Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-12-05
Ellen Beach YaW Heard In Songs
Which Exhibit Her Vocal PrOWess
Cooraura Soprano Of Astonishing Range Wins Applause Of
AUdence-HaWaian Music Featured in Evenings Program

: Gonciu!g NJ. .C-.o} ors had an OF
poztln.ty last 0iEht 10 !ldCe 10: them
selves that all that has Ueen written
OF the Wonderful cox Tdt4ra wOrk OF
Ellen Beach Yaw is ) .stif!ed. Before
an audience which did not IN Mission
Memorial hail in number but did fill
it again and again with applause, the
8T ling ard graceful LAX Ellen ap'
pearel in the first Of TWO recitals
which will serve to crystalline locally
the admiration possible before only
through reading the accounts OF main
land and European tTiUmphs.
The ia l0us singers first number
gave the audience an mixing OF what
was in store for ii. and IL IaCt, that
opening o.o. the Indian Bell Song,
BY Dcntes. was hardly cXCc!Iod dur
ing the evening.
The singers astonishing flights Of
meIodv. her tri,Is,, carols AMI caden-
zas exhibited 70 lis best effect a voca!
instrument whose range mas been
the wonder not only Of musicians but
% physioloqists. Without apparent
effort her voice reaches an octave
higher than most sopranos even dare
to attempt in public exhibitions. And
the outspoken merit of this voice is
that its notes seem to gain in sweet
ness, purity and flexibility as they
rise.
Beginning with the Bell song, whose
whose unkling notes were reproduced
with rare fidelity, Miss Yaw followed
with four dainty little numbers Of the
ballad type, 'of which al Primo
Amore" contains several sparkling
passages which she tossed off with
brilliancy, and ended the quartet with
Auber's unique Laughing Song (Ma-
nom In this her voice and the light
staccato notes Of the piano under Mr..
Frank Moss skilful fingers, were
scarcely distinguishable the one from
the other. Never has a singer been
heard here whose voice so closely APP
proximated not merely the pitch and
the tone but the actual quality of
piano music.
And of course the audience burst
into warmest applause. when her own
composition, The Skylark," with its
bubbling ecstasy Of melody, was CIV
en-.
In contract to these lyrical compo-
sitions was her closing number, the
Mad Scene from Hamlet, in which the
distraught Ophelia, in the Thomas
musical version, pours out in song
her deraAsed fanctes in a scene
which concentrates the tenderest
pathos of the entire Shakespear.
can play. This scene served to bring
out Miss Yaw's dramatic ability and
power Of transferring tragedy into
her particularly musical realm, and
her rendition was given the hcartieSt
applause of the evening. She appear
ed in the traditional Ophelia night.
dress, scattering flowers in her wan
dering phantasms.
A special part OF the program was
that devoted to Hawaiian numbers.
Miss Yaw herself appeared with Ell.
nest Kaai and six singing girls in
Kaai's composition "Keonaona. . Fla.
waii has had e. good many exper-
fences with visiting singers who at
tempt Hawaiian songs under the i'm
preston that 1t will be a popular
IuluS 10 w. anu WIZ SIuulUlS 50 over
the pronunciations that their efforts
are ludicrous. Such attempts are of.
ten SO far outside the singers ability
that they inevitably injure the gener-
al performance. 1t is due to Miss Yaw
to say that she appears in her short
stay to have mastered this song with
unusual success and the applause
which greeted it was deserved. The
six singing girls were:
Mrs. R. N. Mossman, Mrs. E. H.
Boyd, Miss Lizzie Akana, Miss Louise
Copp, Miss Kuualoha Akana, Miss
Helene Refs.
Further exhibiting the Hawaiian
feature, Mr. kaai played two ukuleIe
solos, Mascagni's intermezzo from
"Cavalleria Rusticana" and Beethov-
ems familiar "Minuet" with really re-
markable dexterity and then the pat.
riotic popular hit, "Ove9 There" dis.
playing the variety of use to which
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