MUSICAL RARITY.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18343, 1 June 1931, Page 5

MUSICAL RARITY.

NEW COLORATURA SOPRANO. FORMERLY DUNEDIN GIRL. - Probably the most accomplished coloratura soprano—possibly the only one—New Zealand has ever produced is Signorina Margherita Zeiande, who j has this week succeeded in creating ! something of a sensation “on the air’’ |in Wellington. So remarkable is the | liquid quality and breakless regislra- | tion of her voice, so agile in its flexitoility and finished in its interpretive ! artistry, that numerous inquiries have i been made as to the identity of the j singer. I Interviewed yesterday by a Domli nion reporter, Signorina Zeiande, an i Italian professional name, turned out to be ‘Miss Daisy Hall, of Dunedin, a ! member of a well-known musical : family in the southern city, and 1 originally trained by the Sisters of the j Dunedin Convent. I “My first venture away from home," i said Miss Hall, “was due to the visit ;to New Zealand of the New South ■ Wales State Orchestra, under Henri | Verbrugghen. When that orchestra ! was in Dunedin Professor Melling, ! who was in the orchestra and on whose i judgment Mr Verbrugghen often reI lied, heard me sing, and persuaded Mr Verbrugghen to take me back to ! Sydney as soloist. | “There I gave several recitals, and ! continued my studies under Madame Slapoffsky, formerly an operatic soprano of considerable note. I made great progress under her tuition and 1 she was very proud of me; so much so that she induced her husband to hear me, quite a task as he frankly said he was not interested in little girls from New Zealand. “lie never moved whilst I sang to him, but when I had finished he did one of the most graceful things that ever came under my notice. He leaned over a small table and kissed his wife, saying, ‘My dear, I have never heard a voice of such timbre since I first heard you.’ Madame blushed like any girl at the compliment, for you know Slapoffsky is a hard critic. “It was on the advice of Madame Slapoffsky that I went to Italy. There I placed myself under Maestro Bennedetto Morasca, of the Palermo Conservatoire, who gave me valuable lessons in voice production for a year. I then went to Milan, and studied opera and operatic roles (the coloratura ones) under the great Bavagnoli, formerly one of Italy’s greatest operatic conductors and father of Gastono Bavagnoli, who came to Australia as conductor of the last Williamson Grand Opera Company. Under him I studied the soprano roles in such operas as ‘La Traviata,' ‘Lucia di Lammennoor,’ and the Puccini repertoire. Bavagnoli has no doubt as to inv voice. He told Puccini that 1 was the best English coloratura lie had heard since Aledina Patti. Here is the card lie wrote for me when I left for home after two years in Milan. It expresses pleasure over my voice, and savs that if 1 decide to return and dedicate my life to grand opera niv success is certain." ’.Miss Hall has never actually appeared in opera, but has quite a re-* pertoirc, and is on very familiar ground in that sphere of music, as she was often upon the stage of La Koala, and is personally known to Arturo Toscanini, the greatest conductor in Ihe world. At prescnl she is singing "on the air” throughout New Zealand. Later on she may return to Wellington to give a recital.