Article: SOPRANO PERFORMS TO FOCUS ATTENTION ON NEED FOR PEACE

Saturday July 16, 1988

by MARK UHLMANN

Brisbane soloist Marilyn Richardson who is participating
in tonight's World Peace Concert in Llewellyn Hall at the
Canberra School of Music. Photo: MARTIN JONES

One of Australia’s finest sopranos, Marilyn Richardson, believes that tonight’s World Peace Concert, in which she will perform, will be like a “church service on a Sunday”.

It will not directly assist the cause of world peace, but will help to focus attention on the issue and “the  more aware you are the better”.

Ms Richardson has sung in Britten’s War Requiem, the centrepiece of the concert, “many times”, but the last occasion was several years ago. She said the work, “commonly acknowledged as a modern classic…could be performed every Anzac Day, as the Messiah is performed each year…if anyone had the imagination”.

Based in Brisbane, Ms Richardson has recently completed a season of Aida for the Lyric Opera in Queensland. She is performing in War Requiem at the invitation of her old friend Mr David Parker, organiser of the concert and head of the vocal department at the Canberra School of Music.

Ms Richardson arrived in Canberra on Thursday for her first rehearsal and was very impressed with the quality of the choir. She also praised the Canberra School of Music as an institution: a “marvellous facility…increasing in reputation around the country”.

As the soprano in War Requiem, Ms Richardson will sing the solo piece from the Latin Catholic Mass for the Dead. The poems of Wilfred Owen form a second text in the work and will be sung by the other two soloists.

Ms Richardson sees Owen’s work as “a comment on the brevity of life and the absolute uselessness of war”.

Tonight’s concert will be held in Llewellyn Hall at the Canberra School of Music and starts at 8.15pm.

Originally published in The Canberra Times, July 16, 1988