INTERVIEW WITH AN IMPRESSARIO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 69

INTERVIEW WITH AN IMPRESSARIO.

MELBA- S AUSTRALASIAN TOUR.

NEWS OF PADEREWSKI.

(Fbosi Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON. December 2

Owing to the enterprise of Mr John Lemmone New Zealandera in April next will have the pleasure of hearing Madame Melba, who is now at the very zenith of her fame and power as a vocalist. During her British provincial tour she has been singing to audiences of from 4000 to 10,000, the people realising that, after all, there is only one Melba, and that •she is tall the finett soprano in the world. Her present British pro\incial tour -nill end the day after to-morrow at Aberdeen, ■whence she" will proceed by a special tiain to Liverpool, where she will board the Mauretania. for New York to fulfil an engagement of <?i»ht evenings in opera, for which *=he will receive the enormous fee of £8000. It may be a^ked why, therefore, does Melba, when at the zenith of her fame, trouble to come to New Zealand and sing at such places, among others, aa Invercangill, Oamaru, Timaru, Masterton, Napier," Palmerston North, Wanganui, and New Plymouth. It is because *>he wishes as many of the British people as possible to hear her magnificent voice while it is at its very best.

"What I am anxious for," she wi-ites in a recent letter to Mr Lemmone, "is that all shall hear me, because, of course, I shall never again make a trip like this." The 10,000 audience at the Albert Hall on November 7 and the £8000 New York fee 6how that money-making is not the main object of her contemplated Australasian tonr. She will even give a concert at Lilj-dale, quite a email Victorian village, where she lived when a girl and wh*re her father, now 82 years of age, still resides. " Whatever you do," 6be writes to Mr Lemmone, "don't neglect Lilydale. I promised them that if ever I came back to Australia I would

sing there, and I must keep my promise.'* • And here an incident not very generally . known in connection with Melba's career and the character of David Mitchell, her father, may be related. He was very proud of his daughter's musical abilities; and allowed her at the age of six to sing as an amateur in the Melbourne Town Hall, but he so strongly objected to her singing professionally that years afterwards, when she gave her first public concert, he marked his displeasure by closing his house and extinguishing the lights at an. early hour. It is six years since Melba was in New Zealand, but she was in Australia last year. Six years ago her fourth concert in Sydney realised £2632 — a record for this part of the world. Last year, however, when she gave the two * people's concerts in the Exhibition Building at Melbounie the attendance was enormous. The prices were fixed at 5s and <Ss 6d, but owing to requests for specially reserved seats it was decided to 6»t aside a number in the Vice-regal reserve at a guinea each. So great was the demand that the number even at this popular concert rose to almost 1000. There must have been 12,000 to 14,000 people crowded into the building. The expenses in connection with such conoerts were very great. The rent of the hall with just the bar© walls and floor was £200, and it cost £55 to build a. sounding board over^ the platform. There _ w«re 4000 chairs belonging to the' building in the basement, and it cost £25 in labour alone to bring them up into the hall. The sum of £110 wa# paid for the hire of extra "chairs needed, £72 for electric light, £30 for gas, while " foT an orchestra £250 was paid. „ What with advertising,. etc., the total expenses for the two concerts exceeded £1100. " And did you make anything out of . it?" I asked Mr Lemmone. ' "Did we!" he ejaculated, with his • pleasant smile. " But I'm not going to tell you what we made." In regard to Melba's present tour there can be no doubt that Melba, from what all the Homo critics say, is now singing in better style than ever before, and Australians at all, events are becoming enthusiastic over this 1 visit. Several towns in New South Wales are building special halls for no other reason than that Melba is coming. Lismore is building one to hold 2000 j people, in Warwick they are enlarging the Town Hall in view of her visit, and eeveral other halls are also being enlarged foT the same purpose. Inquiries from Mr Lemmone regarding Paderewski elicited the news that the famous pianist is still in high favour in England, in America, and on the Continent. Since he was in New Zealand h* has been twice to America, and his audiences were as enthusiastic and as charmed ' /With his personal magnetism and his marvellous playing as ever. At present he is resting at his chalet at Morges, in Switzerland. Pader&wski was charmed with New s Zealand, and in his letters he often refer* s to the happy holiday he and his party , had at Rotorua and the time whea i Maggie, the guide, dressed them up as I Maoris and they danced an impromptu haka in their weird costumes with rolling eyes and protruding tongues. They were* photographed by Mr lies on condition that i when a number of copies were printed off for privato circulation the negative should be destroyed, which promise was honourably kept. It will be welcome news to musical people throughout the Dominion to know that Mr Lemmone may induce Paderewski to pay another visit to New Zealand at no distant date ; indeed, he probably would have come out next year But for Madame Melba's visit. ,' Of the other members of that delightful party, Ratynski, the clever Polish nerve specialist* is settled in the Rue Jouffroy, Paiis. where he has a splendid practice ; while Mr Adlington, who was j Paderewski's private secretary, recently I sold his Scottish business for £100,000, and is now. as he himself expresses it, " taking a fatherly interest m the great firm of Frard." Madame Paderewski is in good health, an<i is as bo'icitcus ai ever of her husband's welfare.