GERTRUDE JOHNSON CONCERTS

Evening Star, Issue 17393, 1 July 1920, Page 8

GERTRUDE JOHNSON CONCERTS

In the ordinary acceptance of the term a concert nowadays is too often- a commonplace entertainment at the best, the amateur standard being considered high enough to serve the purpose of the promoters. In New Zealand we have had to look to artists of England and the Continent for a better standard of performance musically, and hence it is welcome nows that for once a high-class company composed of Australasian artists not too young to lack experience, nor yet too old to give the public the benefit thereof, are about to visit us. Mr Victor Beck has, in conjunction with Mr G. S. Garland, secured for a Dominion tour the services of a leading soprano of the Australian operatic stage, Miss Gertrude Johnson, associated with whom will be one of the foremost pianists of to-day in New Zealand, Mr Horace Hunt, of Auckland, and Mr Charles Russel, one of the finest flautists now on the concert platform in Australia. Miss Johnson awoke to fame in a night, as it were. Her chance came in Australia, v.-hen she was first given the role of Lucia in ‘ Lucia de Lammermoor ’ with the Rigo • Grand Opera Company. Khe came to this country not many months ago us a prima donna in the J. C. Williamson Grand Opera Company, the immediate sucoesor to the Rigo combination, and was at once taken into the hearts of her audiences in all the centres. In a word, she repeated here in New Zealand the triumph she had won in her own land. Miss Johnson will sing some ol the gema of her operatic repertoire, and will also be heard in programmes of popular songs. Confined in a German war prison during the war, Mr Hunt pursued the cult of the divine art assiduously, and has returned to his homeland a finished musician, a soulful player of the piano, and an interpreter of the best composers. His contributions will include a large variety of works from the modern composers and old masters, as well ns some of his own compositions. The local concerts will be given at His Majesty’s Theatre for a brief season commencing on Saturday. The box plan is now open at The Bristol Piano Company.