"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA."

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 127, 26 November 1923, Page 3

"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA."

The first-night audience at "The Beggar's Opera." which is to be staged at the Grand Opera House on -Saturday next, will have a surprise in store for it, because it is somewhat difficult to ;fling oneself - back twc^ hundred years, among ■; the swashbucklers, highwaymen, runners, pimpgj and habitues of the underworld of London, -when George the First was King. jThe eye^the ear,- and the: sense. 61 humour,,'wilKllake-, a little time to accommodate themselves to their * new milieu. - The candlerlit stage, the primitive scenery, the bewigged orchestra,' the conductor; at the harpsichord —all these discoveries' will give the senses a realisation of ■ unexpected pleasure: - "The Beggar's Opera" is a bold experiment in New Zealand,, aejt was in" Australia, but New Zealand .audiences are notably discerning, and its artistic perfection should carry it through her* as there. No detail, however slight, that can-assist in conveying the atmosphere of the period, will be neglected. As regards the dialogue, now and then th« text belongs to a period when words were used which nowadays are properly dropped by general consent." It may, be that the fact that they, were two centuries away from us when regarded' as quite the, "vogue,, will "deodorise by distance" their use in the present ver-. sion. of the opera. The box plans for the season, open: at The Bristol next Thursday morning. . .-. ■