. D'Alvarez sang the song with all the Latin fire of which she possesses so-much, and which glowed.in her truly remarkable renderings of the Philistine courtesan's invocation to love to aid-her-in the-'undoing of. Samson, and her devilishly seductive wooing of the giant in the'aria' "Mon Coeur S'ouvro a ta: Voix."" Those who were keen enough to notice may have-thought she sang the last note of the. "Blind Ploughman" a trifle flat. "Homing," as an encore, was a triumphant succesa. D'Alvarez is a most realistic singer in operatic numbers like the "Carmen"- and "Samson" selections, and in putting expression into gems like "Les Couronnes"(Chausson); in "El Pano" she was delightful, likewise in-"La Zagalina," another. Spanish song. \ As 1 ■''. in JFrench 'or Italian, ignorance of the; 'language was no bar to the enjoyment of -the song sung, so closely did D'Alvarez invest herself, as in a close fitting gojrgn, in the character of the number. Concessions have, of course, to be made to large audiences, and a certain amountv of what is called popular material mut appcar in every programme, but D'Alvarez has a repertoire of such an extent and of such a varied character that she could well afford to confine herself to selections from grand opera, and French, Spanish, or Italian songs calling for tbo abilities of dramatic interpretation with which she is. so .well.-endowed. Tha audience cheered her again and again last night,- it waved umbrellas and hats, and stamped its feet in appreciation of her performance, and was very loth to leave the hall until she had sung again, when she gave the "Agnus Dei," with pianoforte," organ, and 'cello, acegmpani* ment. '-■■'■- ■ •■■- ■■■ "■■■■•■

Mr.! Mamracci; the solo 'cellist, was rapturously received." He played 'Vs3'l* Sui's "Orientals," also Popper's "'lVFiapsodie," and with Mr. Henry Perm, the second movement from Haydn's Coacerto in D. Major. He was cheered vooifer« ously, and played "Le Cygne,"of SaintSaens. Mr. 'Penn confirmed the highly favourable impression'he had already made in . his brilliant playing of two Debussy numbers, '.'Arabesque" and "Toccata," and ji, "HumoresqueV of MacDowell. Mr. Bernard- Pago waß at thq organ. • ■: ■ .'<

D'Alvarez will give her -third concert to-morrow evening. . • .