MUSIC
New Voices at Sadler's Wells
READERS of my remarks upon the Sadler's Wells Opera a week ago may have discerned in them a certain gingerliness, a reluctance to quench with too brusque a tread such sparks as there were in the flax. I am the more delighted to add a postscript of more forth- right enthusiasm after hearing two newcomers to the company in a performance of Rigoletto. Since Mr. Redfern Llewellyn returned from service in the R.A.F. the company's performances in this opera have tantalised us with a first-rate Rigoletto unsupported by voices capable of balancing his in the ensembles. Now Mr. Clive Carey has brought in a soprano from Australia and a tenor—and when I say a tenor, I mean a tenor—from Ireland, who can hold their own with Mr. Llewellyn's baritone, with the natural result that his own performance was all the better. Miss Vera Terry is the most promising debutante I have heard for a very long time. Her voice is true and even ; it has carrying power at its quietest, and ample reserves of tone. I am not given, as a rule, either to prophecy or to comparisons, but I will say that her singing of Gilda's music may well have resembled what the audience of the Theatre de la Monnaie heard when another young Australian, a certain Mrs. Armstrong, made her first appearance there sixty years ago. For I imagine that at that date Melba's voice had not yet acquired its later technical perfection and had not been com- pletely blanched by old Mme. Marchesi.
Miss Terry has still a lot to learn that can only be learnt by practical experience and hard work. She must, for instance, obey the conductor in matters of tempo ; if she disagrees with him, let them settle their difference beforehand, off the stage. In this instance I thought Mr. Goodall in the right. Her coloratura is at present mechanical, the detached phrases in " Caro nome " sounding like an exercise carefully executed. But the notes were correct and bell-clear in quality. All that is needed is a little flexibility and freedom. As to acting, Miss Terry has a good presence and moves naturally ; and, moreover, she knows how to keep still.
The new tenor is Mr. James Johnston, who stepped in at the last moment to replace a singer smitten with influenza. Although he had, I am told, sung the part with the company only during their tour of Germany, he entered into the performance with the gusto of the daring young man on the flying trapeze, who takes all manner of chances and mercifully does not fall to the ground—a grand, full- blooded display of real tenor tone. Mr. Johnston was ill rewarded by fortune on the following evening, when he sang Rudolph in La Boheme. For his poetical composition was interrupted by a Mimi who was literally a complete stranger, the singer with whom he had rehearsed having also fallen ill. So one must not scan his perform- ances too closely. But, when every allowance is made, it is evident that Mr. Johnston is as yet far from accomplishment as an actor. No, do not, Mr. Johnston ; saw the air with your hand thus! What matters, however, is that Sadler's Wells has recruited a ringing tenor who, with the acquisition of more subtle light and shade, will be able to do all the acting required of lyric tenors, even if Mr. Johnston fails to achieve a histrionic technique.
DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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