A Four-Guinea Tenor

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 258, 2 June 1944, Page 14

A Four-Guinea Tenor

Melbourne Paid To Hear Him F a tenor who was virtually unknown announced a recital in the Wellington Town Hall, the price of every seat to be £4 4s, some people might get as far as weighing the satisfaction of their idle curiosity against that sum, but it seems safe enough to say that not many would get as far as paying up. In Melbourne, though, there must be people who either have plenty of guineas or very little power to resist their own curiosity. A man called Joseph Schepsi

announced such a recital, and said that as he was risking £2000 on it, he didn’t see why concertgoers shouldn't risk £4 4s a seat. Two recent consecutive copies of the Listener In, a Melbourne radio journal, gave the story with a mildly sarcastic twist. Mr. Schepsi’s advertisement carried a portrait (which we reproduce here) with an intimation that he would give a "tenor recital with orchestra under the baton of well-known Kevin Bradley," on Thursday, April 20, at 8.0 p.m. Before.... In the same issue with the advertisement appeared this account, headed "Schepsi and Sceptics, Four-guinea Tenor Tells Why": "Mr. Schepsi was interviewed by the self-styled Denbeigh (‘Scoop’) Salter, the ‘Movie Roundsman,’ in his usual Sunday session from 3AK.... "Asked what had induced him to undertake the concert, Mr. Schepsi said that ‘as well as trying to make things better for artists, he was a researcher in many things beside his voice. He was ‘No. 1 post-war planner.’ He had ‘no desire to become a politician, and had already told the Australian Press this, together with his housing plan.’ "Mr. Schepsi added that he would use his voice as a symbol, and had ‘good faith’ in regard to his audience. "He hoped the Schepsi concert would become an annual affair in every capital city of Australia, and that the artists would be highly paid. He had a very good orchestra for his concert, and the good musicians in it would be paid as they deserved. His £2000 would be spent ‘for democracy and his concert.’ "He had a good average repertoire, and new solos were being added all the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) time. His favourite aria was from ‘Martha, and his favourite tenor Beniamino Gigli. The unknown tenor concluded the interview by singing a few bars of Schubert’s ‘Thine is My Heart,’ which could scarcely be said to be a test of his virtuosity." .... After A week or so later, the next copy of the. Listener In reached us, and we looked it up to see how Mr. Schepsi had fared with his audience. This is what we found, under the heading "Instrumentalists Steal Schepsi’s Thunder": "Brilliant young 3XY pianist, Doug. Gamely, and internationally known trumpeter John Robertson, stole the show from Joseph Schepsi, when Melbourne’s ‘unknown’ tenor made his debut at the Melbourne Town Hall last week. "There were few vacant seats in the Melbourne Town Hall for this highly unusual concert ... and it says much for the good nature of the audience that Mr. Schepsi, whose confidence was in inverse ratio to his talents, was given a sympathetic reception. "The tenor has a natural lyric voice of which, given sound training and production early, something might conceivably have been made. But Mr. Schepsi has elected to be judged on what he is, and not what he might have been, and the result, musically, was almost completely negligible, despite the gallant efforts of Kevin Bradley and the Modern Symphonic Orchestra to carry the singer on their shoulders. . . ." and so on. Since then we have heard no more of Mr. Schepsi, and so far there is no indication that he will bring his expensive talents to New Zealand.