7pm Old Lodge Theatre. Doors open 6.30pm
Free admission. Limited to 80 seats
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 15 May 1922 and ended in March the following year after more than 110 performances across New Zealand and Australia including Hokitika, Greymouth and Westport.
Rosina travelled by car and coach across the rugged Otira Gorge and travelled to the coast exploring as far south as Franz Josef Glacier where she hiked upon the ice with the legendary guide Peter Graham. New Zealanders couldn’t get enough of their homegrown singing superstar.
‘150 years of Connection’ and Destination Hokitika have the pleasure in bringing Hammers & Horsehair to town where they will reimagine Rosina Buckman’s homecoming tour by performing a salon concert a century after her performance in Hokitika’s Princess Theatre in 1923.
An excerpt from the Hokitika Guardian on 5 Feb 1923 reads:
“There was a very appreciative audience at the Princess Theatre on Saturday night when Miss Rosina Buckman and her party graced the occasion. The artists provided a feast of music, and a flow of soul that was altogether delightful – one of those all too rare occasions which fall to the lot of this distant portion of the Dominion.”
Cellist Robert Ibell and soprano Rowena Simpson join forces with well-known Wellington pianist, Jonathan Berkahn to reimagine the original tour of 1922-23 as Hammers & Horsehair.
www.hammersandhorsehair.nz