STAGELAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 241, 10 September 1932, Page 9

STAGELAND

(By “Call Boy.”)

The Auckland Little Theatre Society has selected Arnold Bennett’s four-act comic romance, “The Great Adventure,” for presensa.tion this month. “The Cherry Orchard,” Anton Tchehov’s serio-comic romance of old Russia, is to he produced by the Workers’ Educational Association in Auckland. It is stated that the play has not previously been staged in New Zealand. Dr. Merton Hodge, formerly of King’s College, Auckland, and Otago University, has received highly encouraging notices from London critics on the presentation of his comedy, “As it was in the Beginning,” by the Arts Theatre Club. Humphrey Bishop’s Dandies are having a successful season at Newcastle, New South Wales. The Auckland Operatic Society has “Les Cloches de Corneville” in rehearsal. A message from Paris says that Verdi’s opera “Aida” came into life with unusual realism at Colombes Stadium when a ]>erformance was staged for the benefit of unemployed musicians. Animals which were being marched from the Vincennes Zoo took fright at the last minute. They were cajoled by their frantic trainers while tlie audience waited. The horses and camels were quietened by liberal offerings of sugar, but the elephant was intractable, and the performance proceeded without him. Later a cameraman seated in the middle of the stadium scrambled from under the feet of the camels during the grand march without interrupting the performance. Theo Shall, who is to play the male lead in “Autumn Crocus’’ when it is produced in Australia shortly, is an Austrian, which is fitting, for the action is set in the Austrian Tyrol.

We learn from Mr Harry Stringer, New Zealand representative of Messrs ,1. and N. Tait (who are sponsoring .Madame Galli-Curci’s New Zealand tour), that, after consultation with his principals, the Dominion itinerary of the famous singer is to be extended. A factor which has made this possible is the desire of Madame GalliCurei and her husband, Mr Homer Samuels, to see as much of New Zealand as possible in the limited time at their disposal. Galli-Curci is charmed with New Zealand. Ever a lover of the beautiful, she sees in the great variety of New Zealand scenery, vistas which are to her a sheer delight. The extended tour will now include many provincial areas never before visited by an artist of her high stalling. Palmerston North will be visited early in October. In connection with the forthcoming visit to New Zealand of England’s leading tragedienne, Dame Sybil Thorndike, many inquiries have been made as to whether “Macbeth” will be included in the repertoire. Inquiries at the head office of the Firm in the Dominion have gained the information that, while the details of the plays to be produced in the Dominion are not yet available, they will lie such as to show the infinite variety of the great actress’s tragic, dramatic, and comedy power, in all probability the opening play will he Bernard Shaw’s wonderful creation “Saint Joan,” which was written specially for Dame Thorndike, and there will be other outstanding plays, in which the noted star has won signal success in London. In Melbourne recently “Macbeth” was stated, and it proved to be one of the most noteworthy events in theatrical history. The roles of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, played by Dame Thorndike and Lewis Casson (her husband) are among the finest of their portrayals. Edward Knoblock’s dramatisation of “Evensong,” the much-discussed novel by Beverley Nichols, was staged recently ,by Sir Barry Jackson at the Queen’s Theatre in London. The play is of special interest because there seems to be no doubt that its central character has been suggested by the personality of Dame Nellie Melba (says a Sydney paper). In the novel —which the "play is said to follow closely, with the exception that a love affair with an aged archduke has been interpolated in its action —the author mentioned no names of liviug people; and was thus technically within his rights when he refuted any suggestion that it was a portrait of Melba. But no on 3 who knew anything of Dame Nellie can be deceived. The story embodies too many points of resemblance for that. The very name of Mr Nichols’s prima donna gives the secret away, she is Irish, ‘and culls lieisGli “Irela,” just as Mrs Mitchell was a native of Melbourne and called herself “Melba.” To Australian readers, the basis of the story is even more obvious than to readers in Jtngland; for the general plan of the London opera season which Mr Nichols dejiicts tallies precisely with that of the season which took place at Her Majesty s Theatre in Sydney in 1924. Irela sings in “La Bolieme” and “Otello, just as Melba sang in these operas; and charms a great audience with her artistry, even though her voice has lost its youthful bloom. The rival soprano, Baba, gains her chief triumph in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” just as Toti Dal Monte captured Sydney in the same opera. She is represented ns short, plump, and doll-like; and as the leader of an Italian company. Mr Nichols travelled for some time with Melba as her social secretary. He himself is recognisable, in feminine disguise, as Irela’s niece and general factotum, whose function it is to bring an anaemic love interest into the play. But his portrait of Irela is savage—deplorably and unbelievably savage. Butting aside all thoughts of Melba, one can ill believe that a woman with power to subdue the wOl lcl by her vocal art would display a personalitv so entirely devoid of any redeeming, likeable feature lhe character is hard, cold, selfish auogant. In her struggles to retain her powers of song in advancing age, Irela gives wav to hysteria, and at times seems to ‘be touched by a horrible madness. One closed the novel with a shudder. To judge from criticism in the London Press, the stage play preserves the same quality. Edith Evans is greatly praised for her playing of the role. She makes the mean, . vulgar, jealous, coarse-mouthed, irritable, shallow and hypocritical Irela a dominating figure, with many flashes of grim humour. , . • • imo Born in Petrograd m Russia m 1912, Prince Nikita Mngaloff had to leave his native city after the revolution, which forced the family to escape with their lives, leaving everything behind. Music has appealed to him since very early childhood, but it took iveiirs before lie went into serious piano and composition work. The Prince spent years of travelling in Europe and America while still a small boy, giving himself to free composition improvisation, and appearing in some places as a pianist prodigy. Rachmaninoff beard him in New York, and finding him unusually gilted, strongly advised bis parents to concentrate on his studies and send hint to the Paris I Conservatoire, which is about the I most prominent music school in the world, ft was there that lie started hard and enthusiastic work under Isidor Phillip, the great pedagogue. It is from there that a few years later j j,e brilliantly graduated with first honours. Since then lie was fortuIn ate to meet Szigeti, the famous violinist, with whom he has toured for

several seasons throughout the world, everywhere with brilliant success. The critics predicted for him a triumphal career, which lias already begun in a most encouraging way. It would lie interesting to mention that Prince Megalolf has composed extensively ever since his childhood, and lias lately achieved a piano concerto, with orchestra, which is to be performed next year in Europe and America.