STAGE AND SCREEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 18 June 1932, Page 4

STAGE AND SCREEN

A musical treat will be offered to Nelsonians next week when the famous Russian pianist, Bcnno Moiseiwitsch will give two concerts in the School of Music, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Moiseiwitsch is not the slave of a single composer. “I like all the old masters,” was his reply when asked for his favourite in a recent interview. “Sometimes Bacli grips me, sometimes I get a special liking for Beethoven. For many years I revelled in Schumann. Lately, 1 have been taking a delight in Chopin, and played more of him than anything else. It is all very well to play a composer because you think you have to, but if you are right in tune with him the effect will not be lost , on an appreciative audience. The outstanding tiling about this present tour is the playing of twenty-four Chopin preludes in one forty-minute sitting. I wondered how a young audience such as one finds in Australia and New Zealand would take it, and the way they do is a revelation. Appreciation. here has grown tremendously, though, of course, you are still behind countries which have as many as seven concerts a day

for nine months of the year, and many fine orchestra concerts.”

Since this master pianist was in New Zealand last, lie has played in Java, China, Lidia, Europe, England, France, Italy. North America, South America and’South Africa. “In China and Java, the audiences were mostly made up of Europeans ” he said, “but in Japan 98 per cent, of the audiences were Japanese. I gave live recitals in the Imperial Theatre in Tokio on consecutive nights. The theatre holds 25,000 people, and was packed every night. 1 was mged to give concerts by one composer, and requests for a Beethoven night were frequent. The audience would iollow the music on a score of their own, and then come round and ask me to autograph Ihe music for them.”

Mrs J. F. Woodward, the well-known Wellington,' soprano, who, it may be remembered, sang here in a concert in the School of Music about two years ago when the Savage Club orchestra visited Nelson, put up a remaikablc performance in the Royal Wellington Choral Union’s “Faust” concert given recently. Miss Teresa. McEnroe, who was to'have sung the part of Marguerite, was suddenly seized with influenza, and it was only at 2 o’clock on the day of the concert that Airs Woodward was asked to take her place. Despite the fact that she had never sung the part of Marguerite before, Mrs Woodward very sportingly came to the rescue, and accomplished ‘what the critic of the “Dominion” justly describes as “an amazing achievement.”

“The Italians have a proverb that he who can breathe can sing,” said the judge of ihe vocal section at tho Christchurch Competitions, Mr Will Hutchens, recently. “Students of singing should remember that' without correct breathing control, they cannot sing properly. The breath, by ,its action on the vocal chords,; is;the motive force, in the same way . that petrol .is used in the carburettor of' an engine. The maintenance of a compact, buoyant column of air is necessary to sustain tone and to maintain the pitch. Clavicular breathing, which consists of raising the shoulders, is frequently the cause of faulty singing, and competitors should aim to develop a natural rise and fall of the diaphragm.”

The cast for Michael Arlen’s “Lily Christino,” which is being translated to the screen at Elstrce, up to date comprises the following notable English artists: Corinne Griffith, Colin Clive, Jack Trevor, Margaret Banncrman and Anne Grey. The London “Evening News,” in picking the six best box-office attractions screened in England during 1931, placed “Whoopee” first, “Africa Speaks” second, and then in order of precedence, “Plunder,” “Hell Angels,” “One Heavenly Night,” and “Trader Horn.” The selections were made by Arthur W. Jarratt, who handles the booking arrangements for 320 houses in Britain. A new blonde arriving in the Hollywood ranks will cause a sensation without doubt. She is Diana Wynyard, the lovely English actress who made a conquest of New York when she appeared with Basil Rathbone in “The Devil Passes.” Diana Wynyard has great freshness and charm as well as true beauty, and her stage training has been of the best. She joins a studio where she will find plenty of competition— Xorma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Garbo, and so on. One can name thorn indefinitely. Supporting Nellie Bramley in a series of dramas and comedies in Melbourne, are William Raymond, Margaret Adele, Ethel Bashford, George Hewlett, Victor Knight, William McGoWen, Austin Milroyy Margorie May, Ronald Riley, Will Ralston and Marion Marcus Clark. It is probable that the company will visit New Zealand this year.

Frank Neil, who has introduced many theatrical companies to Australia, will tour a revue company through New (Zealand shortly. On its return to Australia the company will be reorganised and, according to present plans, dispatched to India. It will travel under the title, “Tho, Australian Follies of 1932.”

