MUSICAL ROMANCE STAGED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20890, 20 November 1937, Page 14

MUSICAL ROMANCE STAGED

INTERESTING LONDON PREMIERE WORK OF NEW ZEALANDERS The most important premiere of the season was the presentation at the Adelphi Theatre, London, of “The Laughing Cavalier.” Advance publicity had occasioned eager anticipation in theatrical circles generally, and in New Zealand circles particularly, because the play was inspired by Mr P. Stafford Byrne (Wellington), and

Mr S. Wainwright Morgan (Christchurch). The former, with the collaboration of Mr Reginald Arkell, has been responsible for the book and lyrics in their present form, while Mr Morgan wrote the music and arranged it

The story behind the picture “The Laughing Cavalier” by the Dutch master Franz Hals, is the theme of the musical romance. The painting originally described as “Half-length portrait of a man,” was sold at the Hague in 1776 for 180 florins; at Amsterdam, in 1783, for 241 florins, and again at Amsterdam in 1800 for 300 florins. Lord Hertford bought it for 51,000 francs—roughly £2500. It is now priceless. “The Laughing Cavalier,” as it came to be known, w T as brought to England in 1872, as part of the famous Wallace Collection, which was bequeathed to the nation by the widow of Sir Richard Wallace, and found a | home at Hertford House, Manchester Square, in 1900. The period of the play is 1624, and the scenes depict life in the Dutch town of Haarlem. The story is an imaginative effort to explain the expression of the cavalier in the picture, and • relates that Franz Hals (John Garrick), the painter of noted canvasses, had a very young and coquettish wife, Lysbeth (Irene Eisinger, herself a Viennese). A handsome, swaggering cavalier (Arthur Margetson), who brings the portrait to life, looked into the studio while his troops were billeted at Haarlem on their way to join the Prince of Orange. This leader of a band mercenaries falls in love with Lysbeth, believing her to be the artist’s daughter. He, of course, has his portrait painted. When he hears she is Hals’ wife he very gallantly blackens himself in Lysbeth’s eyes and goes back to a former ladylove, an aristocrat <Nora Swinburne), who is pursuing him all over Europe.