MADAME CLARA BUTT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 11 February 1908, Page 2

MADAME CLARA BUTT.

Madame Clara Butt, Mr Kcnnerley Rumfbrd, and their concert party will arrive from Wellington on Monday next, and will give a concert at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday, 18th" February. under the direction of. Messrs J. and N. Tait. Positively only one concert will be given in Nelson, as the time at the disposal of Madame Butt is too limited to permit of a second concert, and the party will leave on Thursday, 20th inst., for Blenheim: Messrs Tait , announce to-day that extra rows of half-guinea seats are now available at Mt Bolton's, where tlie box plan is on view. vA Madame Butt a press appreciation says: — "With so much in her favour as far a" bodily de'veldpirientand personal charm are concerned, this lady would, almost be tolerable if she sang. poorly; but when to the attributes that delight the, eye ,ab£s added in abundant measure those musical qualities which have made her famous, it is easy to understand the instantaneous success she achieved at the opening concert of the Australasian season. There was 'a distinct bias in her favour when she ateppca up on tne platform; Out stie did not require much bias to establish her in popular regard — her superb voice was a revelation on the first three notes she sang. A distinctive feature about Madame Butt's vocalism is its tone of complete confidence. While she sings she is apparently not thinking about the song or the mode of its interpretation; she leaves all that to her voice -and her artistic in■stinct. She is herself buried in the sentiments of what she sings, and her dramatic forces are devoted ■ to tho task of interpretation. Some of her numbers thus become, stupendous dramatic- recitals, embellished with richest melody, that flowed as from some natural source apart from human agency. They were brief dramas, so to speak, expressed in mellowest music, , in wild bursts of defiance, in fuli toned organ .tones, of sentiment, in clarion cries of declahiation, in sobs of sorrow, jjaeans of joy, and in various . cadences of changing emotidns. . The whole gamut of human sentiment seemed passible tp be expressed by tiiitt voicej aided by the fofcefulness of tho singer's dramatic art.'*