Dundee Amateur Choral Union was established in 1858, so this concert marked the climax of its centenary season. The term 'Amateur' was now dropped from the group's title. The choir had a total 150 voices (100 being female). The audience totalled around 1000.
The two ladies had sung in the choir's most recent performance of the Verdi in 1954, but the men were new. Ronald Dowd was an Australian heroic tenor who spent several years with Sadler's Wells and had already appeared with that company on its Scottish tours. He later worked with Scottish Opera too. Polish bass Marian Nowakowski had the typical dark-toned slavonic vocal sound, and had an excellent career in Britain during the post-war years, mainly at Covent Garden, but also with Sadler's Wells.
The Requiem was not considered to be a complete evening's entertainment, so proceedings kicked off with Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet.
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