CHALIAPIN COWING

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12548, 10 September 1926, Page 4

CHALIAPIN COWING

WORLD'S GREATEST SINGER OPENING. CONCERT NEXT THUBS■jS >. DAY. V

Box plan* for the two Wcllingtoh oonterta of the celebrated worldiMqjwned. singer, Chaliapin, will be opM*d at. tho Bristol this morning »t 9 o'clock. Judging by the peat into***t that bae been shown in the visit tf |bie famous artist, the booking is lure- to be very big, and that the Gram} Opera House on Thursday night next; September Ksth, will be a memor-able-sight. Chaliapin will not keep to a act programme during bis Wellington season. He will follow his original plawof.aanonaeingeach item from the pletfprto, or, rather, the number of Ite song on the programme. Consequently there is always a spice of adventure about a Chaliapin concert, for one really does not know what be will choose :to sing. At the same time, there ate certain established favourites that will he heard more' jban ppce. Words of songs will be included .'ill; the souvenir programme at'toe .gala' pomcert which will mark the openingof the Ofialiapin two-nights’ -' season in .Wellington on Thursday next. Chaliapin is described as.’ the greatest singing artist of the world. His fatality in his *rt is largely instinctive, einto tM tuition he received in youth wesfregmentary and haphazard. His parents,were.poor, and'evidently not of a stock "mth distinct leanings to music or drdina. Afl' engagement in an ecclesiastical choir, as a boy marked alike the beginning 'of his musical career am} his education in music. The meagre payment for bis servioes being quite inadequate for bis needs, : ana th* help he bad to give his mother, he slap worked on the railway nod ataam boats of the Volga. A life *f starvation indeed, physically ' and emotionally, was this for a child endeW.sd with a vividly, sensitive imagination; The conclusion emerges,. how##er, ttet, richly, gifted as he was, .the Study he beat school of aU—experienoo ' was better for him than easier pctks- j'at the conservatoire might have been. > The evidence of the artist supporta the view that fits life he had to lead then, to keep his art, played an impoytejit part in stabilising his pricelem pteMMfon of personality, and in making him take particular note as he went along of how t* make the most of his ■own especial natural gifts, vocal and bjstruMkio. * Tboijgb Chaliapin presents a different programme at each of his concerts, ‘he always • includes four of his most notable and popular items. As a matte* of fact, the audience unfailingly demands them. These are: “The Song bf the Volga Boatmen,” “The Two Grenadiers,” “The Song of the Flea,”j and “The Government Clerk.” The concerts will be given ut the Grand- Opera House on Thursday, September Iffth, and. Saturday, September letb.