SLUM "CARMEN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

SLUM "CARMEN."

BATHS AS* OPERA HOUSE. GOOD MUSIC APPRECIATED. (By NELLE M. SCANLAN".) Bethnal Green is in the East End, but it is a green no longer. It is now one of the crowded areas of this vast city. On Saturday night I saw "Carmen" played in the public baths at Bethnal Green. This is a new building, which was opened recently by the Duke of York. It is the Oxford Society that has brought both grand opera and Shakespeare to the East End, and who were responsible for "Carmen" at Bethnal Green. A soaking rain had fallen all day, misty rain that defied umbrellas, and left the London streets covered in slippery black slime. Public Washing. For an hour my bus trundled along towards the East, knd finally came to Bethnal Green. A long queue stood in the rain under dripping umbrellas, waiting to get into the Bethnal Baths. I had followed the fingerposts pointing the way to: "The Baths and Public Washhouses." On Monday and other mornings, you may see the women of Bethnal Green come with their bundles of washing, in bags and baskets, and in the family pram. Here, for one shilling an hour, they can do the family washing with the latest appliances and electrical devices. Here, at municipal expense, they are provided with labour-saving devices which are unknown in the modern, highpriced West End flats. Bethnal Green is a Socialist borough, and this communal washhouse is part of their plan for the people's benefit. Houses in London are not like the homes overseas, or in the country. The family may live in a room or two, or on one floor, without an inch of drying ground. The sheets and shirts may flap drearily in the murky atmosphere of a "back street, as they hang from the bedroom window. Or are dried by the fire. The West End sends its clothes to the laundry. The suburbs wash at liome, or partly so. They are chatty little parties, these groups of busy housewives on Monday, and bring the true Monday spirit into the rest of the week. Suds and sociability. Cheap Opera. But this was Saturday night. Back to the same building they came, not to do washing, but dressed in their best clothes, to hear "Carmen" sung. And' they loved it, too, with its hot, pulsing drama and gay Toreador. During the winter a temporary floor is laid over the great swimming bath, and it is converted into a hall, which holds over a thousand people. On this wet Saturday night it was packed. What amazed me was the type of audience. Not in ones or twos," but in sixes and sevens, I saw youths and young men coming in, just working men, young fellows to whom you would imagine the cinema or the dance hall around the corner would make a stronger appeal. But they came trooping in, and from their comments it was evident that they had followed the opera season right through, and one lank youth behind me knew his "Carmen" quite well. The prices were 3/, 2/ and 1/, but mostly 2/ and 1/. There was no scenery, just draperies. The Oxford Musical and Dramatic Society were the performers and sponsors, the principals, however, were professionals. Don Jose was sung by Gordon Colebatch, the West Australian tenor. On the whole it was an admirable performance. Is England musical? Afc Covenfc Garden, where they give phenomenal salaries to stars, you pay your 30/ or fl for a stall seat. Or you may wait half a day in a queue, pay 5/9, and sit sideways on a six-inch board. Covent Garden is for the few—the wealthy few. How can people appreciate opera if they never hear it? For those who doubt England's love of music, I can find no surer answer than that crowded audience on a wet Saturday night, for tlic "Carmen" of Bethnal Green.