AFFLUENCE TO PENURY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22353, 29 August 1934, Page 10

AFFLUENCE TO PENURY

FAMOUS SINGER’S PLIGHT “I AM ©OWN, BUT NOT OUT.” Once Tom Burke, the famous tenor, earned £27,000 in a single year. He has been oaid £4OO for a single night’s work. Lately he talked to a Sunday Express representative in a tiny, rented room in South Kensington. For Tom Burke has now no home of his own. He has not earned a penny for a year. “ It is only iti the last two or three years that things have gone wrong,” Mr Burke said. “ I am 38. My voice is in its prime. I was famous at 17, and in the years which followed made over £250,000. I lost most of it in speculations. ' “Yet I have not made a halfpenny in the last year! I have not a farthing in the world, and must either live at my father’s house or enjoy the hospitality of friends. / “You ask me why this is —listen: It is because I have refused to pander to the stupid ignorance of the British public, who will not respect a singer unless he comes from some obscure European country, sings with a foreign accent, and lias a name which is difficult to pronounce. lu short, because I am British. “Were I to call myself Tomaso Burkski and sing in bad I should probably be overwhelmed with work. Walking through the West End the other night I passed four theatres all employing foreign artists in leading parts. Yet there are hundreds of fine British artists without a meal to eat.

“ England has gone crazy over foreign artists,* forgetting that in the wave of nationalism which is sweeping Europe English ftrtists cannot get work abroad; Nearly all the principal roles in the Covcnt Garden Opera House this season arc filled by foreigners. Germans who sing in bad Italian are being paid fabulous sums to come to England. “ Two out of every three artists who played in a recent concert at the Koval Albert Hall in aid of the British Artists’ Benevolent Fund were foreigners! British artists of proved worth have to change their names to become successful “ Edward Johnson, the famous British singer at the Metropolitan Opera House. New York, had to change to Eduardo di Giovanni before be was recognised. An other Britisher is known as Leopold Stokovfski, and is now conductor of the famous Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.”

But Tom Burke is not beaten. He is as robust as ever, and he is defiant. “ I intend to fight,” he's ays, “ lam down, j but not out.”