STAGELAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 247, 17 September 1932, Page 9

STAGELAND

(By “Call Boy.”)

The Palmerston North Operatic Society has not yet fixed the cast for “The Girls of Gottenburg,” but this will probably be done next week. The talented English actress, Margaret Rawlings, will open the New Zealand tour at "Wellington early next month.

“Interference” will be prosentod by the Palmerston North Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society at the Opera House next Thursday. Friday and Saturday nights. It abounds with clever dialogue and the cast is a good one so there should he large audiences. Marie Tempest is to appear in London this month in “To-morrow will be Friday,” a comedy by Philip Leaver. Nellie Bramley revived “The Sport of Kings” to a packed house in Melbourne recently. The clever comedy, “By Candlelight,” taken from the German of Seigfried Geyer by Harry Graham, was presented this week by the Wellington Repertory Theatre under the direction of Mr W. S. AVaucliop. The four-act play, “The Great Adventure,” by Arnold Bennett, will be produced by the Little Theatre Society m Auckland at the end of this month.

It lias been pointed out by the great critics who have heard Galli-Curci sing that she sings almost without effort. The AY Oman’s Budget of Sydney puts it well when it says that Galli-Curci has taught herself the greatest accomplishment of the public singer; she has taught herself to sing with remarkable ease. There is no straining after effect; she sings naturally, and trills when she pleases. She sings so joyously because of the very joy of singing. How many singers forget to teach themselves the all-important thing that they themselves can teach ? Patrons of the theatre are looking forward with pleasurable anticipation to the visit of GalliCurci to Palmerston North on October 1. Lovers in Palmerston North of the best in music have a treat in store for them. An artist of the elect —young enough to have ail the fires of enthusiasm and vigour; old enough to have acquired a mellowed outlook —is to appear here. He is Josef Szigeti, the Hungarian violinist. He was born in 1893 in Budapest; studied from the age of six with his great countryman, Rubay, and later with Joachim. He made his first appearance, when 13 j-ears old, at the Royal Academy ot his native city, and subsequent appearances at Berlin and Dresden. In 1917 he made his first bow in Queen’s Hall, London; lie remained in England for nearly seven years, appearing continually in London and touring the provinces with Busoni, Backhaus, and Melba; Paris came in his Caesarean march; America had, of course, to follow, and since his first visit there, in 1925, he has returned every year, playing to sold-out houses; finally, he lias just completed a tour of the Orient. The soprano, Miss Andri Bevin, who has for some years been singing in England in AA’agnerian parts, sailed by the Tainui on September 9 for New Zealand. The Australian comedians, Messrs Charles Norman and “Chick” Arnold, who have beon in America for some time and are now at Daly’s Theatre, London, have been engaged by J. C. AVilliamson, Ltd., for the Australian production of “For the Love of Mike.” At the close of the afternoon performance of “Pleasure Bound” at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, on September 3, the descending curtain struck Miss Ella Shields, the principal actress, a violent blow on the head. She was almost made unconscious, but managed to maintain her composure so that the majority of the audience did not know that she had been hurt. Immediately she left the stage, however, a wound in her head began to bleed copiously, and she was hurried to a private hospital, where four stitches were inserted in the wound. Miss Shields appeared in the evening performance of “Pleasure Bound,” although she was suffering from a severe headache and weakness as a result of her wound. / It was reported from Sydney last week that doubt still exists whether the proposed tour of New Zealand by the AVilliamson Imperial Grand Opera Company will he undertaken. It was stated that negotiations between the company and the Federal executive of the Musicians’ Union concerning the rates of pay for members of the orchestra were proceeding. The general secretary of the union (Mr C. Trevelyan) said that he had consulted the executive, and it had decided upon a policy. This policy, however, was not disclosed.

One of Noel Coward's plays is at present in the course of production by Mrs Linda Bennett for presentation at the All Saints’ Parish Hall. The cast is as folows: Mrs Derniott, Miss Aisla Varco ; Oliver, Evangeline, Sylvia, Bobbie, Joyce (her children), Miss Kathleen Lockyer, Miss Muriel Hiehards, Mr G. S. Woodward, Miss Tliora Bovis; Daniel Davis (her brother), Mr P. Morgan; Mrs Crombie, .Miss K. Cutler; Faith Crombie, Miss Maisie Puklowski; Griggs (the butler), Rev. C. E. Hyde. The action of the play is in Mrs Dermott’s house, Mulberry Manor, a few miles outside London. Noel Coward played the role of Bobbie in the original London production in 1920.

FILM STAR’S SUIT.

MAURICE CHEVALIER’S DIVORCE. ACTRESS WIFE. Maurice Chevalier, the film actor, has filed in Paris a suit for divorce from his wife, Yvonne Vallee, on the ground, it is understood, of incompatibility. The case will he heard in October. Chevalier, who is now one of the highest-paid film actors in the world, married Mile. Yvonne Vallee in 1927, when he was the idol of the Paris music hall stage. Mile. Vallee, who was also a musichall star, was at that time his dancing and singing partner at the Casino de Paris.

Leaving the music-halls, Chevalier went to Hollywood, where in the film, “The Innocents of Paris,” he sprang into world-wide fame. He made another big hit in “The Love Parade.” In 19.‘10 ho appeared in London at a salary of £4OOO a week. Last year he was guaranteed the minimum of £20,000 for four pictures.

THE REASON FOR THE SUIT.

TOLD BY CHEVALIER’S WIFE

Later Yvonne Vallee, wife of Maurice Chevalier, met her husband in Paris “with a view to possible reconciliation.” This meeting is one of the formalities of the French divorce law, and must be held before proceedings are actually inaugurated, to prove that there is no hope ot reconciliation. Interviewed on her return to Cannes, Yvonne Vallee said:—“lt is true that Maurice and I arc divorcing, hut it is not because Maurice is annoyed because T have made a success. It is not .Maurice who is divorcing me—it is both of us who want the divorce. We are divorcing because we want our love to remain intact. Our love for each other would soon' die if we remained •together always. Because we are divorcing il does not mean the.t we are separating completely. Wo shall see each other often,”