Mr Robson’s Recitals.

Patea Mail, 21 February 1882, Page 3

Mr Robson’s Recitals.

Mr Robson gave an entertainment of genuine excellence to a small but appreciative audience last evening, in the Harmonic Hall. He is the most finished and versatile elocutionist that has visited Patea in recent years; and it is a rare pleasure to spend an evening with a cultured amateur who can render the moods and interpret the genius of our dramatists, poets, and humorists, as embodied in immortal writings. Mr Robson’s versatile excellence seems to be the easiest thing in life—easy in the sense of being so nicely finished, that all evidence of labored effort is absent from his varied performances. As the effort of a man of middle age, speaking with an average baritone voice, what could be more unexpected than to hear him imitate the melodious soprano notes of a prima donna warbling bird-like in high altissimo ? Shut yonr eyes, or turn your head, and the illusion is complete. We have heard, for example, Adelina Patti, with a voice not inferior to that of her more famous sister, sing “ Cornin’ through the Rye,” and her high serial warbling, her little trills and bird-like jumps from low to high notes, were imitated by Mr Robson with a liquid clearness and a smirking joyousness that seemed unnaturally excellent. Such an effort was apparently not exhausting, nor even a strain to him. He says, indeed, that it is much easier for him to sing an Italian operatic aria in the highest soprano than to sing in the lower notes of a male voice. Mr Robson’s humorous recitals are, in our opinion, better and more natural than his efforts in serious drama. Yet he is always clever, picturesque, and judicious in reciting serious or lighter selections. His “ Bashful Man ” was a really excellent impersonation. The grave-digger scene from “ Hamlet ” was defective in the 100 sepulchral tones and level monotony of Hamlet’s speech. The comic Scotch recital of a Glasgow wife’s experiences in “ lookin’ for a hooso ” was highly diverting, but probably no “ Glasgae bodie ” would accept the dialect as strictly correct. Mr Robson also plays cleverly on the flute ; and he is accompanied by an excellent pianist. Mr Robson is travelling this colony, and wants only to pay expenses as he goes along. He is a retired bankmanager, formerly at Ballarat.