MADAME D'ALVAREZ.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 9 October 1922, Page 6

MADAME D'ALVAREZ.

Madame B'Alvarez, who will appear in New Zealand this month, under the Tait management, is of Peruvian and French ancestry, but was born in England, where her father, the Marquis Alvarez venero de Lobaton, was in the diplomatic service of Peru. She began her musical education at the Brussels Conservatoire, and, after winning prizes

for singing and tragic declamation, and j also the Prix de la Reine, being the j first foreigner to i-eeeive this award, ' she was appointed court singer to the King of the Belgians. Later she con- ; tinued her studies of Italian operatic roles at Milan. Following her debut at the Theatre National, in Rouen, Mine. D'Alvarez appeared in every grand opera house in Europe, singing the title* role in "Carmen" alone fifteen times in a single season at La Scala, j Milan. While still in her teens she made her American debut in Oscar j I Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Com- ! pany in New York, subsequently becom--, ing the Trading contralto of the Boston :

Opera Contj^any, where her exceptionally fine singing was the outstanding feature of the season. She sang at the Royal Opera, Cbveht Gardens, London, the succeeding summer, and won a brilliant triumph. Soon her fame spread throughout England, the Continent, and America. Success followed success, and before long she had justified her claim to rank with the world's foremost grand opera artists.