MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 978, 19 November 1910, Page 9

MUSIC.

(Br Tkeble Clef.)

A Now Voice. ... .. ■ . . ■ i a new voice, a mezzo-soprano, ivhich has been classed high by those whose qualilications justify a respcctful attitude towards their opinion, is (says tho last "Bulletin") to be heard this week 111 Sydney. Tho owner is - 'Miss Idrf Moran, a young Maorilander, who arrived in Sydney three or four years ago. Shortly afterwards she toured tho North Coast of New South Wales-as the elocutionist in a concert, company with creditable success. But. reciting is ' a waste of good voice if the singing quality is there, and Miss Moran has it on good authority that it is there. Steffani has recently been polishing it, and' this week at tho Y.M.C.A. Hall it will be offered for criticism at an invitation concert. Another feature of the programme will bo the playing of Alfred Hill's "Maori Sonata."

Miss. Moran is a Wellington girl, and a sister of Miss Julia Moran, violinist, Mrs. Craig, (wife of the chief clerk of the Customs Department, Wellington), Mr. Moran, of Casey and Moran, solicitors, Wellington, and Mrs. P. J. Nolan, of Sydney.

A Singer's Tribulations. Talking with a representative of tho New York "Sun" the other day, Signor Caruso admitted that success and fame had their drawbacks. He said, in part: "People, I suppose, think I am the happiest man oil earth with all my successes and larro earnings. To tell you tho real honest truth, 1 was much happier when I was. a nobody earning two dollars a day.. Now I have no .liberty at all. My smallest action is criticised, every word commented upon. ".Even my private affairs are mado public. When I _ had my operation I was pestered night and day with reporters, and bccauso I refused to disclose details which I considered - absolutely personal tho press iu general spoko so malignantly about it that serious business complications might liaye followed had I not recovered, as quickly as I did. Because I am a celebrated tenor have I not the right to have tho feelings of an ordinary man? What did I caro at tho time for tho curiosity of tho world wlieii my whole caroor was at stake? ... . "Do you know that before cacli public appearance I spend a sleepless night and long hours of indescribable moral pain? I have never boon ablo to get familiar with tho. public; 'every time is for mo as a debut. At my last concert at Manchester recently 'I fainted immediately after my last song. '[In my dressing-room at the Metropolitan, New York,: when waiting for my call, I tremble like a child frightened by a ghost. Only when I am actually on tho stage do I succeed in pulling myself together. Tho thousand of eager eyes and opera glasses fixed on mo have the samo effect on me as a red rag on a bull. I feel tho challenge of the audience and attack the iirst notes in a fighting mood until tho music holds me and I feci my part; yet all tho time I am possessed with fear that my voire may fail. "Tho memory of Nandin, tho tenor, who, after such an cxpericncc' at the San Carlo, Naples, years ago. shot himself in ' his dressing-room, haunts' me always, and every minute, on tho stage counts as a year of my life. ... . "No, people ought not to grudge mo my success. Through my own energy and pluck 1 have worked up from the lowest rung of the' ladder, and it has not been an easy matter. Long ago when, after years of hard work I had succeeded in bringing my fees up to 1000 dollars f had to pocket my pride and como down again tn 400 dollars in order to have, the privilege of singing at C'ovcht Garden. .... "1 liavo never spoken so . openly to any other paper, not even in my own country, and I hone that after this tho American press will understand me bettor than it over did. I must add, however, that my wish is that it should leave me more in peace so far as my private life is concerned."