MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1545, 4 December 1919, Page 32

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String.)

At the close of her Australasian tour, Miss Amy Castles, who visits New Zealand with the J. C. Williamson Grand Opera Company in a few weeks, will return to America for a series of 60 concerts in Uncle Sam’s land and Canada, under the direction of the Wolfson Bureau. Several of the concerts will be with the New York Choral Society, the Chicago Choral Union and the Boston Symphony. Under the heading “Impressions of a Great Singer,” the “London Echo” gives high praise to Miss Rosina Buckmann, the New Zealand singer, who has made a name and a place for herself in London and the English provinces as a leading artiste. Miss Buckmann had been asked to sing at one of Mr. Vicker’s concerts, but was unable to do so, as she had been asked to take Dame Melba’s place in “La Boheme” at Covent Garden. “This signal honour,” says the writer, “a recognition as it was of native operatic singers by a management which had relied almost exclusively on foreign artists, was a welcome result of the war, and of Sir Thomas Beecham’s wonderfully successful seasons, for as his prima donna Miss Buckmann had long made name for herself. She subsequently appeared in several other royal productions, and scored great successes. It was not surprising, therefore, that when she appeared in Liverpool the Picton Hall should prove much too small to hold all those who wished to hear her.”

“Lohengrin” was composed by Wagner in 1847, and was first produced at Weimar, in 1850. The first production in London was given on May 8, 1875. Gabrielle d’Annunzio is aged 55. His stirring orations demanding Italy’s intervention in the war had a national effect in 1915.