Grand Opera

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 368, 31 May 1928, Page 14

Grand Opera

GONSALEZ COMPANY TO OPEN NEW ZEALAND TOUR IN JUNE BRILLIANT ASSEMBLY To Invercargill is given the honour of the premier New Zealand opening of the Fuller-Gonsalez Grand Italian Opera tour. Happily, a Melbourne to Bluff service fits in with the desires of Fuller’s Theatres, Ltd., and at the conclusion of the present Melbourne season (which incidentally has so far proved a repetition of the phenomenal Sydney results) the company will embark on the Manuka direct for New Zealand, opening at the Municipal Theatre, Invercargill, on Monday, June

Approximately 100 people will travel with the company, including their own wardrobe attendants, mechanists, electricians, etc. All the original scenery, wardrobe and lighting effects will be produced as at the Scala Theatre, Milan, the home of the griat operatic productions.

The company includes the most brilliant assembly of famous opera stars ever brought together for a season of opera. An orchestra of 20 performers (many of whom accompanied the great artists in the big Italian theatres) will be conducted by two of the Gonsalez brothers, Signor G. and E. Gonsalez.

Among the principals are Rosita Silvestri, Olga Poletti, Margherita Flor A. Mazza (sopranos), Nina Algozino, M. Primmer (mezzo-so-pranos), Allesandro Rota, Brandisio Vannucei, Signor Garuti, A. Golardi, G. Gilson, A. Tambourini (tenors), France Izel, Francesco Frederic! (baritones), Signor Fumagelli, C. Zambelli, A. Alfieri (basses) and L. Borroni (principal solo dancer). A magnificent grand opera chorus and ballet complete one of the greatest and biggest opera combinations ever brought to this country.

Heifetz was the soloist at the last concerts of the 1927-28 season of the New York Symphony Society on March 30 and April 1. The great Brahms concerto, recently recorded for H.M.V. by Kreisler and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, was one of his numbers.