Of the non-musical attractions to appear in New Zealand this season the most outstanding is the engagement of Dame ' Sybil Thorndyke and her husband, Lewis Casson, and their entire company of twenty, who will appear in a- scries of plays, opening with Shaw’s “St. Joan” some time in July. There is also “Autumn Crocus,” which is unique in the fact that its authoress was formerly a clerk in London, but from this, her initial effort as a playwright, has already netted £40,000 in royalties.

The London musical success, “Blue Roses,” will lie presented shortly in New Zealand, with two famous artists in the lead, Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritcliards, who are sure of a great welcome from playgoers. Interviewed recently, Madge Elliott said: “Please don’t say I’m engaged to Cyril Ritcliards. Everybody thinks because we dance together we must be, but ours isn’t that sort of an association at all.” Theirs is the finest example of stage comradeship that can be quoted. They understand, each other perfectly. as grown-up playmates, as comrades, but never with the hint of a deeper romance.

MARIE DRESSLER

“NO FOOL LIKE AN OLD FOOL” “Middle age is the best part of life,” Mario Dressier, veteran stage and screen actress, believes. “You don’t really begin to live or to appreciate life until after you’re fifty.” Marie was looking and feeling especially young and gay. Perhaps it was because she had been having a good, long rest between pictures. But probably, it was because she was wearing a new spring outfit in soft green and black. 1

“One of the most tragic and pitiful sights in the world is a middleaged woman who feels that life is over for her —and looks and acts accordingly,” Marie said. “They are such fools. As soon as their families are raised and their hair is turning grey, they fold their hands and give up the game. “Why, if they only knew it, life is just beginning for them. They can start living for themselves instead of thinking about other people. Their responsibilities are over. I didn’t really begin to live until I was fifty and I honestly feel younger to-day than I did at twenty-five.” Miss Dressier is working at present at tho studios in “Prosperity.” After that she expects to do an original story by Frances Marion, who authored her vh roe best known roles, in “Anna Christie,” “Min and Bill,” and “Emma.” “I wish that I could stand on the house-tops and shout to all women, ‘Don’t dread middle age. Look forward to it. instead. It’s the best part of life.’ And I’d like to add a word or two while we’re on the subject about this trying to look young business. There’s no fool like an old fool, and the silliest sight in the world is a middle aged woman trying to dress like a flapper. Youth doesn’t depend on outside appearance. . It comes from within. I may look a well-preserved sixty, but inside me I know that I’m just approaching my twentieth birthday.”

FAVOURITE SCREEN STARS

SURPRISES IN ENGLISH VOTE Move than 50,000 replies, full of illuminating facts .about films, have been received by Mr Sidney Bernstein, the noted London cinema and theatre owner, in response to a questionnaire sent to all sections of the British public. It appears that England’s favourite film stars are, in order of popularity:— Women: Norma Shearer, Constance Bennett, Marie Dressier, Ruth Chatterton, Janet Gaynor, Greta Garbo. Men: Ronald Colman, Clive Brook, George Arliss, Robert Montgomery, Maurice Chevalier, John Boles. The first three actors are English. Ronald Colman is the only star maintaining his vogue since the last ballot in 1928, and is. an easy winner. Former leaders who now do not appear in the first 30 include Dolores del Rio, Betty Balfour, Clara Bow, Vilma Banky, John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd, Norma Talmadge and Laura ,La Plante.

The biggest slumps are those of Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and A 1 Jolson—who was the first big star of the “talkies.” All three polled scarcely any votes. It is also revealed that 57 per cent, of the public do not wish to hoc silent pictures again; though 48 per cent, would tolerate them occasionally. MOST POPULAR FILMS Last year’s most popular films are “Hell’s Angels,” “Min and Bill,” “Trader Horn,” and “The Devil to Pay.” The favourite British films are “Tons of Money” and “Plunder.” Many celebrated people answered the questions. Mr G. K. Chesterton confessed he had never yet heard a talkie; and Mrs Stanley Baldwin, Lord Burnham, Mr George Lansbury, and Mr Aldous Huxley admitted that they rarely visited cinemas. Seventy-five per cent, of those who answered stated that they relied on Press film critics, and only two per cent, on the radio criticism. The most ■popular directors of; films are Ernst Lubitsch, Tom Walls, Lewis Milestone and Alfred Hitchcock. The first and third are American; the other two British.