OPERA HOUSE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1514, 1 May 1919, Page 34

OPERA HOUSE.

The usual weekly change of programme at the Opera House attracted a very large audience on Monday evening, every seat upstairs being occupied. The great reception of the night was given to Signor and Signora Molinari, who made a welcome reappearance. In the opening duet the two voices were skilfully blended, although a. slight tendency to a false tremolo was at times noticeable. But it is in operatic airs that the beauty of phrasing and temperamental colour of the artists are fully revealed. For an encore Signor Molinari responded with an aria in which his fine voice, strong and true tone and artistic feeling, was heard to great advantage, while in a further duet with Signora Molinari the beauty of the latter’s clear soprano and the ease of its production merited the storm of applause which’ greeted the 'finale. Miss Ethel Vaugh contributed the next item, giving a series of imitations, of which the best was a tiny tot singing in public. In response to applause she told a collection of stage jokes and quibs, and gave a burlesque of one of the psalms that to say the least was in very doubtful taste, although it was so Americanised that many people failed to see its meaning. A" song and danc e turn was given by Corrie and Baker with a lightness that greatly pleased the audience. The principal item of the evening was the demon riding by three cyclists—two men and a woman—called the “Fearless Staigs.” A huge iron circular cage, pearshaped, was erected on the stage, into which the performers, dressed in scarlet Lucifer costumes, entered. Inside this they mounted cycles, and getting up a high rate of speed circled the cage, rising, by the power 'of momentum, higher and higher till they flew round almost horizontal to the side. After this a large high-

powered motor cycle was introduced, and upon this one performer flew round and round till the centrifugal force carried him right overhead and down again in every direction. As a sensational death-defying feat it left nothing to be desired. A very amusing turn was given by Leonard Nelson, whose best work was a series of imitations of nationalities gathered to condemn the Kaiser. He only had a cap, a pipe and a small false moustache as accessories, and with these produced an Irishman, Yankee, Italian, Scotchman, English dude, and “Bill from New Zealand,” who was in reality Norman Lindsay’s ideal of the Sydney “tough” and not a New Zealand study at all. Every item was received with applause. The second part of the programme was devoted to a revue, called “Murphy at the Cabaret,” which went with a swing from start to finish.