GODFREY STIRLING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 148, 8 June 1935, Page 14

GODFREY STIRLING

An Interesting Career An interesting and varied career stands to the credit of Godfrey Stiring, the English tenor, who will make his first appearance in Australia and New Zealand with J. C. Williamson Ltd.’s new Gilbert and Sullivan Oper'a Company. For eight years he was athletics master at an English school, specialising in cricket, football, boxing, fencing, swimming, and gymnastics. During this period he studied singing as a hobby under Jack Robertson, one of the original Savoyards, predecessor to Courtice Pounds. Subsequently an accident on the cricket field resulted in an injury that prevented his athletic acitvities for some time and diverted his thoughts to a stage career, particularly in view of the opinions of William Higley and Victor Beigl in London and Bayreuth, with whom he studied opera. His first operatic role was Faust, sung in French in Belgium. For a time he was principal lyric tenor with the “Old Vie.” company in London, appeared in seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan opera, and for four years was tenor with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, his roles including Faust, Don Jose in “Carmen,” Lieutenant Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly,” the Duke in “Rigoletto,” Count Alma viva in “The Barber of Seville,” Turiddu in “Cavalleria Rustcana” and Alfredo in “La Traviata.”

With their last comedy, “Fighting Stock” an established success, the old farcical firm of Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn are again going into production. Their new Ben Travers farce, entitled “Get Out of It,” is due to start soon at the Gainsborough Studios and Walls will star, and will also direct the cast, which will include Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Yvonne Arnaud, and many other well-known artists.