Austral Singers.

Manawatu Herald, 22 March 1902, Page 2

Austral Singers.

By advertisement in another column it will be seen that the above company appear at the Public . Hall, Foxton, next Tuesday evening. The company are all first-class musicians and are spoken very highly of from the South, where they have just arrived from. The Timaru Post says :—An excellent entertainment was given by the Austral Singers iu the Theatre Royal last evening, but the attendance was not at all commensurate with the excellence of the different items. The company, which consists of seven members, is a really good one, and the programme, without being too classical, is a most pleasing one. Each member, besides being a vocalist, is an accomplished instrumentalist.. In the concerted singing the company are very good, the voices blending well and the parts being evenly sustained. The wellknow ‘Jingle Bells’ by the company opened the entertainment, and later they gave ' Ye Banks and Braes,' and the humorous quartette ‘tSobbing,’ and a vocal imitation of the bagpipes. In the last-named item a ladv member took the pipe solo, whilethe droning was done by five other singers; and ihi» number was loudly encored. Miss Alice Appleby sang ‘ Idle Words' very well; but it is as a violinist,that she excels. Miss Lila Appleby sang very sweetly ‘Swanee River,’ with banjo accompaniment by Misses Alice and Florence Appleby. The two latter singers were also very successful in the duet ‘ Hark to the Mandoline.’! Miss Ada Appleby gave a finished rendering of the song ‘Swallows,’ and Mr Broad was equally successful in “ Out on the Deep.’ Mr Howell amused the audience with his humorous contributions and with his speech, ‘ Ten Minutes with a Musical Burglar,’ his violin items being of exceptional merit. Miss Lila Appleby played the accompaniments very tastefully, and entertainment concluded with a farcical sketch, ‘ A Story Without Words.'