JOAN HAMMOND TOUR THIS MONTH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 380, 4 October 1946, Page 18

JOAN HAMMOND TOUR THIS MONTH

Sports Champion Who Became Prima Donna

Australian dramatic soprano, who is due to arrive in New Zealand on Friday, October 11, will, we understand, be starting her tour in her own birthplace. The Listener takes a special interest in Miss Hammond’s birthplace, and our latest advice from her agent in Australia, which tells us she was born in Christchurch, raises again the question, "When is a New Zealander a New Zealander?" HAMMOND, the famous Our own curiosity dates from.a few months ago when we printed a photograph of Miss Hammond among People in the Programmes. On. that occasion,,a note from one member of our staff fo another described her as "a former Ch. golfer." The abbreviation is commonly used in newspapers for Champion; but it found its way into The Listener as "former Christchurch golfer." Recriminations followed, and hair was torn. We hoped no one would notice and force us to admit our slip, so we said nothing. Next. we heard that an Australian paper had said she was New Zealand-born. Then, the other day, advance publicity material came to the NZBS from Miss ‘Hammond's concert agent, stating plainly that she was born in New Zealand. A cable was sent, asking if this was certain, and if so,,in what town? The reply © told us it was Christchurch. In the meantime it had happened by chance that the NZBS had decided to place Miss Hammond's first recital and broadcast in Christchurch. It is therefore no longer embarrassing for us to admit our own efror, nor proper to withhold from our readers a good office joke. Joan Hammond has a reputation today of being the greatest British dramatic soprano. Many of her magnificent recordings of fami- _ .

liar operatic arias are well-known to New = Zealand iisteners already, and ‘in Britain she has sung in _ concerts vuunder the leading conductors at Queen’s Hall and the Albert Hall, and has been a star of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She was brought up in Australia, and says she has been singing for as long as she can .remember, appearing first at school concerts in Sydney, and winning the school | singing prize every year. She was also the leading violinist in the school. When she left school, Joan Hammond went straight to the N.S.W. Conservatorium of Music, taking the violin as her primary study, and singing only secondarily. Later

this was reversed. For four years she played in the Philharmonic and Conservatorium Orchestras, and her debut as a singer was made at an Orchestral concert in Sydney in May, 1931. Soon after that, radio listeners became familiar with her voice.. All-round Excellence She sang small parts and understudied in the Imperial Grand Opera Company in 1932, and toured with it. But all this time, golf played a big part in her life, and she was known as a golfer in Australia and New Zealand. She was a member of the first Australian representative team sent overseas by the Ladies’ Golf Union. By 1935 she had -been representing her State and Australia for five years; and had been for three years on the lowest handicap" reached by a woman in Australia, At the same time, she was working also as a journalist, and seems to have had a busy working day. She started

as an "observer" on the staff of a paper in 1932, then began writing on sport for the Sydney Mail and Sydney Morning Herald, and later for the Daily Telegraph. Although golf was her specfal subject, Miss Hammond covered many other sports. Her day was completely filled by her singing practice, participation in sport, and writing for morning papers during the evenings. She also excelled in hockey, tennis, squash, and netball, and had won several swimming championships. In the middle of it all, singing was -her chief joy and her ambition. Her opportunity to advance it came when Lady Gowrie (now the Countess of Gowrie) wife of the then Governor-Gene-ral, heard her sing. Lady Gowrie heard her at the Queen Victoria Club in Sydney in 1936, and asked that Miss Hammond be presented to her. An invitation to Government House followed, and there Miss Hammond met the con(continued on next page)

ey | JOAN HAMMOND’S CONCERTS CHRISTCHURCH (Civic Theatre) TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15. DUNEDIN (His Majesty's) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17. WELLINGTON (Town Hall) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22. AUCKLAND (Town Hall) TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31.

(continued from previous page) ductor of the Viennese Boys’ Choir, which was then touring Australia. He asked what was being done about her beautiful voice, and shortly afterwards a fund was started which took her first to Vienna for study and then to Italy. Harold Holt, one of Britain’s leading impressarios, managed her concerts in England, and was in demand for concerts and operas. She sang with Richard Tauber at the Georgian Festival Concert in Queen’s Hall in 1939, singing excerpts from Mozart’s operas, After the concert, Tauber spoke of her as being "technically perfect" and "assured of a great future." Her next major engagement was to sing in Messiah at Queen’s Hall, under Sir Thomas Beecham. She has often been a star guest artist of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, having sung in Aida, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Faust, La Boheme and Tosca. During the blitz she drove an ambulance part-time, sometimes rushing to the theatre in her uniform just in time to prepare. And she toured many times for ENSA, singing for the Forces. | As guest-artist with the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company she flew ‘to Germany in September, 1945, to sing to the British Occupation Troops. There she gave an impromptu concert for some 2,000 displaced persons on the site of the former Belsen camp. Joan "Hammond’s accompanist on her tour here will be Raymond Lambert, who has toured Australia with most of the visiting overseas singers in the last ten years. He has accompanied Clara Butt, Ezio Pinza, Elisabeth Rethberg, Alexander Kipnis and the Australians, Essie Ackland, Florence Aus-, tral, and Marjorie Lawrence. He comes originally from Belgium (where his father was a concert master of leading orchestras), and. migrated to Aountralia, as a boy, with his family.