THE DON COSSACKS

Evening Star, Issue 19290, 1 July 1926, Page 4

THE DON COSSACKS

E. J. CARROLL'S BIG VENTURE Last year E. J. Carroll hold mustoloving Australia spellbound with tlie witchery of Kreisler’s music. Tins y® ar lie purposes bringing to ns the Don Cossacks. They are now op their way to Dunedin, where they will give a season of three nights m His Majesty s Theatre, commencing on Thursday, night next. The Don Cossack Choir, which consists of thirty-six men, is a product of the Great War, in width ah members took part from beginning to the end. After the outbreak of the Bussian Revolution they entered the ranks of the White army. They were fighting under Denikin and Wrangel until the breakdown of the offensive so gloriously be»un, and were shipped with the rest of the Wrangel army to be transported to the' Isle of Lemnos. Thence they came via Constantinople to Sofia, whero they formed a church choir and became a part of the services of the Orthodox: Cathedral, working at the same time as workmen in the factories in order to earn a living. Thus two years passed. Tho terms of employment became worse and worse, and the church singers were forced to leave in, order to look for new moans of existence abroad, eventually deciding to give up everything else and devote themselves to their art. In July, 1923, in Zagreb (Serbia) they had their first big success, although it was in Vienna that their destiny was finally decided. Their first performance was a great success, although even this was surpassed later, and before very long the rumor of their great art spread from Vienna, all over Austria and the Czecho-Slovakian Republic. Guided by their conductor, Serge Jarnv, of the famous Church Music Academy of the Holy Synod of Moscow, the choir gave many concerts in Austrian and Czecho-Slovakian towns, proceeding later on to Switzerland and Italy. Their first appearance in London, where they sang at the principal West End concert halls, cron ted a fionsn.tion and added another to their many triumphs. The ’plans for, this very brief sea-son—ne’rcssarily brief, because tho choir returns to Europe fjy the Ruahinc, which leaves Wellington shortly —will open at The Bristol on Monday next. Mr Carroll has been careful to keep the prices nf admission as low as was practically possible, and reserves will bo opened at 7s fid, pins tax.