Obituary For Mina Foley, Soprano

Obituary For Mina Foley, Soprano

Mina Foley, the soprano who first captivated New Zealand audiences with the quality and technique of her singing back in the 1950s, died on Sunday January 21 after a long illness, aged 77. She was the first of the galaxy of singing stars trained by the acclaimed Auckland singing teacher, Dame Sister Mary Leo, a member of the Auckland Sisters of Mercy. Among her pupils to follow at a later date were Kiri Te Kanawa, Malvina Major and Heather Begg.

Mina began singing lessons at the age of 14, and her outstanding success in the Auckland competitions began when she was 16. As a pupil at St Mary’s College in Ponsonby, Auckland, she studied piano and cello, playing the cello in the school orchestra, the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Orchestra and the Junior Symphony Orchestra.

Prominence as a singer began in August 1950 when, at age 20, she won the major vocal prizes in the Auckland Competitions, including the John Court Memorial Aria Scholarship. This led to an audition with the Italian Tenor, Tito Schipa, who described her voice as the most promising he had heard in more than forty auditions in Australasia, saying that she must go to Europe to continue her training at the earliest opportunity.

She went on to Melbourne in October 1950 to compete in the prestigious Melbourne Sun Aria competition. Gaining second place , she was just three points behind the winner, yet was described by the music critic of the Melbourne Herald as ‘the outstanding singer of the night’.

“I can honestly say that I have never heard a finer technique,’ said the judge, comparing her singing to opera he had heard in Berlin, Budapest and Rome. Others called it “the voice of the century”. Judging by the audience reaction to her singing, Aucklanders who were present were convinced that she had won. With the news of second prize, the Auckland Star daily newspaper immediately announced the opening of a special ‘Mina Foley Fund’. Donations were recorded in details in the newspaper, with the final tally at £1681.

The Melbourne success led to a Mina Foley phenomenon back home. On her return she gave a series of concerts, and during one recital in the Auckland Town Hall, the Mayor of Auckland, Sir John Allum, left a council meeting to congratulate her. Reviews were filled with hyperbolic praise of the beauty of her voice and technique. It was reported in the NZ Herald that her concert in the Auckland Town Hall in November with the National Orchestra (now the NZSO) was such a sell-out that that one hundred people were seated on the stage and many were unable to gain admittance. The Herald’s music critic, LCM Saunders, not usually given to extravagance wrote of her triumphant reception. “Her beautifully clear high notes, the scrupulous accuracy of her intonation and the flexibility that make her such a promising coloratura delighted all who heard her.”

Of her farewell concert a month later, he wrote that she sang “…so magnificently that the effects of a heavy cold were scarcely discernible. Her Caro Nome was superb, the highest notes being clear and scrupulously exact in pitch, the whole sung with a simplicity and freedom from striving after effect that was charming to hear.”

On her departure for England, the Mina Foley Fund stood at £1944 with additional funding given by the New Zealand government. She travelled first to England to fulfill a number of engagements, and after being awarded a further scholarship from the Italian government, she went to study in Italy with the famous singer and teacher, Toti dal Monte.

A relapse in health caused her to suspend her studies in 1952, and Mina returned to New Zealand. After recovering, she gave concert tours throughout the country, singing to capacity audiences. She sang in Wellington with the National Orchestra, and the reviewers in the two Wellington daily papers wrote of the standing ovation that lasted for nearly ten minutes.

The concert-going public recognised a coloratura voice of rare quality and technical brilliance and because of huge public demand, the National Broadcasting Service (now National Radio) re-scheduled its Concert Programme to include the whole of her Wellington concert.

In 1956 she went to the States to study for a short period with the well-known teacher, Greta Stauber. Returning home the following year, she continued to sing until a major breakdown in health caused her to give up her singing in 1961. Her voice was not heard again on stage for eighteen years.

A reviewer in the Auckland Star wrote of her return concert in 1979: “The lyric coloratura, trained by Dame Sister Mary Leo who has recently been giving her refresher lessons, tackled some of the most testing pieces in the repertoire, and showed that the brilliant range, particularly the crystal-clear, bell-like top, was still there.”

Sadly, ill-health continued to plague this gifted and unique singer, preventing her from pursuing her singing career. She has spent the last 25 years in retirement. Donald Munro who is regarded as the Father of NZ Opera and a New Zealand Arts Foundation’s Living Musical Icon, summarised her singing in these words: “It is the kind of singing that wrings one’s heart.”

ENDS

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