STAGELAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 64, 11 February 1933, Page 9

STAGELAND

(By “Call Boy.”) There will be a revival of “Interference” by the Palmerston North Amateur and Dramatic Society, at the Opera House, on February 28 and March 1, the producer being Mr F. Cousins.

Dame Sybil Thorndike will return to Palmerston North on February 2d, when “Madame Plays Nap” will be produced. No play during recent years has so caught the imagination of English theatregoers as Noel Coward’s Cavalcade.” With all the grandiose scenic equipment of Drury Lane at his disposal, Mr Coward, who not only wrote the words and music of “Cavalcade,” but also produced it, built up an inspiring pageant of English life from 1900 to tlie present time. A Melbourne critic, in reviewing the past year of music, has this to say of Szigeti’s visit there: “Szigeti is unlike any other violinist who lias visited Australia, and it is foolish to attempt comparisons to his advantage or disadvantage. It is enough to know that in seven appearances be . played a wide range of classic and modern compositions, and was always satisfying-” The friends of Miss Gladys Petrie, the New Zealand soprano, will learn with pleasure that, after some very trying months, during which she has undergone nasal operations which entailed much suffering, she is now ready to sing again in public. Recently Miss Petrie sang with outstanding success at tlie Concert Symphonique Dubruille, Maison Pleyel. Paris, works of Purcell, Handel, Chausson and Faure. Afterwards she was warmly congratulated, and the difference in the quality of the voice was remarked upon. The upper register is now described as very brilliant, and the medium full and round. This was particularly evident in “La Cigale” (Chausson). Before submitting to these operations Miss Petrie consulted five leading nose and throat specialists in Paris. All were surprised that she had been able to carry on her vocal studies and professional work under such physical difficulties (the result of an accident when a small child). The first piece to be produced by the Little Theatre Players, Wellington, this year, will be the romantic play, “Mice and Men,” by Madeline Lunette Ryley.

“Our Miss Gibbs” has been presented again in Sydney and proved most popular.. No fewer than 54 performances were given by the Frank Neil revue company in Auckland. William Heughan, the Scottish actorsinger, who was popular in New Zealand a few years ago, is in “The Cresta Run” in London. The programme consists of ballet, Hinging and humour.

Miss Dorothy Peters, who left the J. C. Williamson’s “Autumn Crocus” company at a moment’s notice in Syrney recently, said that insinuations that she did not know hdr lines because she went to too many parties, and the poor support she got when playing the lead in Sydney, were two of the reasons why she had walked out of the show. She is returning to London (where she will play the lead in “Scapegoat”). “The trouble really started coming out on the boat, when there was an unfortunate clash of temperaments, which might have occurred in any big company,” she said. “It was really a misunderstanding that made me decide to leave the company, as I was badly misinformed about my contract. . The matter lias been satisfactorily settled, and explanations were made and accepted, but it was too late for me to take over my part again, as tlie company’s directors had already cabled to America for another actress to take my part.” The next production of the Wellington Repertory Theatre will be Elmer Rice’s new play, “See Naples and Die.” So successful is the present Gilbert and Sullivan season at the Savoy proving, says a London writer, that one or two of the operas already given are to be played again for a week each. Following that, a short repertory season, with a change every night, will be given. Guy Nelson King, to whom Marie Burke was married in London recently, is a New Zealander. He has not resided in the Dominion since 1919, but he lived for a number of years in Sydney. It was in Australia that he met Miss Burke six years ago. After having travelled extensively in many parts of the world he settled down in London two years ago. It is said that Florence Austral, the Australian dramatic soprano, who has won success abroad, will bring the Covent Garden Opera Company to Australia this year. The repertoire will include the great German operas (few of which, have been heard in this part of the world) sung in English. Writing to a friend in Wellington, Mr Hugo Larsen, who brought Josef Szigeti to New Zealand last year, says that, in conjunction with Sir Benjamin and Mr John Fuller, a tour of Australia and New Zealand of the San Carlo Grand Opera Company (now in the East) was being finalised. The tour is to be inaugurated in Sydney in March. “The company,” savs Mr Larsen, “is a very well-balanced one, the members of which have been carefully selected with a view to vocal blend. The contemplated tour, which is to embrace the capital cities of the Australian States, and the principal cities of New Zealand, will extend for a year.” Miss Margery Lawrence, of Geelong, a dramatic soprano, has been engaged for Paris opera. She lias been granted a license under the foreign quota to remain and perform in France. J. C. ’Williamson, Ltd., and J. and N. Tait have engaged Mr Peter Dawson for a tour of Australia and New Zealand. He will give 40 concerts, commencing on April 24. London critics appreciate the fun displayed in Ben Travers’s farce “A Bit of a Test,” which is written round a Test match in Brisbane (says a message to Sydney papers). They praise Mary Brough and Ralph Lynn in the comic bushranging scene. At its first presentation in Vienna on December 23, in the Theater an der Wien, a very warm reception was accorded “Sissy,” a plav of a vaudeville character, for which the song numbers and incidental music were composed by Herr Fritz Kreisler, the Austrian violinist. Sissy is the name by which the future Empress Elizabeth of Austria was known in the ducal household of Max of Bavaria, and the romantic circumstances in which the young Emperor Francis Joseph chose her for nis bride on the evening on which he was to become bob othed to her elder' sister Nene (Helen) form the theme of the play. The operetta is prettily staged, and much entertainment is derived from the contrast between the unceremonial life in tlie petty ducal household and that of the powerful Emperor even in his summer villa at Isold. Herr Kreisler, the composer, was present and ws enthusiastically applauded. 'the libretto of “Sissy” is the joint work of Herr Ernst Decsay and Herr Gustav Holm.