GRAND OPERA SEASON.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 11, 14 July 1928, Page 7

GRAND OPERA SEASON.

The long-awaited season of the Fuller-Gon-sa.lez Italian Grand Opera Company will open at His Majesty's Theatre on Tuesday, 31st July. The company, which comprises seventy, performers, and an orchestra of twenty-live, will present a seventeen nights' season at His Majesty's Theatre, opening with a gala performance of Verdi's "II Trovatore." Throughout its Australian and New Zealand.tour, the Gonsalez Company has opened each. of Its various seasons with this melodious opera, and in every case the performance has been a memorable one. Each of the fourteen operas for presentation are well chosen, and cover a wide range of musical ■ compositions. Each is exquisitely tuneful and appealing—entirely different in conception—but all full of gems with which the world 13 familiar. It Is certain that the people of Wellington will feel a sense of, gratitude to Fuller's for giving, them an opportunity to listen to brilliant Italian exponents of opera in these great works of Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Ambroise Thomas, Bizet, and Gounod. It must be apparent to everyone that the enterprising entrepreneurs are taking grave risks and that they are endeavouring to achieve success In a field in which so many have been flnan-. cially wreoked. But Fuller's have moved circumspectly, yet over forward, and from pictures and vaudeville aspire to become successful competitors for business in musical comedy and graud opera. It is a worthy ambition. Soloists, chorus, ballet, and orchestra are all composed of loading Italian performers; and it is probablo that no finer company has visited New Zealand.' Repertoire and dates for the first eleven nights of \ the season are advertised elsewhere in this paper.