OVERSEAS SINGER FOR CENTENNIAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

Evening Star, Issue 26153, 15 July 1947, Page 4

OVERSEAS SINGER FOR CENTENNIAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

The engagement by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service of the noted English soprano, Isobel Baillie, for the large-scale performance of . Mendelssohn’s ‘ Elijah ’ in Dunedin during the Otago Centennial Music Festival on-April 10 next year was announced to-day by the chairman of the Music Festival Committee, Professor V. E~. Galway. He also stated that the t&b best operatic soloists available in > Britain would be engaged Jor the' production of ‘Carmen’ 1 for a seven-night season in His Majesty’s Theatre during Show Week next year. Dr Galway said that the committee had received the fullest co-operation in its plans for next year’s festival from, the Director of Broadcasting, Professor James Shelley. The full National Orchestra would be made available both for ‘ Elijah ’ and ‘ Carmen,’ and, with

the two overseas singers and best New Zealand soloists and large chorus, the opera would be given on a scale approaching that of productions at Covent Garden, London. Isobel Baillie is one of the most famous English sopranos of the day, and it has been acknowledged bymany critics that her role as soloist in • Elijah ’ is her, greatest. She is already well known to New Zealand audiences, as she was one of the four overseas' soloists brought to'this country in 1940 for the Dominion Centennial Music Festival. ' She is still at the height of her popularity in England, and her recent performances have evoked the warmest praise from leading critics. CLIMAX OF FESTIVAL. There is every indication that the performance of ‘ Elijah,’ which will be the climax of an outstanding' festival, will be the finest in the history of Dunedin. A special choriis of. 250 or 300 voices will be trained, and the other soloists will be selected, from the best talent available in New Zealand. The orchestra will be the. finest over heard in a performance of this great work' in New Zealand. ■ t . Symphony concerts will l be. included: in the festival and other -attractions 7 will include,; By massed'; male choirs. . Male choirs throughout the country are talking up this project with enthusiasm and several in, the North Island hope to mak&’the trip, to Dunedin for the festival if' billeting arrangements can be made. They include the Wanganui Male Choir, which has established ‘a notable reputation; its singing having been recorded some months ago by the recording unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting' Service. One of the performances by the massed male choirs will be with the National Orchestra and may include such works as ‘ The Desert ’ and Elgar’s * Songs of the Fleet ’ which have been specially written for male voices. , - . , ' A local chorus of 60 voices for the production of Bizet’s ‘ Carmen, ’ will be trained by Mr John Leech.- The,, singers in the roles of ‘ Carmen ’ and ‘Don Jose’ will be imported,'the others being selected from leading New Zealand singers.