AUSTRALIA'S LEADING TENOR TO SING IN TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume IV, Issue 192, 30 September 1955, Page 1

AUSTRALIA'S LEADING TENOR TO SING IN TAUPO

The concert to be given in the War Memorial Hall on Thursday, October 13, by Australia's leading tenor, Ronald Dowd, will be one of the highlights of the year. Dowd's rise to top rank has been a veritable success story. Starting work -in a bank, he joined the Arrny in 1941. He had already had considerable experience in singing, both as an amateur and a professional, and after the war decided to make singing his career. He has worked under such conductors as Gelliera, Sir Bernard Heinze, Eugene Goosens and Sir John Barbirolli. He has performed in a wide range of operas, and sang the title role in the opera "Hugh The Drover" at the recent Auckland Festival. In his present tour under the auspices of the Community Arts Service, the Taupo branch of which has arranged the Taupo visit, he builds iiis programme round the better known arias from the operas in his repertoire. Mr Dowd's popularity springs not only from his fine voice and musiciansliip but also from the fact that he is that rarity among tenors, one who is perfectly at home in any songs from ballad to grand opera and who is equally at ease on stage or concert platform, with a winning way of putting things over.