Music
[COVENT GARDEN OPERA.]
Miss EvA TURNER is an English singer. Her success, there- fore, has reflected more than ordinary glamour. Howbeit, in the workings of the Covent Garden machinery, her nation. ality is no more than an incident. We should be in grave error if we imagined that her arrival points to some funda- mental change in the official outlook. In the high places there is the same mistrust of our native performers, and it can be safely assumed that any English singer who has come through the Covent Garden ordeal is an altogether exceptional artist. Miss Turner is certainly that. Her singing of Turandot will remain as one of the most impressive of my operatic memories. She encompassed this extremely difficult part with no sign of misgiving, and her voice rang as clearly at the end as at any other time. I have heard complaints that she varies her quality too little ; but the role of Turandot calls for a firm, steady, relentless stream of tone, so that the signifi- cance of the character may be conveyed. There is a point in the second act where the vocal line becomes almost lyrical for a moment. Miss Turner marked this change, I thought, with great subtlety.
She is not- the only British artist who has sung successfully at Covent Garden this year. Another. notable instance is Margherita Sheridan, whose Mimi was a very attractive performance. Both these singers have had equally fine successes on the Continent, and it is chiefly because of these that they are now to be heard in the national opera-house of their own country. The fact that they are exceptional estab- lishes even more firmly the rule that our own singers are still either inferior or unrecognized.
BASIL MAINE.
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