WILLIAMSON’S OPERA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 234, 15 September 1934, Page 12

WILLIAMSON’S OPERA

“Waltzes from Vienna” and “The Dubarry” On Monday night at the HastingMunicipal Theatre at 8 o’clock the J. C. Williamson Ltd. management will present for the first time to local playgoers the gorgeously mounted and very musical comic opera, “The Dubarry,’’ and on Tuesday evening Strauss’ beautiful and stupendous musical play, “Waltzes from Vienna.’’ 'The company, which numbers over 100 people, and which includes the brilliant young London prima donna, Miss Sylvia Welling, was acclaimed in Auckland as being by far the best organisation of its kind which has ever appeared in New Zealand under the Williamson management. Miss Welling made a sensational triumph in London when she was called upon, at short notice, to play the leading role in “The Dubarry.” She is said to bo en actress full of vitality. With her force and lire of personality she makes Dubarry .something immensely bigger than the regular musical comedy heroine, and one who might have captured the affection of a greater King than Louis XV. She is staid to be magnificent, too, in Strauss’ famous opera, “Waltzes from Vienna,” which attracted record audiences in Auckland recently. “Waltzes from Vienna” makes an appeal to the average lover of comic opera—the nineteenth century Vienna of Strauss’ romance, and “The Blue Danube,” which possibly little children hum caressingly in their cradles, and which makes spinsters sigh when they put it on the gramophone. The opera is full of good music, and, fortunately, the latest Williamson company possesses singers who can really sing, so that Strauss’ music is properly sung. Mr John Dudley created a furore when he appeared in his first musical role in Sydney, and he quickly became the leading juvenile comic opera artist of Australia. He has two excellent singing parts in “The Dubarry” and “Waltzes from Vienna.” Both Cecil Kellaway and Leslie Holland were specially selected for the characters they portray in the two operas to be staged here. They are probably two of the best and most popular charactercomedians who have ever appeared before audiences of New Zealand. A feature of both operas is the brilliant dancing of Miss Ivy Kirby, and other principal artists are .Tean Gibson, Joan Dunean, Hilton Porter, Lou Vernon, Richard Parry. T.orna Forbes. Cecil Pawley, Clifford Cowley. The full operatic orchestra and chorus are under the direction of Leo Packer. The work of the ballet is another feature of both productions.