MADAME MARY CONLY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1816, 31 July 1913, Page 10

MADAME MARY CONLY.

A DISTINGUISHED SOPRANO.

AMONG THE MUSICAL GIANTS.

Madame Mary Conly, the distinguished Australian soprano with an English reputation, is to sing in New Zealand for iiie first time to-tnoriw evening. It is somewhat remarkable that this artist has never favoured the Dominion with a visit previously. It must be put down to tlie accident which took her to England in 1302 to witness the Coronation. It woe only a pleasure trip and she expected to return to Australia within a few months, but they discovered at Homo that she was a singer of a typo rare 111 the vocal market, and so eight and a half years elapsed before she sst foot 011 her native land again, and thereby hangs her fame as an oratorio soprano of the first rank. Madamo Conly is tho daughter of Mr. .Tames Conly, for many years headmaster of the Bell Street S&hool, Melbourne, a school lie used to personally conduct prior to its being taken over by the State. Bell .Street scholars have greeted Madame Conly in all parts of tho Empire. Singing at Edinburgh ono night she was greeted on her arrival on the platform with a chorus of "Coo-ees!" Slio was at a complete loss to account for the familiar call, so fondly associated with the wattle and the bluegum, and on making inquiries 'she was informed that there was a little Bell Street School Old Boys' Club in the town, and they had come' to greet their former master's daughter. Madamo states that she received the groundwork • ot' her musical education from Signor Boema, in Melbourne, .andher first appearance as a soloist was with tho Melbourne Liedertafel. She was for over five years tho solo soprano at Dr. Strong's church, in Flinders Street,- Melbourne, where she had succeeded such famous singers as Madames Ada Crossley, Melba, and Lai la Jlirander. Then canie her first trip to England, and its fateful sequence, and there is 110 choral society or festival 'of any pretension in the Kingdom, with which slio has not sung since then.- It was tho late Mr. Vert, tho concert manager and agent, who persuaded Madame Conly to assist him in a Good Friday concert (in which she was associated with Madame Clara Butt). Then a long string of engagements followed, meaning a ileal of hard work—harder tlrari tho general public have any conception of. "Do you know that we are supposed to know every standard oratorio and cantata from cover to cover?" said Madame Conly. "That is to say, that we are booked for certain dates by managers without tho remotest idea what, ws have to sing, until perhaps n month before tho concert. It 'may be a work which one knows, but there is always a chalice that it is one that has never come your way before., and straight away ono has to stew over, it until every nolo is burned into one's comprehension, and that whilst 011 ais in the middle ot a lot of other engagements. 1 have a hundred aud twenty works in my repertoire, yet .unliable to be caught with ono new to 1110 at any time. One of my most trying experiences of resent years was having to sing Berlioz's 'Damnation of Faust' 110 fewer than seven times in ono 111011 th. This is a most ..trying, but very beautiful work, with the soprano part pitched very low. It is really u mezzo part with several high notes which puts'it beyond the range of a mezzo. Tho'worst of it 1 was that there were three versions of the words—Briekoff and Ilerte-H's, Novello's, ; aud Chappcll's, and I never knew until the evening which version was requiredit was most confusing. I fancied ChapI pell's version myself, but, of course, had to siug tho one selected by tho conductor."

Madamo C&nly talks with delightful familiarity of the great conductors and musicians with whom she has been associated and the greatest of them all— liichter. "What a wonderful man ho is —how marvellously he gets his effects. Xlo magnetises all the best that is in you, and you feel that you would dio to please him. Orchestral playeis feel the same way under his- magical baton. I remember one night he was trying to get a certain soft pizzicato effect' in a passage for the strings, _ who were playing too hard to please Kichter. I want not so much of the bone, but a little more of c ,tlie moat, is how lit! described the effect lie wanted, and he got it. 'l'o sing once under llichter was worth a hundred lesions from any other num. lie has the two great qualities—ho knows and can iwpart. 'fliey are so rarely found together." Aladtime- cliaued merrily about the great Nikisch, Sir Hour} Wood, Sir I'mlerick Bridge, Cowen, Coward, I'agge, and the composers Elgar, Holbrooke, Bantock, and the 'lato Coleridge Taylor—the coloured composer. Madamo says of the last-named composer that in maimer, intelligence, all 1 character lie was a perfect English gentleman, iiatu his par. cuts were white (though there was black blood in the iamily a. couple of generations back), and Jlr. Taylor's own daughter was as. fair as-a lily. "Whenever 1 was .available," said Madame, "ho selected me to sin.;; his 'Hiawatha,' and 1 love every note of the beautiful work. J lis 'Sorrow Songs' are most beautiful, but almost too sad for an audience. You know liow lie died—conducting, in his delirium, his latest violin concerto. Ho went right through it, even to his familiar "Thank you, gentlemen!' and then lay back and expired. The last time 1 saug under his baton was at iiochcstcr.' He 1 was a very line conductor of his own works—l never saw him conduct other than his own music." Madame Conly is to sing in "Tho Creation" with t.ho Royal Choral Society at the Town Ilall to-morrow evening.