THEATRICAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 10 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES

COMING PRODUCTIONS His Majesty's Theatre: To-day. J- C. Williamson Comio Opera Company, " Flo.rodora.' Clevedon House: February 24.-Open air production of Ab You Like It." , ,

THEATRE. AND CONCERT HALL A talented little Auckland girl who has been appearing ra the Babes in the Wood " pantomime at the Regent Theatre for the past three weeks is Veronica Barrington. Her specialty in the production named was /\ eOI J t ° rt '° r act in the* course of which she per formed some remarkable feats. 0f "the, figure eight," it is claimed has never' been done in this city Another which attracted general attention was a remarkable back bend. Mis. Barrington is also a graceful dancer and a clever exponent of tap and toe dancing into the bargain. She was speciallj engaged for Frank Neil's pantomime " Cinderella " recently and toured the North Island with that company as a member of the children's ballet. She has niade many appearances in other productions, including Puss in Foots," a pantomime presented at bcots Hall two vears ago. It is the intention of Miss Barrington's parents to send her to Australia about April to undergo general training "for the stage. With the auspicious start she has made she fihouUl be able to make a career in the profession. —- The rage for Tudor monarchs on the stacre in London has brought about a kindred urge for Tudor costumes among the ladies of Mayfair, whose query now is "Do I look like one of Henry yill.'s wives?" There are half-a-dozen reasons for new-old fashion. Charles Laughton's picture "Tho Private Life of Henry Ti11.," his personal appearance at the Old Vic and the Sadler s Wells theatres in Shakespeare's chronicle play "King 1 Henry VIII. ; the success of Elswyth Thane's drama 'Die Tudor Wench," which is about the girlhood of Queen Elizabeth; and Clifford Bax's tragic play "The Rose Without a Thorn,""which has Henry's fifth wife, Kathrvn Howard, for its heroine. A massive chair for the Welsh National Eisteddfod of 1935, which will probably be held at Caernarvon, as no other application has yet been received, will be supplied by the Welsh residents of New Zealand to commemorate the appointment. of Lord Bledisloe as Gover-nor-General of the Dominion, Lady Bledisloe being the daughter of the late Lord Glantawe, who was a member of the Gorsedd and a generous supporter of the Welsh National Eisteddfod. It will bo of New Zealand timber, and is to have upon it examples of the art of native Maori wo&d-carvers, as "well as Welsh mottoes. The trustees of the fund are Mr. W. G. Rees Jones and Mr. 0. T. Evans, natives of Caernarvon. 00000000000000000000000000

, The cult of the viola Mb a characteristic of present-day English music. Indeed, there is no such corpus of viola music in any other country in the world to-day. The published works with which English composers have enriched the repertory include examples of car, Delius, Yaughan Williams, Ernest' Walker, Arnold Bax, William Walton, W. H. Reed, Benjamin Dale, and York Bowen. Bax has been a particularly generous contributor. It is nearly superfluous to remark that the prime incentive in this movement has been Mr. Tortis' masterly art. The growth of the repertory should attract more players to the instrument. While good violinists abound, there is still no such choice of viola players, and the young orchestral violinist is well advised b' T simple prudence to take up the sister instrument. Memories of the first triumphs of Yehudi Menuhin were invoked by New York music critics in reviews of the recent recital of Ruth Julia Slenczynski, eight-year-old Berkeley pianist. Ruth Julia, recently returned from Europe, included in her concert Bach's " Chromatic Fantasy arid Fugue," Beethoven's "Pathetique" Sonata and i a Cliopin group. Writers for the Times and Herald Tribune were as much delighted with the little girl's childish personality as with her musical precocity. "She played through her programme," said the former, "with tho temperament, the brilliance and the confidence of a born virtuoso. Her grasp of purely technical matters would have been the envy of older and more practiced pianists. Her tone was big and clean and refreshingly musical. Her phrasing had breadth and spaciousness. And what firo

A revelation of the possibilities of the guitar as a serious instrument has been mado in Lojidon by the noted exponent Segovia. Opinions may differ as to the completeness of equipment possessed by this or that singer, pianist, violinist, or by the exponents of other instruments of music, but in regard to Segovia and his guitar there can be no such question, remarks art English eritio. He is both unique and incredible. No one who has not heard Segovia's amazing manipulation of it can have an idea of what is possible to tiiat instrument, he-writes. He plays upon it sonatas, suites, Bach music written for the lute, and other serious thiYigs, and ho plays melodious romances that enchant the ear' and variations that astonish it. Sometimes it is the turn of a phrase that is so arresting, sometimes the involutions of a fugal passa ce astonish us with partplaying to which only a Segovia conld compel such an apparently one-line instrument as this. He is, in short, a marvellous artist, and lie has greatly expanded the repute of the guitar as a musical instrument to be reckoned 3?ith. • ?'v' ; ' • >*• ••• • * !