Subscription Concerts at Dunedin

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 718, 17 April 1953, Page 6

Subscription Concerts at Dunedin

» en s ‘THIS year, for the first time, Dunedin ‘concertgoers will be able to buy subscription tickets: for the National Orchestra’s six winter-season concerts. ‘The tickets mean an overall reduction of about 20 per cent in the cost of admission, as well as relieving holders of the necessity for queueing to book for each performance. Subscribers hold the same seat for each concert, but the tickets are transferable. The move brings Dunedin into line with the other three main centres. Mail application for tickets will be received at. the Dunedin booking office during the week beginning May 4, and personal applications during the week beginning May’ 11. From May 18 seats for the first two concerts will be open for booking in the ordinary way. Of particular interest to Dunedin people will be the appearance of a local attist at the first subscription concert on Mey 25. She is Dora Drake, a Dunedi 'yric soprano who has been studyrf

ing in London under Roy "Henderson for the past three years, and is at present en route to New Zealand. She will sing "Breeze of the Night," from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and the "Countess Aria" from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. While in London Miss Drake sang 10 performances of the leading soprano role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and .seven performances as Leonora in Verdi’s 11 Trovatore at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. She has also given concert and oratorio performances in the provinces. Up to five days before embarking for New Zealand, on March 26, she was at Derby, singing the part of Marguerita in a concert version of Gounod’s Faust. In addition to her Dunedin appearance, Miss Drake will take part in an operatic concert by the National Orchestra at Auckland on June 13. This has been arranged by the NZBS in conjunction with the Auckland Music

Council as part of Auckland’s Music Festival.

Five other solo artists will appear with the National Orchestra during the Dunedin subscription series. At the second concert, on May 26, the New Zealand violinist Alan Loveday will perform Mozart’s Concerto in A Major, No. 5. Mina Foley, the Auckland soprano who made such an impression during this year’s Promenade Concerts, and Maurice Clare, formerly leader of the Boyd Neel String Orchestra, will* perform at the July 18 and July 21 concerts respectively. Miss Foley will sing the "Bell Song" from Delibes’s Lakme, and "Ernani Involami" from Verdi’s Ernani, and Maurice Clare will perform with the orchestra Beethoven’s Concerto in D, Opus 61. The Chinese bass Yi Kwei Sze and the New Zealand pianist Peter Cooper will be the solo artists at the two final concerts of the season on September 22 and September 24.