A NEW MELBA ?

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1935, Page 15

A NEW MELBA ?

NEW ZEALAND GIRL

This article, by George Matthews hi the /.'Australian Women's. Weekly," on the subject of-Miss Hinemoa Rosieur's remarkable voice will be of interest to New Zealanders; ■ Miss Rosieur, a 23----year-ol* Auckland girl, was the first- wii\ner of the Melba Bequest Scholarship. "Have we found a new Melba?" asks Mr. Matthews. ''It is too soon to say whether Miss Rosieur will sing her way to exalted heights, but there can be no doubt that her dramatic soprano voice is an exceptional one." "Mr. Fritz Hart," he continues, "describes it as the best he has heard at Albert Street Conservatorium, East Melbourne, since Madame Florence Austral was there. Although naturally less mature, it sounds not unlike the voice of Florence AusI tral."

The story of Hinemoa Rosieur's success begins with a visit paid to New Zealand by Miss Mary Campbell, chief teacher of singing at Albert Street Conservatorium. " Miss "Campbell offered a special scholarship for New- Zealand singers, entitling' tha winner to a year's course in "Melbourne, and Miss Rosieur won.

At 19 she had begun to study singing under Signor Constantirii,' a former member of the Sistine Choir, but when he returned to Italy she was without a teacher for twelve months. Her father —a Frenchman, who went to New Zealand as a young man—intended to send her to the New South Wales Conservatorium, but he died in January last year, leaving insufficient money. Miss Rosieur had almost abandoned hope of further training when Miss Campbell arrived. ~

Signor Constantini , was the first authority to : say that' she 'had .the makings of a very good voice—she was still in her teens then—but she regards Miss Campbell as her chief benefactor. "If I" succeed in my career," she says, "I will look back: with gratitude to Miss 'Campbell as the person who enabled me to maka headway." "Of her protegee, .Miss Campbell says: "Besides a voice of outstanding quality, she has a great musical insight, a fine presence arid physique, and all the other qualities that go for success. Provided she has ordinary; luck, she should have a. brilliant career." ■■■■.: ~ . ' ,• .

Both the scholarship winner's parents were born in France. Under the name of Marie Arnold, Miss Rosieur'a mother, who is Anglo-French, has sung publicly in-New Zealand. The family is a large one. •, Four other girls and two, boys are musical, but they have had little training.

Tliis scholarship, valued ■at morei than £ 300 v annually, is derived from the late Dame Nellie Melba's gift of £8000 to Albert Street Conservatorium, and may be won by the same person three years in succession. The bequest was made "in the hope that; another Melba/will arise," .