MR. NICHOLS AGAIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 134, 29 January 1932, Page 6

MR. NICHOLS AGAIN

BOOK ON MELBA TREN CHANTLY CRITICISED IN AUSTRALIA AND LONDON. "MELBA WOULD NOT CARE." LONDON, Tuesday. Mr. Beverley Nichols, author of the novel "Evensong," which has created a furore because of its supposed unfavourable featuring of the late Dame • Nellie Melba, says that before her J death he discussed the hook with the diva, and she read some of the manuscript, by which she was greatly amused. "Melba would not have cared a damn if she read the hook to-day because, though the hackground is hers, the story and charaeters are nine-ten-ths imag'ination," says Mr. Nichols. Mr. Nichols i states that he todd Dame Nellie Melba that he wanted to write a hook about the sort of woman she might have been if she had not been Melba. "Go ahead," she replied. Everybody will say it's me, and 'I don't care a damn." j Nevin Tait's Opinion. Mr. Nevin Tait expressed the opinion that the personalities in the hook were obviously based on the 1924 Australian opera company. "Melba fascinated the world with her beauty, her voice, and her art," he said. "Her most inspired moments were during her appearances as 'Otello' in our last season. "Neither age, death nor novelists can rob her of her glorious place among the world's greatest singers." "Evensong" "ruthlessly describes Irela's almost maniacal struggle to retain her position in the kingdom of song, despite old age. Newspapers emphasise the fact that the name rhymes with "Australia." The hook dwells upon Irela's 20 years of farewells, her ungovernable temper, leading her to swear at servants, quarrel with fellow-artists, and vilely slander her manager. She drinks whisky and cocktails in defiance of her doctor. Her voice cracks during a eritical performance, and the audience watch her decaying effort before their very eyes. With a face like a tortured murderess, she leads the, applause for the triumph of her young rival, who, from her description, might be Toti dal Monte. "Irela" cunningly announces her rival as her protege. Finally realising that age has worsted her, she screams like a fish-wife harlot, yet returns for another farewell. "The question is not whether Mr. Nichols has given a fair picture of Melba, but, whether he has written a good novfel," Mr. Norman Lindsay told our special representative. "After reading 'Evensong,' I consider the hook of no account artistically. "Mr. Nichols has not even dimly glimpsed tfie greatness of Melba's personality."