BERMINGHAM FROM BIRMINGHAM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 31, 26 January 1940, Page 9

BERMINGHAM FROM BIRMINGHAM

His Ancestor Founded a City: He Left Home to Sing Tall, hazel-eyed, brown haired, athletic, is Frank Bermingham from Birmingham, whose karitone voice has earned him a.job for some years with opera companies in Australia. He has recently been heard over 2YA, and will broadcast from that station on Wednesday, January 31. It was the Berminghams, his ancestors, only they had a Norman name in those days, who founded the city of Birmingham, chief seat of British metal manufacturers and great hardware centre for the world, LTHOUGH no date can be given to the A founding, it was probably after the Saxon conquest of Mercia; and for centuries Birmingham was no more than a collection of huts round the manor house. The early spelling was "Bermingham," and it formed one of the large possessions given ‘by William the Conqueror to the Paganel family. The little place was given in tenure to Paganel’s steward, who adopted its name. The old estate was given to the Earl of Dudley by Henry VIIL., Art Preferred The most recent generations of the family prefer art to town-founding. Frank Bermingham’s father is a sculptor, both his father and elder sister are good musicians, and every member of the family can either play an instrument or sing. Frank Bermingham was educated at Cotton College, in the lovely country of North Staffordshire. The college, which goes back to the early seventeen hundreds, is one of the oldest Catholic schools in England. There he studied piano, violin, and singing as a boy soprano. His original intention was to be an oculist, but a friend’s descriptions attracted him to Australia when the slump was just beginning, and he found that there was " nothing doing." So came the decision to go on the stage. His: first job was with Fullers. "Of course," we said in our interview, "stage life is far more interesting than pupils and irises and things, isn’t it?" "Well," he replied with a laugh, "irises and pupils and retinas are a lot more secure!" No Funny Business In one respect, at any rate, Frank Bermingham is unique among stage-folk. Most of them cannot tell you fast enough the extraordinarily hilarious happenings with which their lives have been filled ("Too, too screamingly funny for words, my dear"). But Mr. Bermingham from Birmingham just smiles quietly and tells you he hasn’t had anything very funny happen to him, and if it did, he’s forgotten about it, and there’s ‘too much hard work on the stage anyway for amusing experiences.

The singer married a singer. His wife — Miss Phyllis Ferguson — is a well-known coloratura soprano on the Australian stage. Mr. Bermingham’s own debut in opera was made with Fullers’ English Grand Opera Company. At first he played mainly small parts and understudied the bigger roles. With the company he played, among other roles, those of Rheinmar in "Tannhauser," the steersman in "Tristan and Isolde," the registrar in "Madame Butterfly." Then for a little an engagement in the ABC’s permanent choir kept him in Melbourne. But he returned to the stage again; this time in the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company. Here he played many parts later played by Bernard,,.Manning — but I did not play Pooh-Bah," he says with a smile. As a break from the Gilbert and Sullivan work, he did thirteen weeks broadcasting for the radio Grand Opera Company. In "Der Rheingold" he had the difficult part of the giant, Fafner. He was Antonio in the "Marriage of Figaro," Titurel in "Parsifal," and the Commandant in "Manon Lescaut" ("What a lovely opera!" he remarked). Then he rejoined the Gilbert and Sullivan Company, and toured New Zealand in 1937. One performance he remembers fondly was "Merrie England," in which he played Big Ben to Richard Watson’s Long Tom. In the last scene, the masque, he was the front legs of a dragon, John Dobbie the rear legs. And John Dobbie, as it is hardly necessary to point out, is of positively elephantine stature. You may have seen him in the last Cinesound production, "Gone to the Dogs," being mountain for George Wallace’s Mahomet!