STAGE & CONCERT NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1938, Page 2

STAGE & CONCERT NOTES

Soon, Lawrence Tibbett, the bestknown baritone in the world today, will be in New Zealand. He gave his first appearance in Melbourne on May 28. Tibbett, who is the highest-paid baritone in the concert world, will give at least 50 concerts in Australia and New Zealand. He has an amazing repertoire, including 580 songs from which he will choose his concert programmes, these being in addition to his operatic numbers. Each of his programmes will be selected to appeal to all kinds of musical taste, and will include grand opera, general ballads, and modern ballads.

The great singer who is said to have saved the Metropolitan Opera, New York, from extinction, Kirsten Flagstad, will soon be on her way to Australian and New Zealand for a concert tour under the direction of J. and N. Tait. Commencing in Sydney on June 18 she will give her first Melbourne concert at the Town Hall on July 16. Acclaimed the greatest dramatic soprano today and the outstanding exponent of Wagnerian roles, the announcement of the appearance of Kirsten Flagstad in London, New York or Europe is sufficient to sell out every seat weeks in advance. William J. Henderson, the critic of the “New York Sun” recently wrote of her performance at the Metropolitan: “The audience took Flagstad to its heart and gave her an ovation. She is the divinity of the opera.”

GEORGE ARLISS DISCUSSES HIS FUTURE. At 69, after a career lasting over 40 years,, the screen’s most loved veteran enthuses about his present and reveals hopes for the future in an exclusive interview. Can you imagine the benign Mr Arliss as a blood-thirsty pirate? Well, in “Dr. Syn,” Gainsborough’s screen version of Russell Thorndike’s thrilling tales of eighteenthcentury smuggling, he has a brandnew character as a parson by day and a smuggler by night, and does he like it? It is exceedingly difficult, when one interviews this vital, active star of world-wide fame, to realise that he has just celebrated his 69th birthday. “It will be something quite different for me,” said Mr Arliss. “It is like an adventure story, the sort of things boys like. It should help me to get out of a certain rut I have been getting into lately.” Fie paused and drew in his breath. “I suppose I shall be just the same as I always am. But at least the story will be different.” “I think" I ought to return to the theatre,” he says. “Just to feel in touch with an audience again. And there are lots of things I want to do on the stage. But I have always wanted to play Shylock on the screen. I think “The Merchant of Venice” is one Shakespearean play that would photograph very well, because it combines the real story of Shylock with the fairy story of Portia, and also, it would cut very easily. I like Shakespeare on the screen,” he went on, “and was delighted with ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ ” His fondest wish, however, is to play “The Vicar of Wakefield” in a film. The Goldsmith character certainly seems suited to the benign Arliss manner.

- With him in “Dr. Syn,” which will be shown at the State Theatre shortly, are John Loder, Margaret Lockwood, Graham Moffat and Roy Emerton.

The Imperial State Crown, which is among the British crown jewels, featured in “Victoria the Great,” was remade in 1838 for Queen Victoria. The original Crown was made for Charles II and has been altered many times since. It is the most valuable Crown in the world, being worth from a half to three-quarters of a million pounds. As it stands today, it contains 2,783 diamonds, 277 pearls, 18 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 rubies, among which are: "The Second Star of Africa,” the second largest cut diamond in the world. "The Black Prince's Ruby,” valued at £llO.OOO, and historically priceless . At the back is a beautiful sapphire known as the “Stewart Sapphire" which was removed from the front of the Crown when the Cullinan diamond was found and the second portion of it placed at the front of the State Crown.