COLUMBIA CELEBRITIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 416, 26 July 1928, Page 16

COLUMBIA CELEBRITIES

0 E. DE MURO LOMANTO Signor Enzo de Muro Lomanto, a lyric tenor with the WilliamsonMelba Grand Opera Company, is a native of “Napoli,” and was brought up from babyhood, to the rhythm of music. Lomanto’s father was a chemist, but the boy had no liking for pills and potions, and wanted to go in for a musical career. But Lomanto senior wisely decreed that the boy should first take up some practical study in case his voice failed. So Enzo used his dulcet tones first, publicly, amid the dignified precincts of the Law Courts in Naples, and could have made his mark as a barrister. But he preferred "music and his sister song,” and, from the age of 17 years, studied at every opportunity under good teachings at the Naples Conservatoire.

He records exclusively for Columbia, his recordings including excerpts from Rossini’s “Barber of Seville,”

Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” Massenet’s “Manon,” and Verdi’s “II Trovatore.” The engagement of Signor Lomanto to Signorina Toti dal Monte was recently announced.

Three very artistic numbers contained on one of the H.M.V. July records are Lemare’s “Reverie,” Guilmant’s ‘lnterlude’ and ‘ldylle’ in E Flat by Faulkes. These works are played on the organ at Salisbury Cathedral by Dr. W. G. Alcock, M.V.0., one of the greatest of the present-day English organists. Although very short, they are most attractive. The Lemare number is particularly pleasing. Its peaceful but expressive strains seem tinged with the atmosphere of the great cathedral in which it is exquisitely played. H.M.V. C 1376.