WORLD’S BEST MUSIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 April 1945, Page 6

WORLD’S BEST MUSIC

ENJOYED BY TROOPS ON LEAVE NEW ZEALANDERS IN ROME (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) (By Air Mail) \ Rome, Feb. 25. The world’s finest music, sung and played by artists of world class, is provided free for New Zealand troops who go to Rome on leave. At least once a week Kiwis may sit in the spacious, domed lounge of the New Zealand Club and listen to a concert of classical music which would be hailed as an epic if it were given in their home country. But it may be many years before folk at home will see gathered together such a collection of great singers as performs each Saturday evening for our troops, for the party each week is made up of stars from the Theatre Royal in Rome. Symphony and ballet replace opera at the Theatre Royal each Saturday and many of the stars take turns in giving up this free night to the entertainment of New Zealanders. The concert starts at 9 p.m., ends at 10.30 p.m., and the programmes include excerpts from the operas, a wide range of songs in which Neapolitan compositions figure largely, and occasionally instrumental items. Stars who have recently sung to the troops include the prima donna, Maria Carniglia, Guilio Neri, who is having a most successful season in opera and is being aclaimed one of the greatest basses in the world, the’sopranos Elisa Ferroni, Emilia Carlino and Lucia Mero, the baritones Paulo Silveri, Armando Dado and Georda Marcello, and the tenors Renato Gigli, Nino Mazziotti, Gino Sinimbergi and Giovanni Signorini. The club provides considerably more than weekly classical concerts. , A first-class orchestra plays in the lounge every afternoon and evening and it provides everything from opera and the "heavy” overtures to “In the Mood.” It is not unusual for a player to give a flawless solo by one of the masters and in the next number “go to town” in the most modern “swing.” The two girls who sing with this most versatile band also have a widely-ranging repertoire from the light classical to the song of the war, “Marlene,” German in origin and sung with equal enthusiasm by Allied and Axis troops. Challenging “Marlene” for popularity with the Kiwis is “Chiri Biri Bin” which singer and band often turn into an almost riotous comedy act.

Every session of this show is well-at-tended, and it is of incalculable value as a tonic for many war-weary Kiwis. Tired, straight out of the front line, some of them in the first day or two of leave simply rest in the comfortable armchairs of the lounge and absorb the fine musical treats provided there. Leave parties of 200 or so at a time are driven into Rome and with conducted sightseeing tours each day and each afternoon and evening they have as good a holiday as any tourist could have in peace time.

These concerts are aranged by Messrs Nino Dellapria and Francesca Makry, the latter being the owner of the Albergo Quirinale, the huge hotel which is now the New Zealand Club. In peacetime this is one of the leading hotels in Rome, and one of its features in an underground passageway leading to the Theatre Royal at the back of the hotel, so that guests could go to the opera without having to walk around the block.

The lounge is always crowded for these concerts and there is no doubt about the troops’ keen appreciation of them. The customary ending is for all of the artists to appear and sing “O Sole Mio” and then for the troops to sing “For They are Jolly Good Fellows.”

With opera from Sunday to Friday and symphony and ballet on Saturday, Rome is a treasure house of classical entertainment and the seats allocated for sale in the club to New Zealanders are always taken up. However, with seats costing 15s and 17s 6d the ordinary soldier’s pay does not run to many operas during his leave, so the concerts enable him to hear great Italian singers free. Recently another treat was provided for music-loving Kiwis when several complimentai'y tickets were given for the first appearance in Rome since its liberation of Beniamino Gigli. Furious controversy over Gigli’s political views has kept this world figure out of opera, but with his daughter, Rina, a very fine soprano although she is still in her ’teens, he gave a concert to aid indigent patriot families.