AN AUCKLAND SINGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20841, 7 April 1931, Page 3

AN AUCKLAND SINGER.

MADAME JOAN MUIRELLA. CRITIC'S APPRECIATION. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, Feb. 7. Sir. Watson Lyle, in the Slusical Standard of January 24, pays very high tribute to a well-known contralto who was formerly resident in Auckland —-Madamo Joan Sluirella (formerly Sliss Sluriel Allen). Sir. Lyle says that the longer he studies singing and singers, the more he is convinced of the importance of the climatic influence of their native country until their adult voices are fully developed. " I have heard many contraltos," he writes, " but until I listened to Joan Sluirella some years ago, I honestly had failed to realise the full beauty and variety of tone-colour possible in a voice of this classification. 1 should describe the voice of this gifted New Zealander as being very near to the ideal type of contralto voice, an outstanding example of the happy combination of circumstances — exceptional natural voice, reared in an exceptionally favourable atmosphere, possessed by a woman of keen musical instinct, with intelligence, a ready wit, culture, and a sympathetic personality, all factors of inestimable value in colouiing a voice whatever its classification. " Apparently, my views are by no means isolated, as critics of t the leading daily and weekly newspapers, in London and the provinces, dwell upon one or other, and sometimes upon all, of the qualities of natural possessions, fine technique, and beautiful art that <ue hers. . . Why she has not yet appeared in opera lam puzzled to know. Probably because she is, like all sensitive artists, retiring about herself and her achievements; and these are handicaps indeed for anyone whose true place in art is among the prime'donne of this or any previous era! " This fine artist came lo England from New Zealand after studying in Auckland, Sydney and Paris; but listening to her (which reminds me that she has frequently broadcast) in opera excerpts, in German lieder, or in art songs of this or other European countries, one feels her success to bo due, firstly, to her lovely voice, and, secondly, to her sense of balance and proportion in her interpretations. Her art is warmly alive, but never put .oi intellectual control."