ALFRED O’SHEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 15

ALFRED O’SHEA

IN AUCKLAND NEXT WEEK The brilliant Irish tenor, Alfred O’Shea, it is confidently claimed will enrapture his New Zealand audiences as he has enraptured others in Europe and Australia. The first concert to be given in the Town Hall on Tuesday, June 26, will abundantly demonstrate the many flattering criticisms of Mr. O’Shea’s genius from the pens of some of the foremost musical authorities of the world are well justified. Mr. O’Shea possesses a singularly sympathetic and appealing voice, the clarity of tone and depth and fervour of expression at least' rivalling, if not excelling, that of the famous tenor, Mr. John McCarmack. The highest tributes have been paid to the exceptional beauty of Mr. O’Shea’s voice and attainments. Competent critics claim that there is a unique appeal in his voice which is at once mystical and persuasively charming, and that as a singer of Irish songs he stands alone. On the occasion of a visit to the London Literary Society to the old home of Edmund Burke at Beaconsfield, now occupied by Mr. Garvin, editor of the London “Observer,'’ where Mr. O’Shea sang, G. K. Chesterton, the famous author, said: “It was a great joy to hear the spirited songs of Ireland as Mr. O’Shea inimitably sang them.” After the brief New Zealand tour Mr. O’Shea will return to Sydney to give one concert during the Eucharistic Congress week, after which he leaves direct for New York to fulfil important engagements. Lovers of grand opera, ballad and folk song who desire an artistic and thoroughly satisfying musical treat should not fail to hear Mr. O'Shea, who is supported by Miss Kathleen Fitzgerald, solo pianiste, and Miss Claire Hartge, violiniste. Box plans open at Lewis Eady, Ltd., on Thursday morning.