PINGING AND SINGERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15558, 7 March 1911, Page 4

PINGING AND SINGERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir.—Last Friday night, at the Choral Hall, we had a manifestation of the aesthetic in the tone-art. Euterpe, Erato. Melpomene and Calliope, of the Nine Muses, seemed to have enchanted. Hie audience. By Euterpe, I mean Jl. Ossipolf’s personality; .Melpomene, the singer; Erato, the lovely and aostheticiilly artistic accompanist, who as CalHope (tlm beautiful voiced) sang two duets with M. Ossipoff. It is needless to mention all the grand tone-items rendered: sutfico it to say that tho Charmer (Euterpe), the lovely (Erato), the singer (.Melpomene), and the beau-tiful-voiced (Calliope) reigned supreme, and were in their full glory. But why do M. Ossipoff and his dainty and artistic accompanist enthral and almost inspire their audiences? In answer to the above, let us see how a groat singei or orator is made. Individuals of a phlegmatic or of n sanguine temperament are certainly never so fit to become groat singers or orators as those of an emotional temperament. Tho former lack tho requisite irritability, tho latter are sometimes deficient in perseverance. Thus the genius is always of an emotional nature. That which distinguishes the emotional temperament above all the others is not only tho capacity of conceiving great ideas, but the power of realising them by that tenacity of purpose which disregards all apparent or real difficulty. It will, therefore, bo found, that the most celebrated tonepoets and singers, and most illustrous orators, have always been, are and shall he. with few, if any exceptions, men of emotional temperament, which is their characteristic. The old Italian masters almost concentrated their attention in teaching a perfect delivery of the voice, which consisted in adapting as nearly ns possible the respiratory motions to the emissions of the voice, so as to bring out its natural power without much effort. Porpara. one of the most illustrious masters of Italy, exacted from one of his best pupils tho promise that lie would persevere with constancy in the course which ho should mark out for him. The master then gave him a single page of diatonic and chromatic scales, ascending and descending, the intervals of third, fourth, fifth, etc. This eternal page occupied master and pupil until the sixth year, when the master added some lessons in articulation and declamation. At tho end of this year, the pupil, who still supposed himself in the elements, was much surprised when Porpara said to him: ‘* Go, my son, you have nothing more to learn : you are tho first singer in Italy, and of the world.” And he spoke tile truth, for this singer was Caffarelli, the greatest singer of tho eighteenth century. The great tone-giants and worldfamous musicians that Russia produced and is still producing, is partly due to the emotional nature of the' genius, which is tho characteristic of tho country, and partly to tho strict adherence to the above disciplinary rules. M. Ossipoff is a genius, of tho real emotional Russian type, and it is no wonder now that he enthrals audiences wherever he sings. He has all the qualities which a singer has to have to bo great, and which 1 described above. It would be just as well for every singer and would-be singer to take good note of these qualities. M. Ossinoff and Miss Renee Lees seem in the tone-art to bo like two bodies with one soul on tho

high musical plane, where perfect harmony reigns supreme. They understand each other perfectly. lam glad to note that they have kindly consented to give us another recital, and lift us, once more, into the realm of the muses.—7 am, etc., ’E. I). BERNSTEIN.