OPERATIC STAR TO SING IN CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17729, 26 December 1925, Page 8

OPERATIC STAR TO SING IN CITY.

ELSA STRALIA SAYS N.Z. IS WONDERFUL. “Yours is a wonderful country; such magnificent scenery—l love it,” said Madame Elsa Stralia, the Australian prima donna, when interviewed this morning. The sentence was uttered with the enthusiasm of a tourist agent. There arc stories that tell of rebuffs administered to interloping Pressmen, tactless enough to break in upon the sanctity of a rehearsal, so it was a hesitant fellow who entered the Choral Hall this morning just as Stralia had achieved one of her celebrated top notes. However, he went inside and found no ex.-heavyweight champion there to remove him to the street. Stralia is statuesque, charming and modest. Fifteen years ago she left Australia to .seek fame abroad, and, unlike many others, she found it. In her first concert at the Albert Ilall she was associated with Kreisler and Wilhelm Backhaus. Immediately after that she secured a Covent Garden engagement, where she appeared in opera with Caruso. Scotti and other celebrated singers. Since then she has sung in the principal American and European opera houses. I was away from home so long that I thought l would never get back. As a matter of fact, T was iust more than a little bit homesick,” she said. On her return to Australia she was impressed by the progress that music had made there. “ I suppose they have become inspired by the famous artists that come out there now,” she said;. The talk turned for a moment to gramophones, a subject upon which she is entitled to speak, for she has made many records. ” 1 tell the company sometimes that certain records must not be put out because they are so bad. but they 1 go out just the same,” she said. “ The latest record-making process is a great improvement on the old. The artist's singing is broadcasted, and the record is made at a receiving station. In that way the applause of the audience may l>e heard at t.he finish of an item. I have a record of the singing of ‘ Adeste Fideles ’ by 4850 people at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. There was a choir of 850 performing, and then the audience of 4000 people joined in. It's absolutely uncanny to listen to,” she said. “My occupation apart from singing? • —tell them I am a thorough sport.” Those were her last words before she went over to try the piano.