GRAND OPERA SEASON

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1932, Page 6

GRAND OPERA SEASON

PREPARATIONS IN SYDNEY.

SINGERS HARD AT WORK

WELDINGTON, January 19

Well known in musical circles throughout New Zealand, Miss Nellie Black (Mrs J. W. A. Prentice), who for the laist five years has made her home in Sydney, arrived by the Ulimaroa to-day on a visit to the Dominion. With her is her mother, who has come to New Zealand to participate in the seventieth • anniversary celebrations of the Riverton School, of which she is a former pupil. “Music is coming back; the peopfe are getting tired of canned music, Mrs Prentice remarked in an interview. As far as Sydney is concerned, she said, the biggest musical movement at present was the preparation which was being made for the Grand Opera season which is to coincide \\ itn the opening of the Harbour Bridge. All the best trained singers in Sydney were hard at work. Arrangements were being made for the selection of twelve Italian principals.

A recent movement that had been | successful in Sydney was the formation of the New Zealand Womens Association. It was stated two years ago and now had a membership of nearly 200. The first president was Mrs Stanley Hampton, formerly of Wellington. Another prominent figure in the association’s activities was sister M’Donald formerly of Christchurch. The association’s aim is to have its own club room so that New Zealanders who visit Sydney will feel' that they have somewhere to go-