MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1519, 5 June 1919, Page 30

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String.)

Music has been found to be beneficial in the treatment of soldiers suffering from shell shock, and nowsinging is to be tried on a systematic scale with the approval of the Army authorities. It has been found that singing has both’ directly and indirectly a wonderful curative effect, and there are a number of cases on record in which a man who has been unable to speak suddenly joined in with the singing and so recovered his speech. An effort is being made to organise regular singing training in all hospitals where there are shellshock cases. The Rigo Grand 1 Opera Company was scheduled to open a season in Sydney at :the Grand Opera House this month, but owing to the epidemic it had to be postponed. The Sydney season was to have extended over ' ten weeks, after which Newcastle and Brisbane were to be visited. It is to be hoped this talented combination will visit New Zealand. The tour is under the direction of Messrs. Ben and John Fuller, and they created a success with' the Gonsalez Grand Opera Company, so why not with the Rigo Grand Opera Company? The combination has at the present time a repertoire of 14 operas, and is still adding to it. The 'financial power behind the enterprise is Mr. Stanley Timms, squatter and racehorse owner, whose father is a railway contractor in a large way. A young man, with a genuine enthusiasm for music, Stanley Timms served in the war with the 18th Manchester Regiment, and it was on being invalided home that he .went into partnership with Frank Rigo. Guilia Coy, whose daintiness and musicianjy ability made her one of the most popular members of the Lyster Grand Opera Company — amongst the best heard in Australasia—was buried in the Box Hill Cemetery on Good Friday, after having lain in her home at Surrey Hills, Sydney, for ten weeks. Signora Coy was a niece of Tamburini, the baritone, for whom Rossini wrote several operas. She was born in Italy in 1844, and at 20 made her debut in “Lucia.” A while later, when in Spain, she met Leandro Coy, and they married. The pair reached Australia practically unheralded, under the Cagli-Pompei management in 1871, and at once became favourites. Afterwards they sang long seasons in Australia and New Zealand under the Lyster management, and then returned to Europe. Lupton brought them out again in 1879, and they sang in about 30 operas, achieving reputations which cause them still to be spoken of with affection by old theatregoers.

“Friendly Enemies,’ which has been toured in Australia and New Zealand by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., has been staged in London under the title of “Uncle Sam” at the Haymarket Theatre, and has scored a big success.

Louise LoVely, the well-known star playing in America, a favourite in England and born French, is to appear shortly in features in England or France. She will be remembered out here under the name of Louise Carbasse, a beauty actress at one time on the Fuller circuit and in dramatic productions.

J. C. Williamson, Ltd., have secured the Australian rights of London’s newest success, “Yes, Uncle,” a musical comedy adapted from the French, which has been packing the Shaftesbury Theatre. It will be played out here by the J. C. Williamson New English Musical Comedy Company, which is now having such a successful run with “Going Up” at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne.

Arthur Styan made a big success of his role of Judge Filson in “Common Clay.” This sterling actor has given many fine performances since he came to Australia years ago with the Charles Cartwright company, but undoubtedly he has never appeared to better advantage than as the old judge who has a secret sorrow in his past, and finds that the girl he is bitterly cross-examining in court is his own daughter.

“Common Clay,” Cleves Kinkead s startling exposure of a certain phase of hypocrisy in home life, caused something of a sensation at Melbourne Theatre Royal on Saturday week, where the first production in Melbourne was given by the Muriel Starr company. Not since Henry Arthur Jones’ triumph, “The Hypocrites,” played at the same theatre some years ago, has a comedy-drama of this type caused such a sensation as “Common Clay” achieved. Its stirring exposure of the hypocrisy of a certain phase of home life aroused the audience to the realisation of the fact that the author of “Common Clay” had included in his play a damning indictment of society. The impression it made was indisputable.

From “The Better ’Ole,” now being produced at the Sydney Tivoli: — Colonel (seeing masses of correspondence) : “What on earth’s all that, Milne?” Captain: “It’s about that eightpence, sir.” Colonel: “What eightpence?” Captain: “About that private that travelled from Wilverton

to Dudlap Fort, and there was eightpence excess fare, which the War Office is trying to recover.” Colonel: “Where’s the private?” Captain: “Transferred to Mesopotamia.” Colonel: “Well, you’d better send this lot on there, too.” Captain: “We did, sir, and it has just come back from Bagdad. We had to pay the French postal authorities 22 francs excess postage.”

Messrs. J. and N. Tait are introducing, with the “German Naval Surrender” picture, one of the foremost singers that New Zealand has produced in recent years, in the person of Madame Marie Power, of Dunedin.

This Amazon singer, who had the advantage of a sound training under Mr. Philip Newbury, Mr. Spencer Lorraine, Mr. Paul Dufault, and others, and who at her prime has really been discovered by Messrs. J. and N. Tait, as hitherto she has not travelled beyond the confines of her native province. Madame Power is a rara avis among singers, a dramatic contralto. She has a two octave range extending from A natural below the stave to A natural above, which gives her a wide choice of music. Such is the warmth of her temperament and her vocal versatility that she can thrill an audience in such an ar’a as “Softly

Awakes My Heart,” from “Samson and Delilah,” one minute, and the next can carry them away with a breezy rendering of '“The Grey North Sea,” “The Ship That’s Bound for Blighty,” or “My Dear Soul.”

The farewell tour of Sir Harry Lauder commenced in Melbourne on May 10, and from the reports it is easy to judge that the results bid fair to even exceed those achieved in 1914. The Melbourne “Age” says: — “The audience, which included promiment members of the Scottish societies in Melbourne, crowded the house. During the hour or more for which Sir Harry Lauder was on the

stage he appeared in two distinct roles—as the unsurpassed comedian of his day, and as a man to whom the tragedy of war had been brought cruelly home. . . For a time the comedian gave himself wholly up to comedy. His own rich laughter, his chuckles over the joyous eccentricities of his characters were as irresistible as of old. His every character stood defined and clear; if in telling a story he recounted a dialogue between a couple of eccentrics, his characterisation of the two was as definite as if the pair faced each other on the stage. The queer comical voice, the laughter, the p

ay of

features, and the odd gait were employed for sketches and songs of the best Lauder type—“l’m Going to Marry ’Arry,” “The Waggle of the Kilts,” “We ’a Gang the Same Way,” “Roamin’ in the Gloamin’,” and “I Love to be a Sailor.” Boundless enthusiasm was manifested throughout the evening. The supporting company is a very sound one.”