MUSIC

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XXI, 21 November 1896, Page 80

MUSIC

HOW TO STAND WHEN SINGING. YOU ask, ‘ How should a singer stand ?’ Let us listen to the wisdom of the ancients. Do you think that the position of the chest, and even the legs, has nothing to do with the emission of tones ? You think as one devoid of understanding. Let us first summon Giambattista Mancini (1716-1800) as a witness: ‘ I treat my pupils as though I were a dancing master. I call them before me one by one and say : “ My son, mark me well. Raise your head, but do not incline it forward or backward ; hold it naturally in such a way that the muscles of the throat will remain supple. If you lean your head forward those muscles will be stretched painfully ; if you lean.it backward the tension will be severer.” ’ Again Mancini says: ‘Vocal faults are not the only ones that should be corrected in a singer. The faults of another kind are a bad position of the mouth, knitting the brows, rolling the eyes, twisting the neck, and, in fact, the whole body.’ Lamperti, the elder, declares that the singer should stand like a soldier— body upright on the hips, shoulders in the background, arms hanging naturally, elbows near the body, heels joined, toes out. There are teachers who should heed well the words of Tosti : ‘ Let him never suffer the scholar to hold the music paper in singing before his face, both that the sound of the voice may not be obstructed and to prevent him from being bashful.’ And it was Tosti who, over a century ago, gave this council to pupils : ‘ When he studies his lesson at home let him sometimes sing before a looking-glass not to be enamoured of his own person, but to avoid those convulsive motions of the body or the face (for so I call the grimaces of an affected singer) which, when once they have taken footing, never leave him.’ There are teachers who force their pupils to sing with

hands joined behind the back, so as to develop the chest, but this is going too far, as Lemaire well remarks. Lemaire, however, believes in placing the hands on the back of the hips in such a manner that the fingers touch. How few singers in these days stand well! How few that stand as intelligently, and yet apparently as naturally, as Plancon, Myron W. Whitney, Campanini, Nannetti. Among women Melba and Emma Eames know the art. You will not infrequently see a soprano who will raise the eyebrows with an upper tone, or one who will accompany the end of a phrase or an embellishment by a vibration of the hips, or one who will lean forward, bust far in advance, hips drawn backward, and thus her force will be half paralyzed. Lola Noir, a Parisian concert hall singer, accused of having forged bills in the name of one Charles Wells to the amount of 20,000 francs, has been acquitted. Mlle. Noir was the model for Henner’s famous picture ‘ Femme Rousse.’ The fantastic libretto of Mascagni’s new opera, * The Japanese Girl,’ it is stated in a Milan journal, will be translated into English for production in the United States. Among the characters are a doll, a screen, the flowers and figures upon which are supposed to take part in the action, and even a pile of dirt. A young Japanese couple and a cruel father are in the plot. The Queen of Roumania is said to be the only living author who has written opera librettos in four languages, French, German, Swedish and Roumanian. She has just finished an opera libretto in French, founded on a Turkish subject, for M. Jules Massenet. Mdlle. Antoinette Trebelli passed through Auckland last week and opened her New Zealand season in Wellington on Friday last at a concert in the Opera House, where she was assisted by Mr John Prouse and an orchestra. Mr Robert Parker conducted. Mdlle. Trebelli was announced to sing ‘ Mignon ’ (Ambroise Thomas), ‘The Nightingale’s Trill’ (Ganz), and the ‘Laughter Song.’ Our Wellington correspondent, writing says ‘ that there was a crowded house on the occasion, and the pritna donna was received with enthusiasm, and rewarded with showers of flowers. Every item of the

programme was encored. Amongst the audience was the Australian cricket eleven, who presented Mdlle. Trebelli with a beautiful boquet Much satisfaction is expressed at the announcement that a second Trebelli concert will be given on Tuesday evening.’ Mdlle. Trebelli will most probably give three concerts in Auckland, but the arrangements for the season are not yet definitely concluded.

In Christchurch the Musical Union had the record attendance at their orchestral concert in the Tuam-street Hall, every seat being occupied. The orchestral items were most enjoyable, and some being quite familiar to us, one appreciated them all the more. Mr F. M. Wallace played a violin solo with orchestral accompaniment. Miss Hardey and Mr A. Millar were the vocal soloists, the latter being in excellent voice. The young lady is is new on our concert platform, and though possessing a good voice, especially the upper register, is not yet ready to take her place as a concert singer. She looked extremely nice in white silk with satin epaulets edged with white fur.

‘ The Geisha ’ has, it appears, duplicated in New York the success which it had won a year ago in London. It seems sure, so well did the audience like it, to last as long in the States as it had in England. Even memories of ‘The Mikado,’ a much worthier work, did not hinder the enjoyment of this later Japanese play of fun and music. Natives of Japan, China, France and England are characters in the action. The chief geisha, the one mentioned in the title of the piece, is loved by a Japanese captain, but a British naval lieutenant flirts with her and thus arouses the jealousy of his English sweetheart. A French girl is scheming to marry the Governor, while he wishes to possess the geisha. These five persons mix their affairs and thereby produce considerable comicality. An auction sale of the geishas of the teahouse and an interrupted wedding are the chief episodes, but there are lesser incidents to keep the movement lively most of the time. The garden adjoining the Tea House of Ten Thousand Joys is the first scene of the play, the dooryard of a Japanese governor is the second, and both are bright and pretty, though neither is remarkable.