From Jerusalem

Te Ao Hou, June 1963, Page 36

From Jerusalem Thelma, who comes from Jerusalem on the Wanganui River can sing, Maori songs with the best of them, and thoroughly enjoys doing so, but she was puzzled by what seemed to be an attitude that it was not really appropriate to have a Maori singing European songs. (This was ten years ago, of course—people understand this sort of thing better now.) After she married her husband, who is Austrian, they went on a holiday to Europe, staying with his relations and travelling in his country and elsewhere. She took the opportunity of perfecting her German accent, which allowed her to learn the songs of the great nineteenth-century German composers, and she also became fascinated by Austrian folk songs: ‘Wherever I went I collected new ones.’ (At first her husband knew no English, and she knew no German. They taught each other their own languages—now, she says, ‘we've got our own dialect.’) Ans Westra Thelma Keepa is a trained singer who has done a lot of concert work, but singing with the overseas Sadlers Wells Opera Company was a new experience for her. She had a wonderful time, and rather regretfully turned down an invitation to go back to Australia with the company. When, on their return, she found that broadcasting officials still regarded Maori songs as the appropriate ones for her to sing, Thelma decided not to give any more radio recitals. So for the last ten years, Maori audiences at Ngati Poneke have been pretty well the only ones to be able to enjoy her very fine voice. In the last few years the New Zealand Opera Company arrived on the scene, but Thelma, busy with her home and her job at the Waterfront Commission Office, never got around to going to their auditions—‘perhaps it was a bit of the old Maori shyness, too’, she said, laughing. Then a couple of months ago an overseas opera company, the Sadlers Wells Company, visited New Zealand with the production ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’. Thelma saw in the paper that they were advertising for local people to sing in the chorus, and thought she would like to have a go. But she didn't really think she would have a chance—it was so long since she had done singing of this kind—and

she says it was only her husband who made her decide to try. ‘He told me I'd only be wasting my lunch-hour if I went to the audition—you go and get the cat's meat instead, he said—so I thought I'd have to give it a go.’ When Thelma got there, she found that all the other singers were hugging music scores—‘I hadn't brought any music with me, so when I saw this I rushed out and bought Waiata Poi. I had only sung in Maori for the last few years, and this was the first thing I could think of.’ When her turn came, she took ‘Waiata Poi’ over to the accompanying pianist. ‘His eyes widened when he saw what it was—I was very anxious for him to get it right, and thought he probably wouldn't know it, so I showed him one piece and told him, “now mind you don't drag it here, and foul me up”. What I didn't realize at the time, was that he was the assistant musical director of the company!’