OBITUARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 88, 14 April 1938, Page 7

OBITUARY

SIR WILLIAM BRUNTON Received April 13, 10.30 p.m. MELBOURNE, April 13. The death has occurred of Sir W5l- - Brunton, former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, aged 71. MR WALTER BEVAN Received April 13, 9.30 p.m. SYDNEY, April 13. The death occurred to-day of the former Judge, Mr Walter Bevan, aged 81. M. FEODOR CHALIAPIN PARIS, April 12. The death has occurred of the famous Russian singer, M. Feodor Charliapin, who was reported yesterday to be critically ill. M. Chaliapin was born in Kasan, Russia, in 1873. He served for a few months as an apprentice to a shoemaker. Subsequently he became a railway clerk and worked at odd times as a railway out-porter and as a stevedore on the Volga steamboats. He received his first musical training in the choir of the Archbishop of Kasan. At the age of 17 he joined a little Russian travelling company as a singer and dancer. He had his first serious singing lessons from Oussatov at Tiflis I in 1892, where he made his operatic debut in “A Life for the Tsar.” His first appearance in Petrograd was in 1894 at the Summer Theatre of the Aquarium. He joined the private opera company of Mamontoff in Moscow in 1896, where he obtained his first great success. He was engaged by the Imperial Opera of Moscow in 1899. His nrsi appearance outside Russia was at La Scala. Milan. Later he sang in Paris, Monte Carlos, Buenos Aires and New Y’ork. He appeared at Drury Lare during the Beecham Russian opera season in 1913-1914. He remained in Russia from 1914 to 1921 and his first appearance outside of his home country after the war was at his concert at the Albert Hall in 1921. He toured in England and America from 1922 to 1933. In 1926 he made a tour through New Zealand and Australia, and to the Far East in 1936. He is still a Russian subject but has made his permanent home in Paris.