THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17384, 21 April 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

Grand Opera In Sydney. The Gonsalez Grand Opera Company, under the Fuller management, has been heard in the. following operas, at St. James's Theatre, Sydney, this week:— "La Favorita," "Ernani," "Faust," "Mignon," "Norma," and "Lucia de Lammermoor." The season will end next Thursday. Slump In Hamilton—Musically. Under the heading. "Slump in Hamilton." a. Taranaki paper says: The termination of the career of the Hamilton Choral Society will be noted as a distinct loss to music in that district. Recently, too, their Orchestral Society, Male' Choir, and Competitions have disappeared. This should not be in a town of the rank of Hamilton, with such a district to draw from. Williamson Grand Opera Company. Mr Nevin Taif, with 50 principals of his grand opera company, which will total lon with the chorus, arrived at, Melbourne from Naples last week. The Italian Press asserted that he was taking with him the greatest opera company ever sent from Italy. Prince Potenziani, the Mayor of Rome, wisher, the artists ereal success. Gabrielle D'Annunzio, Hie poet, sent, a message, to Toti Dal Monte: "The roses in my garden are blooming, but you. the nightingale, are absent. I l n ng sought perfection, and realised I hail found it when I heard you sine: 'Lucia.' "

The company will open at Melbourn on May 12.

Amy Evans and Fraser Gange. Amy Evans (soprano > and Eraser Gange (baritone:, those delightful singers whose previous tour seven years ago is well remembered, commenced another tour of New Zealand at Wellington on Saturday.

This was the opening programme: Miss Evans sang "Porgi" 'Marriage of Figaro; (Mozart), "Depuis le jour" (Louise) (Charpentier), "Zueignung" (Strauss 1 , "Wiegenlicd" (Regerj, "Die Allmacht" (Almighty Power; (Schubert:, "My Lovely Celia" (Monro,, "When e'er a Snowflake" (Liza Lehmann;, "Before You Came" If. Lane Wilson 1 , and the duet with Mr Gang* 1 , "Nearest and Dearest," (Caracciolo).

Mr Fraser Gance sang: "Luigi dal caro bene" (Secchi), prologue from "Pagliacci" (Leoncavallo), "Trauf durch die (Strauss!, "Wohin" Schubert;, "The Two Grenadiers" (Schumann), "Duna" (Me Gill', "Roadways" (Lewis), and "A Smuggler's Song" (Mullinarj.

Musical Moments

Mcjiseiwitseh, pianist, will begin his tour of Australia and New Zealand at Sydney to-night. Arturo Toscanini, the Italian conduclor, gets between £SOO and £6OO for each concert he conducts. Mr Lawrence North, of Dunedin, will sing the title role in "Elijah" with the Auckland Choral Society next month. Mr G. P. Barnctt, musical director at 2BL, Sydney, will judge the vocal section at the Wellington Competitions. There's money in a successful ballad. Al Prantadosi recently refused £3OOO for his song, "I'm Tired of Making Believe."

Madame Florry Roscoe, formerly of Hamilton, assisted at a concert given in Wellington on Sunday night on behalf of the Port Nicholson Band., She sang "Last Night" and "Sing, Joyous Bird." Twelve thousand public school children, chosen by Iheir teachers, are to hear during April four free concerts in Brooklyn and four in the Bronx, given by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

John McCormack, the Irish tenor, who recently had the title of Count conferred on him by the Pope, is reputed to make more money than any other singer. One concert tour in the United States is said to have brought him nearly £70,000, while as many as 1,250,000 of his gramophone records, all subject to royalty, have been sold in a single year. He made his debut at Covent Garden in 1007, at the age of Moiseiwitsch is of the opinion that the majority of modern composers go to unnecessary extremes in their works. The great classical and romantic composers are Still the mainstay of every pianist's repertoire, and Moiseiwitsch does not conceal his preference for them. Among the moderns he places Rachmaninoff on a high pedestal, and claims that his piano concertos are the finest composed during the last fifty years.

World's Finest Opera Stage. The Teatro Reale dell'-Oper* or Royal Opera House, at Rome, formerly known as the Teatro Costanzi, was reopened to the public with a gala performance of Arrigo Boito's "Ncrone."

This is the first opportunity the Roman public had of admiring this opera, wh'ch is generally conceded to be one of ihe most, spectacular entertainments ex r r staged.

With the opening of the Teatro Reale dcll'Opera, Italy acquires what is claimed to be the most perfect opera stage in the world. The transformation of the stage has been supervised by Pericle Ansaldo, the son of Giovanni Ansaldo, the chief technician of the Scala of Milan.

Young Ansaldo has installed in the Teatro Reale dell'Opera a semi-rigid "panorama" of his invention. It consists of a curved screen occupying the whole of the back of the stise. It is painted sky blue and by a suitable arrangement of lighting gives a perfect illusipn of infinite distance. A special lantern causes life-like clouds tc lloa'. across the "panoiarna," while another special apparatus imitates the twinkling of stars for night scenes. Directly under ihe stage is a colossal switc.i which rerulates the lighting on the stage. When all the lighting is fully on 1,000.000 candle power is concentrated on the stage. The switch has 260 stops corresponding to an equal number of intensities and gradations of light. The second largest switch of this sort in the world is in Hamburg and has 180 stops. The switch is so enormous that it occupies the whole of a large room. It. is connected to the stage by means of a loud-speaker, which permits the operator to follow the opera and produce 'he lighting effects as they are needed. The management of the theatre has been taken over for four years by Signer Ottavio Scotto, who has built up a great reputation as an opera impresario in the Argentine, where he manager) the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires. He has engaged some of the best, known singers in the world to perform in Rome this winter. They include Lauri-Volpi, Titto Schipa, Toti dal Monte, and Glaudio Muzio, all of the Metropolitan Opera House of New