| Main Performers | Richard Tauber - vocal,
Ania Dorfmann - piano |
| Performance Notes | Richard Tauber was meant to perfom at this Sunday concert, as his debut Royal Albert Hall performance, however he did not appear and the event was cancelled.
"10,000 PEOPLE WAIT IN VAIN FOR TAUBER.
ALBERT HALL CONCERT CANCELLED.
A CONTROVERSY -
"HE COULD HAVE SUNG" - THE PROMOTER.
"IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RIGHT" - THE SINGER.
Once again Herr Tauber had disappointed his English public.
Ten thousand people yesterday afternoon were assembled in the Royal Albert Hall.
Some hundred outside were still hoping to gain admission.
The Austrian tenor was to have made his first appearance on a London concert platform.
Three o'clock passed, and the audience grew expectant, Ania Dorfman, the pianist , was ready to take her place at the piano.
The minutes passed and no singer appeared. Instead, at ten minutes past the hour, Mr E W Evennett (on behalf of Mr Lionel Powell and Mr Stanley Scott, the promoters of the concert) came forward.
"I have a disappointing announcement to make," he said. A deep "Oh" rose from the audience. Then followed the statement that Herr Tauber was suffering from laryngitis and was unable to appear. A second and deeper "Oh" reverberated through the vast spaces of the hall."
(The Daily Telegraph, 7 December 1931)
"It's [the Hall's] effect on Tauber, who was due to sing there for the first time when at the height of his fame, was even greater. The box-office had been sold out for days in advance but as the audience streamed in it was found that there were a few 'returns' and these last two-guinea tickets were being offered as a rumour trickled in. Tauber, it was stated, was not to appear at all.
There are two versions of what exactly happened on that Sunday afternoon, one given by Tauber's widow and the other by Eric Evenett, an adjutant of Lionel Powell who had organised the tour of which the Sunday concert formed a part. It seems certain, howeve, that Tauber had taken a look at the Hall sometime before the date of his appearance, and had been astonished by its size. It is also certain that shortly before he was due to appear at the Hall, Stanley Scott, his manager, was sent to find him and discovered him still at his hotel. According to Scott he was finishing a late lunch; according to his widow, he was so ill that he could not appear - two statements that are not, of course, necessarily contradictory. The management version of what must have been a difficult interview is that Tauber refused to come to the Hall, rushed away from the hotel and subsequently enjoyed an afternoon's riding in Richmond Park. According to his widow, his failure to appear was due entirely todoctor's orders.
Whetever the exact cause, Evenett, in Lionel Powell's ansence due to illness, was left with the difficult task of explaining to the audience that Tauber would not appear, and that their money would be refunded as they left. Anything might have happened following the silence that greeted the announcement had not someone in Powell' organisation prepared for such an eventuality. In the silence that followed the announcement a hearty voice shouted from the back of the Hall a phrase that was then plastered across hoardings thoughout Britain - 'But Britiish'.
The audience gave the matter a moment's reflection, realised that if they had relied on any tiresome foreigner the fault was theirs, and quietly went their way."
(The Royal Albert Hall, Ronald Clark, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1958, pg 213-214) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1931/86) |