MISS MARION BEELEY
CONTRALTO
Of
the Royal Opera, Covent Garden,
Chappell Ballads
and Promenade Concerts, Queen’s Hall, Bristol Festival and principal Provincial
Concerts
Available for Opera, Oratoria, Ballads, &c. Address Usual Agents
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There were three things at the concert which one remembers with great pleasure…2ndly, Miss Marion Beeley’s singing of Wolfe’s “Verborgenheit” and Brahms’ delicious “Dort in den Weiden.” This was quite good, and Miss Beeley might well enter the front rank of our native contraltos.
…For the rest, the long afternoon brought abundant tributes on the vocal side to Miss Marion Beeley, a finely equipped contralto.
Miss Marion Beeley, the Erda of the “Ring” performances, is really a remarkable young artist. I heard her in Tschaikowsky’s “Durch das Feld” and Hugo Wolf’s “Verborgenheit,” both songs which make heavy demands on a singer’s musicianship and powers of interpretation. She has a voice of fine quality, and knows how to breathe, so that she does not break even the longest phrase. Her articulation is very clear. The low notes of her voice still require some strengthening, but as she is young there should be no difficulty in achieving that.
Miss Marion Beeley has a pleasant and full contralto voice, of fairly even quality in its various registers; her enunciation is quite perfect and her style is well controlled. Tschaokowsky’s “Durch das Feld” and Gounod’s “Sappho’s Farewell” were both beautifully interpreted, the artist evincing a sympathetic and poetic temperament.
Miss Marion Beeley sang a little-heard recitative and aria by Gounod, “O ma lyre immortelle,” which, we presume, is the farewell song of Sappho, from his first opera “Sappho,” which was written in 1851. The work proved ill-fitted for the stage, and an attempt to re-cast and revive it in 1884 had no better success. It was, however, refreshing to hear something by him in which the style was not blatantly sentimental but had the ring of sincerity. Miss Beeley sang it with vigour and directness of style, the last a quality we rarely hear in the singing of Gounod’s music. The aria, “Durch das Feld” by Tschaikowsky, she sang in German with alert and varied expression, which lacked only a further unifying power to have had a very fine effect indeed.
The vocalist was Miss Marion Beeley. She has a fine contralto voice of great power and much sweetness, which she controls with precision and pleasing effect. The audience recalled her for her rendering of “Open thy blue eyes” (Massenet), and her encore, “Sunshine and Butterflies,” was greeted with applause.
The contralto, Miss Marion Beeley, sang “O love from thy power” (Sampson et Delilah) Saint-Saens. The song requires great dramatic energy, and Miss Beeley proved herself a capable exponent of its demands, and it is a pleasure to note that her enunciation was exceedingly good.
In the ‘Flower Song’ from Gounod’s “Faust” by Miss Marion Beeley, we were in for a real treat of a very high order – an ideal rendering, combined with an excellently produced voice and most perfect pronounciation, not a syllable being lost to the audience. The young artiste will not be long in securing a prominent position in the musical world.
Miss Marion Beeley (a contralto who made her debut at these concerts). She has a voice of wonderful quality and is in every way a finished artiste.
Gaiety Theatre, Manchester –
“Iphigenia in Aulis” (Gluck)
The best all-round piece of work was that of Miss Marion Beeley as Clytemnestra; not only was she more than equal to all demands made upon her vocal resources, but her acting was remarkably good.
In every way Miss Marion Beeley took the first place in the performance; her impersonation of the mother’s part was vocally and dramatically very meritorious, especially in the last act, in which her work is lengthened, conspicuous and trying.
Bristol Festival, 1912 – “The Ring.” (Wagner).
The artist who showed most prominent amongst the ladies was Miss M. Beeley, whose “Fricka” was a splendid performance. She is endowed with all the attributes of success, for great gifts of expression are allied with a voice of rich texture and compass, and she should develop into a star of the first magnitude.
Miss Marion Beeley sang no less than three parts – first Norn, Flosshilde and Waltraute. In the duet with Brunhilde, as Waltraute, Miss Beeley got to the very heart of the music, and she is the first singer who, as far as our experience counts, has ever realized its great beauty. This was certainly one of the most interesting and memorable things of the Festival.
Miss Marion Beeley was excellent as Fricka.
The Fricka was again Miss Marion Beeley, a young artist who sings well. She has a bigness and confidence of style, and she ought to develop into a very good operatic artist.
Miss Marion Beeley as Fricka was unimpeachable
