MADAME KIRKBY LUNN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1613, 3 December 1912, Page 2

MADAME KIRKBY LUNN.

AN INTERVIEW. After such a long and wearisomo journey as that irom Auckland to Wellington, one might naturally huvo expected to fluil Uadamo KirJtby Luun fur too tired lor people or conversation of any kind. 11' elio were, it was not ia evidence, lor it wne a very gracious and charming personality that a representative of The JJohinion came in contact with for a brief while lost evening. Tho photographs with which Wellington people liavo become familiar of lato give but a very faint suggestion of the appearance and individuality of tho great singer. Of medium height, with brown eyes, rejfular features, eokieu brown huir, and a fair complexion, ehe is altogether typically English to look at, nsd behind it all is tho tremendous personality that, coupled with her great gift, has made her ono of tho great singers of tho world.

Madnme has thoroughly enjoyed her visit to Australia on<f to Auckland, and she thinks that the people are- very enthusiastic about music. It was a disappointment to her that, sho was not able to visit ltotorua, but sho hoped to be able to go there before tho concert party lea.ves New Zealand for South Africa. What she has seen of thia country impresses her as )«ing very beautiful, and as containing great possibilities for the future, especially when it gets the necessary population. Sunny lands—suoh as Australia is, and New Zealand is reputed to be—must, Madame thought, have much to do with making a people buoyant, responsive to art, and perhaps more to music, than any other form of it; England was not a sunny country, taking it on the whole, and it had not produced the great singers that Italy, for instance, had given to the world. The fact that beautiful voices might bo found'in a country did not mean that the people were i temperamentally. mu6ical. ■

Tke gi'eat singer evidently takes a very keen interest in the conditions governing the countries in which she is Tisitiiig, and uses every opportunity for gaining information concerning them, even to the point of interviewing the interviewer. It is one of her regrets that she cannot always find time to got about and eeo things for hereslf, a'n<l gain her knowledgo at first hand.

Madame does not endorse the view, 60 of tun expressed, that the English are not a musical nation. On the contrary, she thinks that they have a vtry keen appreciation of the finest music, but they nave not the opportunities • given them that Continental people have: ' There is no national op«ra house, although from tinio to time thore have been agitations to build one. At the present time people, at Home are'moving in the matter of obtaining the London Opera House, in Kingsway, as a permanent home for English opera, but whether that effort will come to fruition remains to be seen. If there is a sufficiently streng demand for it, such a thing must eventually be-obtained. Madame 'had not sten tho English opera, "The Daughters of Don," recently produced in London, but' she did not doubt that when great English opera was produced at Home it would be enthusiastically supported. ■ English music had made great strides rrithin recent times. For the German song-writers Madame has a great lore. Germany has the finest literature of son? in the-world, unsurPmbkl by any. other country, and Madame has delved deeply into it. France, too,has many beautiful song-writers, but it is to the German writers that she turns with the greatest affection. Even in New Zealand echoes of thfl fame which Madame Kirkby Lnnn has achieved in the Wngnerian roles have' sounded, and for WngTier's operas Madame has a very great love. Among the roles which she ■ has sustained are ' "Brangane" in "Tristan and Isolde," "Ortrud", in "Lohengrin," "l!'ricka"'.in "Dor Ring,' and "Kundry" in "Parsifal —the , , last teirig her favourite. "Parsifal,".however, has not boon playod outside Beyrouth and America. Most exacting are the demands ma'do upon tho singers in these oporas, and, when one thinks of the duration of. time in which some of them, are played, it is easily realised that physique is a necessary backing to art or , genius. . ' ■ In.touching upon New Zealnnd politics and political conditions—for Madame is inf-enwted to a certain degree in such matters—it was -a natural sequence that the subject of women's suffraife in EngInnd should be mentioned. Madame believeV that'all women who j.ay rates and texts uliould have the. power of voting, but. for all that, sho is not a militant Suffragette, bang ■ tliorouarWy against Mich methods. In Tiimlcml the UwS d«illius with every d'ptct of women * lilo were fcwde entirely by men, ard tint not bf Hie cas» Madame thought. Women ehouW hive the power of finable to lfsislnte foT women, b?c.iu«; they ulntifl could know w'\n.t was needed. Mpn could legislate for Althoußh rbe-irwat rinjer toliewd (hat flompn sV)«'.d be trivpn the power, "She had never attornled tlio suffrage mMtinps or demon-; str-itions, find dkl pot think it recwsaryJ H ir. Mfl that, niir New Zeal.nr.d cliiinte should not have bslwvod amiably U) lindn-mt- while sh« wns in this ciuntw for inid-MimniPr, she thought tho cold orniiewh.it startling, t>m\ nantM tj>o sb-wnee-nf IiOT furs. l!v«n in Auckland, famous for ifr junny days and warai t?m-i| pwatnrp«, rain li.id lven frequent, and tho temTKrature decidedly chilly. Onfl enn only ai>olo!ri?e for the weather, and explain to Tisitorx that if is excrptionnl.

The foKowin:? engagement is announced in the "British Australasian' :-Slr Rupert Jones, ran of Mrs. Qrbe.ll .Tones, Como, lipoid, to.Miss Harne M'Callum, dnughtpr of Mrs. M'Callum, H<rcrtev)Ue, and of the late Mr. Lachlan C. M Callum, Limestone Bridge. ,

M- and Mrs. T. Brown, who arrived in Wellington by the lonic. from London, have left for their home in Auckland.

Miss G M. Stoneham, daughter of Col; onel Stoneham (Dpn«lm), and winner oi Tinney's grand p:nno at the Jsew Zealand, competitions, loaves for the south this evening. During her stay in Wellington sh« has been the guest of Mrs. bmwright, the Terrace.

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