SINGERS AND PLAYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 167, 15 July 1911, Page 14

SINGERS AND PLAYERS.

Miss Florence Quinn, who hails from Auckland, filled the part of Sombra in " The Arcadiajis" during the Dunedin

season, during the temporary retirement of Miss Maxie O'Connor, owing to a sore throat. The "Otago Witness" says:— "Miss Quinn was happily cast, with her prepossessing stage appearance and natural vocal ability. Miss Quinn's voice is of unusually pure quality and flexibility, and her rendering of "The Pipes of Pan are Calling,", a charming pastoral number, with most effective reed accompaniment, was one of the musical gems of the evening. The number, " Arcady is Ever Young," sung by Miss, Quinn with chorus, was another conspicuous vocal success.

"The Count of Luxembourg" is the latest musical comedy to be converted into book form. This procedure is quite usual nowadays in connection with musical productions of this class, and hardly had the latest Lehar success seen the light of publicity ere the book was placed on the market by the author who had previously so successfully novelised "The Dollar Princess."

Mr. John Lemmone gives some idea of the trouble and difficulty attendant upon securing records of the human voice for the gramaphone. In the case of Madame Melba, for instance, it was necessary for the diva to attend at the special building erected for the purpose by the Gramaphone Company, for five days, remaining from eleven o'clock in the morning till five o'clock at night. To begin with, an idea had to be got of the tempo and duration of a certain nmber, and this entailed the taking of several test records. Then when all the preliminaries were successfully accomplished the work of getting the master records was commenced. As the striking of a clock or a heavy noise in the street is sufficient to mar the effect of a record, it can readily be understood that sometimes it is necessary to sing a song over many times before the desired effect is gained, so that it is a more troublesome and tedious process than would be imagined. Mr. Lemmone's own flute records were particularly successful, and have gained great popularity irk America.

Two additional engagements which considerably strengthen the Melba Grand Opera Company have been made by the J. C. Williamson management within the last few weeks. Signor Ciccolini, a tenor with a very fine reputation in Europe, is coming out, and he will make the fourth really first-class tenor available for any one of the operas that will be included in the repertoire. The other engagement is a young dramatic soprano, who was specially recommended by Madame Melba, who cabled out in the most eulogistic terms concerning her. The sopranos, also, will thus be very strong for the leading role 3, while, of course, there will be a wide range of artists for the lesser parts.

At the Covent Garden gala night, during Coronation -week,, -when the boxes were 100 guineas, the stalls 40 guineas, and the lowest Beat in the gallery four guineas, Madame Melha sang the balcony scene from " Romeo and Juliet." In a letter which has been received in Australin, the great artiste states that she had the honour of being received by King George at Covent Garden a few nightaieefpTe when His Majesty very graciously ana kindly congratulated her, and asked her many questions about Australians he had met when in the Commonwealth as Prince of Wales. For this particular night " La Traviata " had been announced, but His Majesty sent to Madame Melba asking if she would sing "Mimi" in "La Bonenie." This she readily did, and tne opera was changed at the last moment. It has since been cabled that the King set aside a seat in the royal box for the diva at Drury Lane on gala night, and also had a seat reserved for her in the Abbey for the Coronation.

Signor Saeerdote, the Chorus Master, who has in hand the work of preparing the Australian members of the Melba Grand Opera Company, is delighted with the material he has to work on.

Some idea of the extent of the preparations for the Melba Grand Opera may be guessed from the fact that no less than about 2000 costumes will be required to dress the twelve operas that will be included in the repertoire for Australia, and the dressing, of course, is but one item in the many-sided work that will be entailed. Most of the Italian operas rejoice at one stage or more of their presentation, in crowds of people who throng the bazaars or market places or whatever scene of action may happen to be portrayed. Then there is generally a ballet introduced at some point, and costumes have to be provided for all these characters, in addition to the principals, who, in many cases, requrre a change of three or four elaborate costumes.

"Talking of "The Merry Widow,'" said Fran Lehar ; the famous composer, "the following little tale may not be without interest. Just prior to its production in Vienna, one of the leading musical critics came down to the theatre and demanded after his usual custom, to be admitted' to the rehearsal. He met with a blank refusal. But the manager, anxious to pacify him, took him aside, and confidently whispered that it really didn't matter, because in a week's time another piece would be in Tehearsal, which he would be welcome to come and see. This just shows how even an expert may be mistaken. ' The Merry Widow • rail in Vienna alone for a year and nine months. "As I seem to be In the vein for story-telling" (Lehar proceeded), " let mc add one more personal recollection. When ' Rastelbruder , was originally produced year's ago I had not, as you may imagine, more money in mv pocket than I knew what to do with. Moreover, I was something of a novice in the matter of terms. With all diffidence I approached a friend of mine, offering him the publishing rights for the modest sum of £SO. The expression on his face sufficiently revealed to mc the enormity of my offence. Nothing daunted I tried another publisher, who eventually agreed to let mc have the sum specified, only, however, in three instalments, based upon the length of the run of the piece. His £S0 .brought him in eventual!v over £S00O!"

In the production 6r a play there i? an important person who is never seen and should not be heard by the audience, and yet he may speak more lines than the principal actor. It is the prompter. Here is a description of a prompter's labours, written by one of the genus:—"l, as prompter, had been kept very busy throughout the piece. In addition to keeping the actors on their lines, it was my duty to make all the outside noises. I had creamed 'Help!' I had shouted 'Kill him!' I had dropped planks to cover up deficient pistol reports. I had thundered, hailed, rained, sung like a woman, marched like an army, and howled like an infuriated rabble inflated by drink. The last straw came when the hero, supposed to be pursued by hounds, sidled to the wings and hissed:—'Bark, you fool, bark! Why don't you bark, you idiot?'"•