A SONG RECITAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 253, 20 July 1921, Page 6

A SONG RECITAL

BY MISS MARIE NILSSON. Concerts promise to bo unusually numerous during the present season judging by the bookings at the Town Halt and Concert Chamber for the next fewmonths. Among the singers new to New Zealand is Miss Mane Nilsson a Scotch soprano, who gave a eong recital at the Concert Chamber last evening. Miss Nilsson, who has been associated with the Carl Rosa and Beecham opera companies in England is the possessor of ,a very strong. 1 , vibrant ybice, fol mezzo texture, with the range of a soprano. She glories in her power, and uses it rather too persistently to the obscuration ofc- those graces which a higher regard for vocal reticence might favour. Her voice is of such power and w»ll produced that, when exerted, it vibrated in the ear, and possibly would bo heard to greater advantage in a larger hall for that reason. And it is round toned and even throughout her range denoting a thorough grounding in the vocal art, or at least the purely technical side of it. Were there more variation in tone colour, and the softening touch of sympathy, Miss Nilsson would be a remarkably fine singer She gave a full-throated rendering of Je Suis Titania” from Ambrose Thomas* opera, "Mignon," which calls for delicacy as well as declamation, making tho hall ring again with her vibratory power The operatic ana was followed by a group of Hebridean songs by It. Kennedy-Fraser, through which runs a strong tinge of melancholy, charactei- | istic of the sea and Hs sorrows in those j rugged Scottish isles. The songs Me re I "An Eriskay Song.” a rushful 'Sea Reiver’s Song.’” \aiid “A Fbuy Loa e Song,” the latter indicating that Hebridean fairies are just as melancholy as the mortals of thereabouts. Miss Nilsson showed a nicer regard for vocal subtlety in the extremely beautiful aria, Le . Charmant Oiseau” (Felicien David), in | which tho birds mingle their song with the human ’.aico. Tho flautist was Air. I C N. Tucker, who shows good promise as a player of obbligati. Miss Nilsson sang the "Jewel Song” from "Faust” (Gounod) in English, gave a fine rendering of "One Fine Day” from "Madame Butterfly,” and showed' commendable facility’in "10, Hear the Gentle Lark" (Bishop), (with flute obbligato). She was | perhaps best in a bracket of Scotch songs which included "Down the Burn, ‘ "Flora Macdonald’s Lament.” and "Last j May a Braw Wooer." Of these her most appealing effort was the "I,anient, the subdued tone used ’having in its texture a sweetness not so prominent in the full voice. When recalled the singer offered that old favourite, losti s "Good-Bye.” Air. Harold 1) hit tie accompanied with his usual artistry.