RICHARD CROOKS

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 26

RICHARD CROOKS

Richard Crooks, Metropolitan Opera star, who is to give only one concert in Dunedin on Monday next, is one of the youngest of all the great musical celebrities. He began his career as a nine-year-old boy soprano. His debut at the Metropolitan, which aroused the audience to a frenzy of enthusiasm and earned the young singer 37 curtain calls, was perhaps the most sensational the staid old “ Met.” has ever seen. Yet Mr Crooks says that he prefers concert worth. Indeed, he was offered Metropolitan contracts for five years before he would accept them. He likes concert work better, he says, because it is so much harder! He has to depend entirely on himself on the concert platform, and cannot look to the glamour of the orchestra, costumes, stage settings, and plot to cover up imperfections! Engaged in a profession that demands the utmost physical care, Richard Crooks goes in for every type of sport. He plays golf, lawn tennis, handball, and baseball, and is keenly enthusiastic about deep-sea fishing.