MURIEL BRUNSKILL

Evening Star, Issue 22146, 28 September 1935, Page 7

MURIEL BRUNSKILL

TO-NIGHT'S GREAT TREAT To-night, at the Concert - Chamber, Madame Muriel ' Brunskill _ will de- , monstrate her right to the title of the greatest English contralto l of , the present time, and it is anticipated that a big proportion of musical and social Dunedin will bo present to give a fitting welcome to this distinguished British artist. Very few great celebrities visit New Zealand, so when this country does experience the rare good fortune to receive a visit from a famous artist in her prime, it is important that practical appreciation of such an honour should be shown. Madame Brunskill is making a very brief stay in New Zealand, for, a« she is heavily booked for engagements in England and Scotland, she has to return to London next month. Dunedin is one of the few cities to be included in the short itinerary, and it is doubly fortunate in having been allotted two concerts. Much has been written regarding Madame Brunskill’s successes at Covent ■ Garden, and as the contralto soloist at the principal musical festivals throughout England, and as vocal soloist with the great orchestras of America and Europe. ‘ The leading musical critips in Australia have -unhesitatingly decsribed Madame Brunskill as the finest and most brilliant contralto who has ap- ' peered in the Commonwealth for a ' quarter of a century, and one critic goes even further and says that she is the finest vocal artist ever heard by him ' during his long residence in Australia. Auckland and Christchurch critics have been equally laudatory (Wellington has not yet been visited). Among the numbers on to-night’s programme arc Two operatic arias, ‘ Stella del Marinar ’ (from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda ’) and ‘Non Pin di Fiore * (from Mozart’s ‘La Glamonza di Tito’). Then there will be nine songs by English composers—‘ Silent Noon’ and ‘The Watermill,’ by Vaughan Williams; ‘ Hymns from the Rig Veda,’ by Gustav Holst; and ‘ Silver,’ ‘ Five i Eyes,’ . ‘ Love’s Prisoner 7 (dedicated to Muriel 33runskill), ‘0 Nightingale Upon My free ‘Sailing Homeward,’ and ‘ February, ■' by Armstrong Gibbs, Schubert will be represented by lour lovely songs, ‘Death and the Maiden ’ ‘By the Stream,’ ‘ Love • Hath Lied, and ■Hymn to the Almighty. following her usual custom, Madame Brunskill will select any extra numbers from fvourite old numbers such as ■ Shepherd’s Cradle Song,’ Scotch ballads, and some of the arias from ‘Carmen. Doors open to-night at 7,