Success in Britain

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 804, 17 December 1954, Page 30

Success in Britain

HE young New Zealand tenor Leslie Andrews, with a full diary of BBC engagements to occupy him meanwhile, joins the famous Carl Rosa Opera Company soon after Christmas for a tour of the British Isles. In an exclusive interview for The Listener, Leslie told me that he would sing the plum role of Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Barber of Seville throughout the Carl Rosa tour. He’s no stranger to opera, as two years with an opera group in London, after he left the Royal College of Music, was followed by a provincial opera tour. More recently, while singing in La Bohéme at Nottingham, he had one of those experiences which almost convulse the cast-and would certainly send the audience into near-hysterics if it suspected the truth. "It was the last act of La Bohéme. where Mimi the heroine is supposed to be dying of consumption," Leslie said. "We had just placed her, nicely and gently, on a couch, when one of the legs of the couch dropped off. I, as Rudolph the poet, could do nothing but kneel at her side and support the couch as best I was able until somebody else slipped something under it. (continued on next page)

But when a member of the chorus surreptitiously produced an old iron saucepan to do the job, you can imagine what it was like for me-trying to maintain the heartbroken expression proper for Mimi’s deathbed!" Leslie Andrews had the distinction of appearing before the Queen in this year’s Command Performance. BBC shows in which he has sung during the past two and a half years include Vic. Oliver’s This Is Show Business, the series for young Commonwealth artists called How Do You Do? Music for You, and the immensely popular Mid-day Music Hall, which is produced by an Australien, Trafford Whitelock. He has also appeared in an Arthur Askey programme. Back in 1945, Leslie gained his first stage experience with the now legendary Kiwis concert party. Then, after singing lessons from Sydney Conservatorium teacher Roland Foster, he broadcast from practically every Australian major radio station. He also appeared in a production of the Smetana opera The Bartered Bride. Then, as holder of a New Zealand Rebate Bursary, he came to Britain in 1948. Three years at the Royal College of Music set the seal on what is proving a career of which New Zealand can be very proud,

MARJORIE

PLUNKETT

(London)