OPERA COMPANY BENEFITS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4239, 21 October 1874, Page 2

OPERA COMPANY BENEFITS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I believe there are a good many people in Wellington who are nit satisfied with the omission, by the management of the English Opera Company, of a benefit to Mr. Raiuford, their accomplished basso, whose professional talents and amiable personal qualities are so well known and appreciated in Canterbury and other parts of the colony, where good singers are cordially welcomed, as well as in Wellington. Miss May has had her benefit, Mr. Hailam has had his, Mr. Templeton and Miss Lambert have each had one, and X am at loss to know why an equally deserving member of the company—one, indeed, without whom they could not have carried their season through—should be singled out for exclusion from that customary addition to the stipend agreed upon ; and also, why his special friends and admirers should be denied the opportunity of testifying their high opinion of him by the grateful token of a good house. The company, it is announced, after their trip to Wanganui, will give two concerts —one sacred and the other secular—which, certainly, they could not get through without Mr. Bainford’u valuable co-operation. Ido not know whether the management will conclude to do the right tiling in the matter. There is no doubt but that it is their duty to the opera-going public of Wellington to do so, even more than it would be an act of justice to Mr. Raiuford. If they should not, I write this in order to agitate the question as to whether that public cannot by themselves organise a benefit for him, in place of that to which he is entitled at the hands of his employers and colleagues. I send you my name, as a guarantee that, if necessary, several others besides myself are prepared to take our fair share in such an arrangement as will place Mr. Raiuford on the same platform of public approbation as the other leading members of the company.—l am, &c.. Thorough Bass.