Connecticut western news., 1922-06-08
OPENING CONCERT AN
 ...-.., INSPIRING EVENT
(Continued from page D

l hall would never for moment think him anything but tenor. He him. ! self explains this by the almost un- broken high pitch of the music he was called on to sing Tuesday even ing but if he sang the lowest note in his register his voice would still be as tenor as Bonci's. If I am alone in this assertion, very we'll then, l am alone. At any rate, tenor CT baritone he sang his very delicate parts in "The 'Beatitudes" with per feet feeling and color and sustained we'll his less important work in the following cantata.
 Singing of Florence Hinkle
 Of the other parts in "The Beati- i tudes" the soprano was sung by Florence Hinkles (Mrs. Herbert Witherspoon) Madame 'Hinkle is to- day undoubtedly the leading oratorio singer of the country, place in which her perfect voice and Yocali- zation as well as her, experience and literary knowledge leave her beyond i comparison. rrf/Cyt - Perfect support for Madame Hin kle's' work was given Tuesday night, as it is on all of the many occasions when they appear together, by Merle Alcock, the leading contralto. Madame Alcock's position in Ameri- can music is growing higher by leaps and bounds every year. Of her voice no better description can be given than that in the reviews last season, when it was said that hers was one of those almost non-existing contralto voices which is neither masculine nor gutteral It is in short perfect l voice which merely happens to be contralto backed by beautiful musi- cal senseand ambition and by ex- quisite dramatic qualities rare in oratorio. When Madame Alcock and 1 Madame Louise Homer Stires sang the descriptive duet *.
 "Moon and flower and butterfly,
 Earth and Heaven went drifting. by" it was one of the prettiest things ever. seen in Norfolk, both singers being graced by youth and beauty and exquisite voices, swaying per fectly in the sense of the lines.
 HamIIn s FIne Singing
 That George Hamlin, the tenor, is mentioned so late in this report is due purely to accident. MT. Hamlin is an old friend of Norfolk audiences who are we'll in a position to know 1 that his very pure tenor voice was never stronger or in better quality than it is this year. Like Madame Hinkle, MT. Hamlin has a deep and 1 wide knowledge of oratorio work and must be great source of strength i to a choral conductor.
 The two other singers in "The Be- 1 attitudes" were both young and both I newcomers, being Elizabeth Bonner contralto, and Raymond Frank, ten or. Miss Bonner had only a short passage descriptive of '"The Mother" in which to display a melodious and well cultivated voice while MT. i Frank had no solo work but sang only inthe ensembles of the principles. One of the fine features in "The Beatitudes" was the singing of Fred 1 Patton, whose fine voice carried the 1 descriptive passages in Satan" ] His voice was rich in quality and 1 developed all the dramatic possibili- ! ties of the passages.
 Of the chorus work it is difficult i to speak without giving a running l commentary on both works. I per sonally have lived for years with the ambition to write a review of an oratprio in which no mention was made of the word attack, thing, believe, never done by living re- viewer and this is probably my oppor- tunity for neither of the works pre- sented Tuesday evening of kind in which such thing is important. The important thing in both cases is the continued sweetness and delicacy of appreciation with which such a large chorus was able to read two such long and beautiful texts. And this is not saying that the technical fea- lures were not perfectly accomplish ed. I simply wish not to spoil a