AMY ROCHELLE SINGS AT OPERA HOUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18063, 25 January 1927, Page 7

AMY ROCHELLE SINGS AT OPERA HOUSE.

HER WARDROBE IS INSURED FOR £2OOO. Miss Amy Rochelle is paying a return visit to the Opera House after an absence of two years, during which* time she has been playing in pantomime and vaudeville in Australia. As a singer Miss Rochelle is one of the most successful stars the Fuller firm has ever engaged. Added to her vocal gift she has a striking personality both on and off the stage and this fact makes her a warm favourite with audiences wherever she appears. Miss Rochelle has always been able to sing from her youngest childhood days. When she was fourteen years of age she sang in the Sydney Town Ilall, and one of her numbers on that occasion was such a difficult undertaking for one of so tender years as Tannhauser’s “Elizabeth’s Prayer.” To gain further platform experience she gave two concerts in Sydney. Her first teacher was Miss Ada Gee. who used to tell her wonderful stories around

which the songs were written. When she reached the age of fourteen years she became a pupil of Mr Louis Grist, while the latter portion of her training was under the supervision of Mrs Hugh J. Ward. Mrs Ward, wanted to put her into grand opera, but Miss Rochelle was too fond of solo work and of pantomimes and so she has continued along these lines. In pantomime .she has established what is considered to be a world’s record in that for eight consecutive years she has been principal boy. Miss Rochelle’s first theatrical engagement was at the age of sixteen years when she appeared at the Tivoli in Sydney. She remained with this firm for eighteen months and was then personally booked by Sir Benjamin Fuller to appear in the pafitomime “Babes in the Wood.” Since her last appearance in New Zealand she has been principal boy in Hugh J. Ward's “Cinderella” pantomime, which had a record run in Sydney. Apart, from her ability as a singer, Miss Rochelle is an accomplished pianist, and has composed a number of her own songs, which will be put on the market shortly by an English firm. Then she designs all her own frocks, and the fact that her wardrobe is insured for £2OOO speaks for itself regarding the quality of its contents. Her present visit may be Miss Rochelle’s farewell one so far as New Zealand is concerned, as after doing a farewell tour in Australia, she intends going to South Africa, with London to follow. One of her greatest song successes on the present tour of the Dominion has been “The Prisoner’s Song,” and a large number of requests for this song have preceded Miss Rochelle’s arrival in Christchurch. The singer is an enthusiastic lover of New Zealand, which she describes as a wonderful little country. “And I love Christchurch the best of the whole lot,” she told an interviewer. “I’m simply delighted to think that I am going to spend my birthday here on Wednesday,” she added.