To Sing With Orchestra

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 18

To Sing With Orchestra

) ‘THOSE popular. Australian singers, Linda Parker (soprano) and Ronald Dowd (tenor), will be back in New Zealand this week to appear with the | National Orchestra in Auckland, Well- | ington and Christchurch, to give studio recitals, and to sing in the Royal Well- | ington Choral Union’s presentation of | Merrie England. They. were here together at the beginning of last year | when they "sang with the National Orchestra in the 1953 Proms series. _Ronald Dowd was also here earlier this year as principal tenor of the Australian National Opera Company, when he scoréd an outstanding personal success during the Company s New Zealand tour. The first appearance in their current tour will be with the Royal Wellington Choral Union this Saturday, October 2, when the Union's performance of Ed- | ward German’s Merrie England will be | broadcast by 2YA from the Wellington ) Town Hall, starting at 8.0 p.m. At 8.15 p.m. this -Sunday, October 3, Linda | Parker will be heard over a link of the _ YA stations in a studio recital of songs | at the piano. These are traditional songs, and the programme will include a Chopin waltz played by Miss Parker, who is also a talented pianist. At 8.15 p.m. on Sunday, October 10, Ronald Dowd will be heard in a studio recital from the linked YA _ stations, singing arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and _ Il Seraglio. Both will appear with the National Orchestra in Auckland on October 14, | when they will sing excerpts from | Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Massenet’s Manon. The first half of the concert will be broadcast from a YC link on October 16 and October 22, and from a YA link on October 17 and October 24. In these they will sing operatic solos and duets, and excerpts from Oratorio. Two further appearances with the National Orchestra, at Wellington on October 20, and at Christchurch on October 26, will /also be broadcast from linked YC stations (the second half of the concert on October 20 and the first half on October 26). Each artist is also recording one recital for delayed broadcast; Linda Parker will sing folk songs to guitar accompaniment and Ronald Dowd Italian songs. J Linda Parker was born in Australia and originally set out on a.career as a

pianist, studying with »Motte-Lacroix. She changed to singing! on the advice of the late Albert Roussel, and studied lieder in Leipzig with Elena Gerhardt. In 1942 she joined the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company and sang Mimi in La Boheme, and in 1945 she toured Germany with the -Covent Garden Opera Company. She has sung more than 300 times in opera as leading soprano, in Europe and Australia. Ronald Dowd, a robust tenor with a big voice that he isn’t afraid to use, has been for some years principal tenor with the National Opera Theatre, Melbourne, and the National Opera Company of Australia. He was a member of the A.I.F. for four years during the war, and afterwards visited Japan to entertain the troops in concert parties.