MUSICAL and DRAMATIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17270, 20 September 1919, Page 3 (Supplement)

MUSICAL and DRAMATIC

Mr. Harry Dearth, commenced his New /lealand tour in Christcharch on Saturday. Mr. Dearth ho is a Londoner, was trained at the Royal Academy of Music. Alter three years there Mr. Dearth was appointed a member of the Westminister Abbey choir, where he became Jay vicar," a term given to fie bass soloist, and there under Sir l-redenck Bridge he remained for 14 years, during which period he sang in all the great oratorios and with the chief London orchestras. He then had an offer from the late Mr. George Edwards, of the London Gaiety Theatre, and played the "i one . lead in " Gipsy Love,*" and The Marriage Market,' both of which enjoyed long runs. Later, Mr. Dearth played in.Mr. George Clutsam's opera Young England," in which he figured as Sir Francis Drake. Mr. Cluteani was a native of New Zealand, and the opera was a fine work, and ran successively in London and afterwards in the provinces. Before he left he appeared in " Shanghai" in association with Miss Dorothy Brunton Mr. Dearth also figured for three seasons with the Beecham Grand Opera Company.

In their forthcoming pantomime production, Goody Two Shoes," J. C. Wiliiamson, Ltd.. claim t> have surpassed anything hitherto attempted. Particularly, it said has this pantomime excelled any previous achievement for its beauty ana variety. There are some notable specialties included. In the cast many new comers are included. These comprise Miss Dorothy Hastings, principal boy, Miss Madeline Harrison, principal girl, Miss Maud Gray, and Miss Toby Claude one of America's foremost eccentric comediennes. Mr. Arthur Stigant as " dame" is a household word. A really wonderful performance is said to be given by Mr Fred Walton as the " toy soldier." There are 19 scenes in the two acts.

Unknown to the general public, the great Giovanni Puccini has recently been staying in London, and has now gone back to Italy, where he has bought a high tower in which to compose another opera, Ihree new one-act operas by him were to have been produced at Covent Garden this season, but it is now reported that they will not be heard. Puccini is a great master of the tearful, and it is rumoured that he is thinking of going to Dickens lor his next libretto. It is to be hoped that ttiis is true, remarks a London writer, for "Little Dorrit" as an opera by Puccini would produce in the operatic world something Kke a second deluge.

The King of the Belgians has conferred upon Mr. Hugh J. Ward, managing director m Sydney of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., the Cross of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold 11. During the war Mr. Ward's activities on behall of patriotic and other causes resulted in large sums of money raised, including £21,000 from a matinee at Her Majesty's Sydney in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund, and £f142,000 from the Belgian, Day Appeal.

_'! dorian Gray," an opera based on Oscar Wilde's strange tale of the passage of a man's soul into a picture, was produced at the Sydney Conservatorium Hall last week. The book was adopted by a wellknown Sydney barrister, Mr. W. J. Curtis, and the music is by Mr. W. Arundel Orchard, whose principal earlier work was " Ulla the Bowman."

The date of the composition of " The Blue Danube" waltz recently excited no little controversy in the English press. The trouble has now been definitely settled by Mr. Arthur Hervey, a prominent musical critic, who writes as follows. " This famous waltz, bearing the opus number of 314, was written for orchestra and chorus, and its title was borrowed from a poem by Karl Beck. In the above form it was performed for the first time at the Dianasaale on February »13, 1867, when it only achieved a eucces d'estime. In the course of the same year Johann Strauss was engaged to conduct a series of concerts at the Paris Exhibition, and here the waltz obtained an enormous success, which was the beginning of its world-wide fame."

Mies Emilie Polini, whose appearance in New Zealand has fcr long been awaited with interest, will commence a tour of the Dominion in Wellington on October 1. Mr. John Tait may travel with the company.

Strong comment on a Nottingham magistrate's refusal to allow two girls, aged 11 and 12, to appear on the stage as fairies in a pantomime is made by a leading London daily paper. This was the magistrate's decision on an appeal from the manager: "We don't think it right for you to exploit these children for your pecuniary advantage. To.be out after ten is not good for them morally or physically." The following is aa extract from the press criticism —" If the theatre is to be of any servece in the reconstruction of the nation, we must have on the stage children, and these children must be acted by children and not by those poor stunted creatures whose employment and manufacture the magistrate and his friends have in their ignorance done their best to encourage."

The name of Miss Hilda Guiver. who appeared as principal boy in one of the recent Williamson pantomimes, and was afterwards seen in musical comedy and revue, is in the cast of the musical play " Nobody's Boy," presented at the Gar-rick Theatre, London, in July. The play is founded on an old farce by Lestocq and Robeon, " The Foundling."

The decline in the use of the harp as an instrument for sweet music is deplored by the London Daily Telegraph. " How comes it," asks the critic, " that the harp, once a prime favourite instrument of young British womanhood, has been allowed to fall, so far as she is concerned, into desuetude? It seems, nay, it is, a thousand pities that this should be so, for it is a very beautiful and a most ancient instrument. Usually the harp is regarded purely as an orchestral instrument nowadays, save among a few; but this is to be deprecated. The harp in a house has a much more soothing effect even than a violin, there exists a good deal of beautiful music written especially for it, and it is perfectly conceivable that its charm might again be realised more considerably than is at present the case if the young ladies of to-day would emulate their grandmothers in its use, if for no other reason than its wonderful capacity for exhibiting a beautifully formed arm!

The company supporting Mr. Harry Dearth for his New Zealand tour is made up of Madame Marie Power, contralto, Mr. Harold Beck, cellist, and Miss Carlien Jurs, solo pianist, who comes with a good reputation from Australia.

An indication of the Czecho-Slovak'e love for music, may be gleaned from the fact that his government recently granted £40.000 _ for the recent Czecho-Slovak festival in London. The Italian Government is now financing a series of concerts of ancient Italian music in London. Italy's national poet, Gabriel d'Annunzio is concerned in the venture.

It is stated that the Diggers' Pierrots are to make a professional tour of the Dominion very shortly.

Signor and Signora Cappelli have just been appointed professors of singing at the State Conservatorium, Sydney. During a recent tour, when the fine tenor was singing a ballad from " Rigoletto" in Brisbane, Homebody threw a penny on the stage. It fell at the singer's feet but the song continued. At the conclusion Cappelli waited a moment, and seeing that no effort to eject the thrower of the coin was made, he waved his gloves and left the stage. He did rot reappear that evening.

A national English theatre was among the war memorial schemes proposed at Home. The prospect of a spectacular melodrama at Drury Lane, described by one critic as " one of the good old things we loved so well," is hailed with enthusiasm by some writers. Husico Dramatiots. I