COVENT GARDEN OPERA

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 February 1939, Page 12

COVENT GARDEN OPERA

PROGRAMME-SELLER’S MEMORIES LONDON, January 7. Mrs. Nellie Ridley, known to opera lovers as Miss Hobden, this week began her 50th year of service at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Though she has had more experience of opera than any prima donna, this 74-year-old Londoner, who is head of the programme staff, has never been on the stage, nor seen an opera through.

“Good music and the ability not to worry if things go a bit wrong are the secrets of contentment,” she said this week.

“Sometimes 1 sit here in my office with the door open, and the music floating through reminds me of opera as it was many years ago.

“It brings back the days of the j crinoline and the bustle, of carriages, and pairs, and the enthralling voices; of Melba, Patti, Caruso. the de ( Reszkes—all of whom I met—and | scores of others.

“One day I walked into the wardrobe room, and there, talking to the late Sir Augustus Harris, the chief, was Melba.

“She was choosing dresses, and how well I remember her telling him that he knew nothing about woman’s clothes.

“Never shall 1 forget the night when Mafeking was relieved. An announcement was made from the stage. Everyone went mad with excitement. Cheers drowned every sort of opera, and for the first and only time to my knowledge the whole audience ran from the Opera House.

“Sometimes 1 wish 1 could describe all the Royal scenes that 1 have’ seen here, with the kings and queens, the princes, the foreign monarchs, and the diplomats.

“In those days every flower in the place was freshly plucked, and the Opera House was like a florist’s shop. In fact the idea of real flowers had to be done away with, except in the Royal boxes, because the perfume was too overpowering for the audience.”