The World of Music

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 14

The World of Music

Notes and Comments of General Interest ill

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Not even the most spectacular musical play of modem times, or the most sensational drama of the year, could draw larger houses to His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, than the Williamson company now playing Gilbert and Sullivan there. The gay lyrics and matchless dialogue of the comic operas seem to add, with the passing decades, more and more devotees to the legion of admirers of the two famous collaborators. The company is practically the same as that which Messrs Wil-

liamson have maintained in Australia, following on the sensational season in New Zealand early last year. Newcomers are Strella Wilson, an ardent Savoyard, and Evelyn Hall, a fine contralto. There is still Ivan Menzies to impart comedy to his favourite roles; and there are still Godfrey Stirlinkg, Gregory Straud, Richard Watson, Bernard Manning, Vincent Mac Murray, Helen Langton, Clifford Cowley, Eileen Kelly, Margaret Kelly, Nina Robbins, Tommy Jay, Phyllis Dickinson, etc., to intrigue and charm ■with their wonderful sense of the values of music and satire. Then too, there is Leo Packer’s orchestra of fine players, and an excellent chorus of people who wear the habiliments of the various operas, and sing the timely ensembles with glee and happiness.

It is unusual for a newspaper to publish an editorial about a singer except when one of the great ones dies! But an editorial about a living singer is decidedly uncommon. This, however, happened about Madam Kirsten Flagstad, the celebrated Norwegian soprano, who has been engaged by Mr Frank S. Tait in New York for a tour of Australia, under the direction of J. and N. Tait in 1938. Nearly two years ago Madam Flagstad was making her first appearances at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Her appearances created one of the greatest sensations. The New York Herald Tribune in an editorial said as follows:—"As human achievements go, that o' Kirsten Flagstad, the Norse soprano, is surely remarkable. Mme Flagstad, who sailed last week for her native Oslo, leaves behind her here the memory of deeds for which experienced operagoers have vainly sought a precedent. Three months ago, when she joined the Metropolitan Opera Company, Mme Flagstad was scarcely known save «o her Norwegian compatriots and to attendants at recent Bayreuth Festivals. By the time she was ready to leave our shores she had repeatedly sold out the Metropolitan in performances of seven of the great roles of the Wagnerian repertoire, three of which she had sung for the first time in her career and one of which (Kundry in "Parsifal”) she had learned in ei?hteen days; she had made “Tristan and Isolde," Wagner’s profoundest work, a post-seasonal sensation, with queues of would-be ticket buyers extending half around the block; and she had become an operatic star of the first magnitude, by bringing to bear upon the embodiment of her roles the skill of a consummate singing actress, a voice of extraordinary beauty, and the essential simplicity and esthetic piety of a great artist. For perhaps the outstanding thing that Mme. Flagstad accomplished was her demonstration of the fact that supreme beauty can become the most sensational of artistic phenomena. Mme. Flagstad did not exercise the conventional operatic lures. Roulades and altitudinous top notes and spectacular histrionism were not part of her equipment. She devoted herself, with complete self-effacement, to the re-creation of great music and great drama and that was her achievement. Undoubtedly it is true as we have been reminded, that much of the applause for Mme. Flagstad was in reality a tribute to the vitality of the masterpieces which she conveyed with auch astonishing eloquence. But in recognising that fact, as of course, we must, let us not underestimate the potent contributions of such genuine recreators as Mme. Flagstad. Isolde lives, indeed—but intermittently and unpredlctably. She lives only when gome interpreter of kindling power and exalting imagination lights the torch or lifts the veil. It is only then that we witness the revelation of a mystery that nothing but faith and genius and inspiration can disclose.” Blnce her New York success Mme. Flagstad has sung in London at Covent (Garden and concerts and achieved gven greater triumphs.

Malcolm Sargent, while in Australia, conducted for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, within six weeks, seven public orchestral concerts two choral concerts and four matinees for children, at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The average attendance was over 3000. Dr Sargent travelled over 3000 miles by air. The music to which the Monte Carlo Russian Ballet performs its miracles of terpslchorean art is a special feature

of its programmes. A New Zealand tour of Colonel de Basil’s famous company begins at Auckland on February 22. There is already immense interest in the visit of such a notable coterie of dancing personalities, and Messrs J. C. Williamson have received applications for seats in numbers that certify the enthusiasm of Dominion theatregoers for the highest form of the dancing art. Ballets have been created and arranged by such world-famous choreographers as Michael Fo Kine, leonide Massine, Georges Balanchini and Bronislava Nijinska. In Australia recently, performances of such graceful, beautifully-dressed and mounted ballets as "Scheherazade,” “Les Sylphides,” "Le Lac des Cygnes,” "Prince Igor,” "Aurora’s Wedding,” “Port Said,” "Midnight Sun,” “Fantasie Chinois,” etc., drew crowded audiences to their feet in spontaneous appreciation of some of the loveliest dance spectacles ever seen in the Commonwealth

centres. New Zealand’s privilege comes shortly.