A Tie-Pin From MELBA and a Voice Like a Gift from THE GODS

Radio Record, Volume X, Issue 3, 24 July 1936, Page 6

A Tie-Pin From MELBA and a Voice Like a Gift from THE GODS

shaped rather like a bishop’s mitre, look more closely. You will find that the mitre idea is really a decorative M. On the left of the centrestroke are the letters DL, and on the right, BA. Then, if you haven’t been asked by the owner of: this tiepin to move on, raise your eyes, and you’ll find yourself looking Browning Mummery.in the face, If he likes the look of you this popular Australian tenor will explain that the pin was a gift from Dame Nellie Melba in appreciation for the performance of Browning Mummery in "La Boheme" with the great prima donna at a Covent Garden farewell the night the King and Queen were present, I you see in the next -few weeks a quaint tie-pin

But Browning Mummery doesn’t carry his personality in a tie-pin. A tenor with such an enviable career, particularly in opera, has to have more than just a fine voice, Listeners to 2YA and 1YA by now have been treated to several broadcast performances by this artist, who has provided sufficient variety of well-sung operatic and ballad numbers to convince those unacquainted with him that the brand of fame has been burnt into his name with good reason. He admits that he started work as quite an ordinary | young fellow i Melbourne -he was originally an engineer’s apprentice. He had just finished his "time" when an early FullerGonzales Opera Company disbanded in Australia, leaving a bass and a couple of tenors in Melbourne, These men decided to form a company of their own. A cousin of the young Mummery’s suggested that the budding engineer should let the Italians -try out his voice with a-view to joining . them. The. test. was- sue cessful, but the young fellow was canny about leaving a jeb. ‘for ‘the chance of a. living in singing. He had a little leave due — to him, and his manager was sympathetic toward musical affairs, so the latter offered to keep the job upen for the engineer-cum-tenor. But after two weeks, an influ-

enza epidemic broke out, and the singer returned: to his bolts and nuts. When the epidemic was over, J. CO. Williamson took over the ¢gompany, and Mummery

said farewell to engineering. in small parts he toured New Zealand. His first principal part was undertaken when the company. was.in Auckland in 1919-20. From here he went to England in opera, receiving engagements there with the National Opera Company, 2 co-operative concern. For four years he toured Bngland, and did seasons of opera. in London, all the time building up his repntation and improving his work generally, Dventually he joined a company with Dame Nellie Melba. With the great soprano he _ toured Australia and Ameriea in 1928. In the United States he spent four years singing in concert work and broadeasts, two years of whith were with the N.B.C. in Chicago. Since then he has been in opera in London, in performances for the British Broadcasting Corporation, thence to. Australia about two years ago. From Australia he has come to New Zealand. — "Qpera is always interestr ing," remarked the tenor .to a "Radio Record" representative. "There are so many things which might happen during a show, and even if we do the same operas time after time, it is. not as dull as having to perform in just the one show for weeks and months .on end. Noel Coward seems to be one of those who tire of

‘playing the same thing for too long, and he ig fortunate enough to be able to afford leaving a show." At many an odd hour during (Continued on page 18),

PETE TEU SETH TEE TE Te UP te TEE EEE EEE Eb | UL EDT EOE i ETE SE tit Ht iE Chummery Mummery BELow is a poetic tribute to Browning Mummery ‘by Percy Merriman in the "‘Radio Times" (London) just before the tenor left for Australia. The ingenious writer could hardly have dug.more rhymings out of the alphabet! : Come troll me @ ballad of Browning Mummery Gallant and debonair, bright and. summery. Music for him must never be: strummeryBach is the fellow for. Browning Mummery. He doesn’t care for tunes tum-tummery-Bit of @ highbrow is Browning Mummery. Not that he scorns a melody hummeryModern the culture of Browning Mummery. But it must not be sugar and plumeryFor the critical ear of Browning Mummery. Rather likes opera-not at all slumberyA touch of Beau Brummell for Browning Munmery. He doesn’t work by rules of thumberyBold and bizarre is Browning Mummery. Diction delightful-not at all gummeryFree open'methods for Browning Mummery. Gifts mediocre leave him numberyArt with an A for Browning Mummery. Oheery and. volatile-he’s never glummery--Looks on the bright side, does Browning Mummery. Fond of the lassies, but never yum-yummery-_. Broth of a. boy is. Browning Mummery. Never a trace. of fribble or flummerySolid thé structure of Browning Mummery.’ So here’s to an artist chippy and chummeryAnd the glorious name of Browning Mummery. Born in the land alt wattle and gummeryThe pride of Australia is Browning Mummery. \ UM oUt Me eM mM Me ce eT tt PU EE EET TEEPE EER PCE EE EOE EERE EEE ESC SL Gee TE St tit SUP STE EGP OEE OP IT PO Ee Le UL pis te

cout gumed Browning Mummery, Australian Tenor (Continued from page 6.) the day a visitor to the 2YA studios while Browning Mummery was in Wellington might have seen the broad back -or even the pleasant, good-hnmoured face-of the tenor ag he rehearsed to the piano accompaniment of Mrs, Mummery, who usually plays for him in studio recitals, Both of these Australians are keen to see a lot of New Zealand, and it wasn’t long before they were occasionally setting out of a morning for a trip up the valley or the coast from Wellington.