MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1472, 11 July 1918, Page 35

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String,)

Amongst the applicants for the position of organist at the Parish Church of Burton-on-Trent recently were five blind musicians. At a meeting of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council a few days ago it was decided to cancel the affiliation of the Musicians’ Union. Re--cently the Musicians’ Union declared the Eight Hours’ Day procession “black,” and instructed its members •

not to take part in it. This position was created by the Eight Hours’ Anniversary Committee deciding to engage bands other than those affilp ated with the Musicians’ Union. It was alleged that this decision was due to the refusal of the union to reinstate enemy alien members who had been suspended. The executive of the Trades Hall Council also asked the union to re-open the case against the suspended members, but the union declined.

It has been decided by Mr. Alfred van Noorden and Mrs. Carl Rosa that the occasion of the Royal Carl Rosa Grand Opera Company shall be marked in the first place by the establishment of two scholarships, the first a Carl Rosa scholarship in the Royal Academy of Music, in memory of Carl Rosa; the second a Walter van Noorden scholarship at the Royal College of Music, in memory of Walter van Noorden. The object of these scholarships is to encourage youthful British-born musicians to compose operatic works, the scholarship to be awarded in each case for a composition in operatic form, chosen either by the school or an individual, the age limit of the competitors to be not less than eighteen years. Negotiations are also in progress for the establishment of a Carl Rosa cot in a throat hospital, and it -is further hoped to honour the event by a gala performance of past and present' artists in aid of a war charity to be decided upon. It is not generally known that quite a large number of the original members of the company are alive and well, including Miss Rose Hersee, who made her first appearance with the Carl Rosa Company in America in 1869.

No comedy actress imported into Australia by any management has made such a lasting hit as Miss Sara Allgood in “Peg o’ My Heart.” There have been individual successes over limited runs in the big centres, but there has not been any run to compare in any way with Manners’ fascinating and unique comedy. Prior to coming to Australia Miss Sara Allgood was a member of the Irish Players, a company of extraordinarily gifted people who have lifted the London and New York public to an appreciation of what is real in Irish poetry, imagery, and character. One gets touches of it in “Peg o’ My Heart in Miss Allgood’s realisation of the forlorn little Irish girl ’ who comes to take up her residence with the stately Chichester family.

Cappelli, the eminent Italian tenor, who opens a short season in Auckland this week, recently sang before an audience of three thousand people in the Sydney Town Hall. Such enthusiasm was aroused by Cappelli, and so great were the demands of the audience for further numbers from this artist, that the continuation of the programme was delayed for the space of 20 minutes. It was considered the most remarkable demonstration ever accorded any singer in Sydney. Cappelli, during his stay in Sydney, answered the call made by his country for all men of military age to return homeward and proceed to the front, but he was rejected as medically unfit.