FROM WAGNER TO WALTZING MATILDA.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 309, 25 May 1945, Page 5

FROM WAGNER TO WALTZING MATILDA.

Sir-Some days ago I settled down into a comfortable chair, and, with an anticipatory smack of the lips, prepared to enjoy what was announced as "A short recital by Marjorie Lawrence." There are very few people who sing Wagner really well, and Miss Lawrence is one of them. I wondered what she would sing. There were those two grand recordings of hers from "The Valkyrie," and that aria of Elsa’s from "Lohen-grin’-but I forgot-Miss Lawrence is an Australian. She sang "Waltzing Matilda"! This she followed with some drivelling ballad whose name_I have forgotten, but which somehow brought back memories of Sunday School concerts. But what surprised me more than the ctiminal waste of a great voice was the fact that she didn’t sing either of them very well, indeed, not half so well as the young Aussie who once shared my tent, and gave a nightly performance of "Waltzing Matilda" and "The Road to Gundagai’"’ on his return from the wet canteen. True, they were his entire repertoire, but his renderings were much more convincing than those of his great compatriot. There are dozens of similar examples. There is Gracie Fields, a first-class commedienne,’ whose recording of "Ave Maria" is anything but humorous. It’s pathetic. And of course there’s Mr, Crosbie, good old Bing, the only crooner who doesn’t give me an attack of war neurosis, and he needs must sing "Holy Night." Nor are the great ones guiltless. I can remember once writhing in agony while Elisabeth Schumann swooped and scooped and howled her way through that lovely old ballad "The Banks of Allan Water." Indeed, my feelings so got the better of me that I bet some of my friends half-a-crown then and there that I could sing it better myself. I didn’t win my bet, but you may judge the worth of the recording when I tell you that they gave me six. pence and the odd sausage roll at supper time. And I could mention Gigli, whose rendering of "Ombra mai fa" evoked from an old gentleman who was listening ‘the mild remark: "I don’t know what you thought, but I didn’t like it, and I don’t think Handel would have liked it

either." |

EULENSPIEGEL

, (Kelburn).