OPERA STARS ARRIVE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 466, 28 May 1948, Page 7

OPERA STARS ARRIVE

HE other day there arrived by air from England two very crushed hats, one an expensive line in smart male headgear, the other a frivolous piece of femininity adorned with two large pom-poms, and a Listener reporter was given a vivacious rendering of their history-told in cockney, Yorkshire and standard English-when he called at 1YA’s studio to interview their owners, the operatic stars Janet Howe and Arthur Servent, who have come to New Zealand to play the leading roles in the NZBS production of Carmen. Both singers give the lie to the standard conception of an operatic star. Instead of being fair, fat, forty and stolid, Miss Howe is dark, slim, young, Vivacious, full of fun, and with the added attraction of a chic "new look" outfit would turn the most jaundiced male eye in her direction. Arthur Servent has an accent as is expected of an operatic tenor, but it is the homely accent of Yorkshire instead of that of a foreign country, and in place of excitability there is quiet friendliness and good humour. Having roguishly imitated Servent’s Yorkshire and another traveller’s cockney in telling the sad story of the hats, Janet Howe gave the Listener some details of her career. Traditional Interpretation She has played the role of Carmen 68 times, and, as she is to appear 32 times in New Zealand, at her last Auckland concert she will celebrate her 100th performance. She was coached for the part by Zelie de Lussan, one of the five most famous Carmens ("and still a remarkable woman though she is over 80") in the old traditional interpretation of Carmen as a girl of youth and charm instead of as a vulgar person. Miss Howe first played Carmen at the Albert Hall last April and was singing twice weekly until shortly before she left to come to the Dominion. Although this is her first visit, Miss Howe knows something of New Zealand, for several New Zealanders, including

Cecilia Keating, Colin Horsley and Denis Dowling, were at the Royal College of Music with her and she has also sung with Oscar Natzka. She looks forward to the tour with only one. regret. That is that coming to the Dominion meant turning down a Promenade engegement. Miss Howe naturally has an affection for the "Proms," for she was, she understands, the last protege of the late Sir Henry Wood and just before leaving England she gave a talk to the Prom Circle describing how Sir Henry had helped her with her career. Another famous musical figure who had _ helped her, in this case indirectly, was Clara Butt, who had left money to send outstanding students

rs to Italy. She had been the only one so far to benefit from this fund, Miss Howe stated, because the war had curtailed its use. "It’s a curious thing, in view of having had this assistance, that I should be destined to be connected ‘with the song Clara Butt so often sang, ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’ I concluded the C. B. Cochrane show ‘Seventy Years of Song,’ in which everyone took part, with ‘Land of Hope and Glory,’ and I sang it in a concert the Sunday before D-Day and again at a VE-Day concert." Miss Howe arrived in England from Italy the Saturday before war was declared and during the war sang for the troops, in shelters, and in factories. She also took part in concerts and broadcasting. Recently in between performances of Carmen she had played a small role in a technicolour film, Saraband for Dead Lovers. As a Spanish gipsy in a theatre sequence she sings the theme song "Folie d’Espagne." The costuming and set were magnificent, Miss Howe added. The film had not yet been released in England, so it would probably be some while before it was screened here. Husband Visited N.Z. Opera was very popular in England at the present time, and there were plenty of good. British opera singers, though they were discouraged by the retention of the old theory that the "imported article" is better. At one small town in the pottery district at which she played the crowd was sp much larger than the capacity of the little theatre that the police had to be called out to restore order. Miss Howe’s husband, George Hancock, is also an opera singer and is at present touring in South Africa. He sang in musical comedy in New Zealand before the war. When she returns to England Miss Howe has engagements for a Royal Choral Society Concert, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, at the Albert Hall, and for the Swansea Festival.

IN Arthur Servent modestly told The Listener that he was not really intended for a professional singer, for "it takes "a lot of money for training and I come from a quite humble family." So for many years he, was earning a living "dealing with hundreds of thousands of bales of New Zealand wool" for the Bradferd market and later in the export machinery trade which also was’ con« cerned with the New Zealand market. Meanwhile he was singing in the Bradford Cathedral choir both as a boy soprano and as a tenor. "I was born and bred on oratorios and the sacred music of the Church of England," he commented. And he was also taking part in amateur musical shows, including leading roles in ambitious productions-~ such as Merrie England, Mikado, Gondoliers, Desert Song, Student Prince, Good-night Vienna, Blossom Time and Three Musketeers-staged by the Bradford Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society. As a fresult of being heard in Messiah, he was approached by the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company which he joined in 1941, remaining with the company until 1945, during which time he gave 400 performances in operatic roles. Then followed 14 months as the tenor in Song of Norway and since then he has been free-lancing, After the invasion of Europe, Servent went over with an ENSA party to play for the troops-work he had also done in England during the war-and in. the course of this tour gave a concert to an audience which he will never for« get-the surviving inmates of Belsen concentration camp. Mr. Servent concluded the interview by saying that he was looking. forward to meeting and playing with amateur singers during the New Zealand tour, is own amateur experience had been a godsend to him on October 4, 1941, when he played his first professional role and he had "a very healthy respect for amateurs." _