Celebrities Meet

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 75, 20 June 1927, Page 7

Celebrities Meet

ALMA GLUCK GREETS HER HUSBAND, EFREM ZIMBALIST, WHEN AORANGI BERTHS.

FAMOUS SOPRANO ARRIVES “There he is!” Alma Gluck, the celebrated soprano, gave an excited cry as Efrem Zimbalist, the celebrated violinist, came up the gangway of the Aorangi yesterday afternoon. What if she did rush forward and kiss him while the other passengers looked on! Alma Gluck is Mrs. Zimbalist. “Yes, I am to meet M. Zimbalist in Sydney,” said Madame Gluck yesterday, after a SUN man had made himself known to her. “But he is here in Auckland,” said the newspaper man. Madame gave an incredulous cry. “No, he can’t be—he can’t be. I was to meet him In Sydney.” “But he is here,” persisted THE SUN man. “He is waiting to travel to Sydney with you.” MADAME IS ATTRACTIVE Madame’s big brown eyes danced with pleasure. Madame is tall and stately. Her raven hair was coiled under a close-fitting black turban, whose only decoration was a tiny jewelled dagger. She wore a white suit with a long flowing cape. Madame looked most attractive. New Zealanders have heard Alma Gluck on the gramophone. It is eight years since she sang in grand opera at the Metropolitan Grand Opera House, New York, but she still sings, though only occasionally, on the concert platform. “I thought I would slip on to the Aorangi unknown to anyone,” she said yesterday, "and come down to meet my husband. He will be away on his next tour for 18 months, so I thought I would come to Australia to ss.y au revoir.” How could anyone with the fame of Alma Gluck come from America without her admirers knowing it? MEETINGS ON THE VOYAGE At every port of call it was the same old story. Passengers on the ship soon discovered who she was. Most of them had listened to her gramophone records —some had heard her when she sang in ‘Faust,” “La Boheme,” "Pique Dame,” “Rheingold,” and the other operas in which she has starred. Everywhere there was someone to meet her. “At Fiji a tiny little girl was standing in the hot sun when I went off the ship,” said Madame. “ ‘Are you Alma Gluck?’ she asked me. When I said I was she held out ail autograph book. ‘Will you sign it, please?’ she asked. And I did. Poor mite, I don’t know how long she had been standing there.” “No, I cannot sing in opera now. I am half mother, half wife,” laughed Madame. "I spend half my time with my children and the other half with my husband.” "Madame explained that she has a son aged seven and a daughter aged eleven, and a husband who is travelling most of the time. Evidently Madame enjoys the experience of travelling on holiday. As a matter of fact she remarked that she liked being without a manager to arrange interviews and concerts and all that sort of thing. And she said that

she will come to New Zeaalnd on a concert tour later on. This time she canont sirig because she has no music with her. FAME IN A NIGHT Alma Gluck is a Roumanian, born at Bucharest, but she went to America at the age of six. She made her first appearance in New York as Sophie in “Werther,” and woke next morning to find herself famous. She told, with great glee, how she had practised the part merely to give the cues to the other singers until the arrival of the star who was to take the part of Sophie. But that star never took the role. Madame made such a success of it that she sang in the first production, which, for her, spelled fame. During that season Madame sang in 11 grand opera roles, only two of which she had previously studied. She is one of the few singers who has attained fame without European training. Her first appearance in London was in 1913. With all her fame—she has sung with Caruso and other famous men, and Zimbalist has played many of her accompaniments —Madame remains a charming, unaffected woman, who some day may sing in Auckland.