THE BEECHAM OPERA SEASON

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 872, 19 July 1910, Page 6

THE BEECHAM OPERA SEASON

The three months' season of opera organised by the enterprising. Mr. Thomas. Beecham ■ for Her. Majesty's Theatre, London', was begun last month, when Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffman" ■was produced, Mr. Beecham acting as conductor. The cast included Mdlle. ZeJie de Lussau, Miss Ruth Vincent (who has now definitely forsaken musical comedy), and Mr. John Coates, but its- chief interest to Australasians is derived from the fact that Miss Nora d'Argel (Miss Is or a Long, of Wellington, New Zealand) made her London debut as Olympia, the doll. Tliat.,Miss d'Argel scored a. success may be'gathered from the press notices. According to the "Standard'.' critic, she has an ex'teremely flexible light soprano voice of an unusually high compass,and is already mistress of the art of bel canto. The "Daily Chronicle" critdq thinks she sang Olympia's ■song' very well, but that the quality of tone of her voice was not always quite ev;en. Mdllc. Zelie de Lussan seems to li'ave made the hit of the night as Guilietta. Amongst tie operas of the . season will be Sir Charles Stanford's "Shamus O'Brien." .. Mr. Quinlan, the operatic agent of Mr. Beecham, during ia. roi cent tour in Italy and Franco to obtain artists for Mr, Beecham's autumn season at Covent Garden, engaged Miss Mignort Nevada, the young daughter of Mme. Emma Novada. She has bcon trained by her mother, and made a successful dobut as Rosina at the Constanzi, Rome, and since then has met with success in Madnd, 2ai<x .Milan. ' '