HER "GUARDIAN ANGEL"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23773, 28 September 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

HER "GUARDIAN ANGEL"

GIRL was engaged to sing in the chorus at Covent Garden Opera House, London. One man, the librarian to the opera company, heard her at rehearsal, realised that slid had great possibilities, and sought her out afterwards.

He criticised some points of her performance, then waited for the resentful answer with which most young singers reply to criticism. None camc. Instead the girl said, "Thank you very much. Will you show me how to correct my faults?" The man did. He was not a great singer, though he had sung bass parts with Hans Richter at Covent Garden, but he had a genius for voice production and was author of-many books on the subject. He did more. He trained the girl's voice. Then, years later, he took her to Italy to sing to Toscanini at the Scala Opera House, Milan. Toscanini engaged her at once to sing soprano leads. From that day the one-time librarian became teacher, manager and general guardian angel to the girl he had discovered. His name was Albert Richards Broad, hers Eva Turner. She was engaged to sing at all the great opera houses of Germany. She appeared in Vienna. Lisbon, Home. Naples, Florence, Athens. Copenhagen. She toured the United States, South America, then returned to Covent Garden in triumph as prima donna.

Yet everywhere her maestro went with her, teaching and advising lu;r. arranging for her travelling, labelling her luggage, studying her contracts, phoning for appointments with her hairdressers and dressmakers, settling her bills. He was always in the audience when she sang, sensing reaction, signalling his own reactions.

Now the silver-haired maestro has died at the age of 74 at the London home of the girl be turned into a worldfamous prima donna. "I shall miss him dreadfully—for his advice and for his comfort." Mme. Eva Turner said. "Ever since Milan he has been with us almost as one of the family." —From (he Daily Mail, London.