WING WHISPERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 66

WING WHISPERS.

By

Peter Pan.

WELLINGTON, June 11.

Dear “ Pasquin,”—Sir Edward Elgar’s fine musical work “ Caractacus ” was given by the Royal Wellington Choral Union in the Town Hall on Saturdayevening, and gave great pleasure to a large audience. The essentially English subject and the fact that the famous composer had quite recently been made a baronet in the Birthday Honours list had particular appeal to the assemblage. The union’s enterprise met with generous response, and a night of glorious music was enjoyed to the full. The oratorio is based on the overthrow of Caractacus, or Caractacos, who for nine years waged gallant war against invaders; his capture and Rome experiences, where he and his daughter and her lover are exhibited in Emperor Claudius’s triumphal procession. The happy climax to their downfall justifies a noble piece of patriotic music that is the final chorus. The work was difficult for a union limited ,in rehearsal opportunities, but the Wellington Choral Society acquitted itself admirably under the infectious enthusiasm of Mr John Bishop, the conductor. There was evident among the choral strength need for more male voices, but the massed work on the whole was inspiring. The orchestral body was excellent, and Mr Bishop must have felt proud of the response. The four soloists—Miss Naomi Whalley and Messrs Harold Prescott, William Watters, and Harison Cook—all did wonderful work, and gave dramatic expression to their solos. The alert chorus and competent orchestra did much to make the oratorio go down as a definite achievement.

Mr Bishop will be conducting the Commercial Travellers’ Male Voice Choir at its first concert of the season, set down for Saturday night next in the Concert Chamber. Madame Dorothy Cronin, F.T.C.L., a very’ fine soprano from Auckland, is to be soloist, and is making her first appearance in the Capital City. Mr Claude Tanner will play ’cello solos, and Mr Trevor Fisher will handle the accompaniments. Mr Fisher leaves for Austria next month to pursue his pianoforte studies at Vienna. The choir will sing Scenes 1 and 2 of Act HI of Wagner’s opera “ Tannhausen,” including the “ Pilgrims’ Chorus.” Madame Cronin will sing the part of Elizabeth and Mr Roy H. Dellow will be Wolfram. Another pleasing item will be Norwegian folk songs from Greig’s album for male voices, Mr David Anderson taking the solo parts. The choir is larger now than at any time in its history, and the keenness of the conductor is responsible this happystate of affairs.

The season of the Wellington Amateur Operatic Society begins on Saturday night next, when the big Auckland success, Tutankhamen,” will be shown in all its pageantry and change of scene. It will be identical with the successful presentation in Auckland, and the scenery that established the fame of the piece there will be used. A children’s matinee on Saturday should ensure a “ well-oiled ” evening performance. The arrival of an un-to-date American manufacturer and

his wife in Egypt of 3000 years ago, in the Pharaoh days, gives opportunity for a series of beautiful Egyptian cameos—• weird dances, eerie tombs, brilliant court scenes, and the costumes of the i>eriod. Mr Norman Aitken will essay the role of the American.

The Allan Wilkie season, concluding tonight, has been a great success locally. It has been a revelation to hear and see the two artists, Mr Wilkie and his talented wife, in excerpts from Shakespeare, and the agreeable surprise of their acting minus any stage setting has been a happy incident. Mischa Levitzki is to play here next Tuesday' evening. June 16. Among his chief items will be the Tausig transcription of Bach’s massive organ “ Toccato and Fugue in D minor”; Beethoven’s “Appassionata Sonata,” of which Levitzki gives quite a different version from that usually accepted; a Chopin group—“ Nocturne,” “ The Butterfly,” and “Black Keys” studies, the “Waltz and Scherzo ”; Ravel’s “ Jeux d’Eau ”; and Liszt’s “ Hungarian Rhapsody,” as well as a waltz in A major composed by himself.

Clement May-, elocutionist, entertainer, and humorist, is to present a programme in the Concert Chamber on Saturday evening, June 20, embracing such authors as John Drinkwater, Masefield, A. A. Milne, Kipling, Walter de la Mare, Stephen Leacock, and O. Henry, also poems by Don Blanding, an author highly spoken of and likened to both Kipling and Robert Service. Miss Hilda Chudley. contralto, will give vocal relief. Mr F. H. Dawn, with Mr Douglas Tayler and others, have already launched a Children’s Theatre Movement in Wellington, and, judging by the success of the first performance last Saturday afternoon, it is here to stay. The old song “Johnny Comes Marching Home” was sung in costume, and other items that went well were A. A. Milne’s “ Princess and Woodcutter”; a quaint English scene entitled “ Turmut Hoeing,” with an old-world labourer contending with flies; a sea chanty; A. P. Herbert’s “Fat King Melon and Princess Carraway”; a one-act play “The Armchair”; and other novelties for the young ones were introduced with happy results. Another performance is to be given on Saturday next. There is a prospect of a visit from Rene Maxwell, the songbird, with a quartet of operatic singers, if the plans of Mr P. L. Brady, of Wellington, come to anything. . He is hoping to have the quartpt here in August next. Miss Maxwell is well known in New Zealand, and since her last visit has been abroad with great success. Mr John Fuller arrived here from Sydney this week on a business visit. Mr Hugo Larsen leaves Sydney tomorrow for Auckland, where he is due on Tuesday, to complete arrangements for the Mark Hambourg-Peter Dawson season.'