Musical tour revisited from 100 years ago
In 1922 and 1923 Blenheim-born soprano Rosina Buckman made a triumphant homecoming tour, bringing with her cellist, Adelina Leon, and pianist-composer Percy Kahn.
Rosina’s farewell concert in London was to an audience of 10,000 in the Royal Albert Hall.
Her tour began in Wellington on May 15, 1922, and ended in March the following year, after more than 110 performances across New Zealand and Australia. New Zealanders couldn’t get enough of their homegrown singing superstar.
In 2022 and 2023, a century after the original tour, Hammers & Horsehair duo Douglas Mews (piano) and Robert Ibell (cello) join forces with well-known Wellington soprano
Rowena Simpson to reimagine Rosina’s homecoming.
The musical items in this lively concert are interspersed with anecdotes from the 1922-23 tour, comparing touring life then and now and incorporating personal history.