Williamson's Opera Company

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 214, 7 September 1934, Page 9

Williamson's Opera Company

“THE DUBARRY” AND “WALTZES FROM VIENNA'* Thero arc over 300 tons (skip's measurement) of effects • for the productions of “The Dubarry” and “Waltzes from Vienna,” the two stupendous musical plays which are to be staged hero by tho J. C. Williamson, Ltd. management on Friday and Saturday nights next. For the carriage of the scenery and effects no less than four of the largest Tailway ytrucks are necessary and special trains will have to be engaged;for the transit of the company, which numbers over 100 people. “Gorgeous beyond the dreams of women—the last word in magnificent costuming and scenic settings—the romantic career of a fascinating woman who became a king’s mistress, set to the most beautiful music and with the gayest humour.” This is how au Australian critic began his article regarding the initial presentation there of 1 ‘The Dubarry,” in which the famous London artist, Mis 3 Sylvia Welling, will make her first appearance here. "The Dubarry” is perfectly delicious. Thero is a book which tilts delightfully at the licentious days —and nights—when Louis XV. held sway ‘in' France; there are melodious tunes that pour through tho . auditorium in waves of sheer boauty; there is Sylvia Welling even better than we have known ‘her in the past, and a supporting company that it would be hard to ex6ol. The authors of “The Dubarry” have laid low the all-con-quering heart of a woman with a subtlety that makes entrancing entertainment. It is good-natured and urbane, and despite its “period” setting, reaches at times a peak of modernity. The music is deliciously melodious, colourful and rhythmic, and far more intelligent than is usual in this class of production. It possesses splendid, unhackneyed an'd stirring passages, some tender and some startlingly strident, according to the mood. It is said that. Sylvia Welling’s sympathetic-compell-ing sincerity in her big scenes are beautiful and effective. Her ducts with John, Dudley, “The Road to Happiness” and “Without Your Love,” are said to bo joyous songs which are sung with fine feeling. In the solos, “Happy Little Jeanne,” “I Give My Heart,” and “Beauty,” Miss Welling’s tonal qualities are said to be pure and sure, and she sings the melodious trifles with true emphasis and musical values. “Waltzes from Vienna” proved quite as : popular in Australia and Auckland as “The Dubarry,” and it, too, is surpassingly -beautiful. “‘Waltzes from Vienna,’” wrote a London critic, “sent its first audience into wilder raptures than anything we have had since ‘White Horse Inn,’ which it more than equals in wonder and charm. At times it is just a dream of delight which makes one forget that one is in a theatre at all—a dream of moving colours and lights and rich, and lovely costumes of the old Vienna of the 'forties; of luscious -waltz and gay quadrilles and tripping polka; of magical scenic changes that turn a garden, -with fireworks, into an orchestra, and an orchestra into a ball-room; of ballets that whirl into, vision; of sudden floods of light that come from no one knows where. Ovor all is the spell of the Strauss melodies of swaying and streaming rhythms, that bring the witchery of tho Danube into the theatre. It is all a blending music of scene and colours and light and song all in one.” Miss Welling B has achieved her best triumphs in “Tho Dubarry” and Waltzes from Vienna,” and among those -who have assisted in these triumphs are Cecil Ivellaway, John Dudley, Leslie Holland. Ivy Kirby. Jean Gibson, Hilton Porter, Clift Howley, Cecil Pawley, Lou Vernon, Lorna Forbes, Jean Duncan, Richard Parry and Douglas Herald. The box plans will be opened at the Central Booking Office on Tuesday next.