Tapu.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11733, 10 September 1902, Page 5

Tapu.

It is not. generally known '(says the New Zealand Times) that Mr Tom Pollard lias secured from Mr Williamson the sole right to produce Mr Alfred Hill's comic opera "Tapu" in New Zealand. The piece is said to be full of Maori colour and quaint in the extreme. The music is in complete harmony -with the theme, and haka dances and poi dancers are. features of the chorus work. The piece has had one or two narrow escapes from production:, and was actually in active rehearsal under the personal superintendence of Mr Hill', at Her Majesty's, in Sydney, when that, theatre was burned. The .score of "Tapu" wasi nearly lost at that time, indeed the outer edges and some of the top leaves of it were burned, and Mr Hill retains the fire-fringed remains as a memento to this day. Luckily he was able to memorise and preplace the opening portions of the comedy. Acting on the advice of an erstwhile New Zealand journalist,-now in Sydney, Mr Williamson .sent over to Hawke's Bay and secured the services "of Wi Duncan, an authority on Maori lore and dancing, to "coach" the performers?. It' was amusing, Mr Hill says, to see Wi trying to teach a. group of ballet girls the manipulation of the poi. He was so shy an-1 diffident about itt. and every now and again would say: ' I can do him myself, but I can't teach him." However, he found tho choruses very apt, and quick to learn, and it was wonderful with what swing and dash the poi dances were carried through. It was thought that the poi per so would not appeal to-Aus tralian audiences?, and so it was decided that it should be accompanied with a graceful dancing measure, with, it is said, most effective results. Mr Hill is of opinion that there is a wide fMd for development in the adaptation of Maori rhythm and symphony, not only in lighter "compositions, but in more pretentious music, and he has for some years been making a special study of Maori methods), with a practical end in view. "Tapu" an 1 "Hinemoa," with its now 'amous "Ra Ha" chorus, may be regarded as the first fruits of this grafting process. The young composer mentions incidentally that Maoriland vocalists invariably show a finer conception of the peculiar verve and swing which compositions of this kind require than those who have not had the advantage of imbibing the Maori spirit at its fount.