1958 THE FINAL CONCERT

The final concert of the 5th IVC Den Bosch in the auditorium of the local Casino, was designed as a crowd pleaser, consisting entirely of operatic arias beloved with the audience of a 1000 spectators. They cheered the singers, and the orchestra conducted by Hein Jordans to the rafters.

Each first prizewinner sang two arias, each second prizewinner one. One critic (J.S. from an unknown newspaper clipping) noted that second prizewinners Aurelio Estanislao and Maria Antonietta Sighele sang much better than the first prizewinners. Elisabeth Simon, 1st prize Winner and the appointed 'Best singer in the contest' avenged herself with a glorious rendering of the great recitative and aria 'È strano!... Ah, fors'è lui' from La traviata, which proved a thrilling finale to the evening. Post concert, mayor Loeff presented the ladies with flowers, and the gentlemen singers with compliments.

Almost by miracle, we found the larger part of the vocal section of this concert back in our own tape collection. All mp3 samples are from the actual concert. With respect to Elisaeth Simon this is also the only know extant recording of her voice known to exist. For Maria Antonietta 'Mietta' Sighele, and presumably also for Bernard Kruysen, these are the earliest recordings of their voices.