"A SONG TO SING-O"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 673, 27 October 1933, Page 3

"A SONG TO SING-O"

SIR H. LYTTON'S MEMORIES OF GILBERT AND SULLIYAN. "A WONDERING MINS-TREL." Having sp:ent nearly fifty years in ithe Gilbert and Sullivan operas, Sir Hem*y Lytton certainly h'as "a song to sing-o," and his second volume of remin-iscences reflects a -good deal of the chtarm of his ch'aracter, both, on and off the stage, writes H. W... Bishop in the London Daily Teleigjraph reviewing Sir Henry Lytton's hook .of remni'scences, "A Wandering Min•stel." The hook is not an autobiography, although in an oarly chapter he talks about the -early idays when. his wife and daughter lived at starvation point in an attic ne-ar Westminster whil-e he picked up a few pence for delivering .handhills from! do-or to door. The luck isoon changed, however. Shortly afterwards he rejoined the D'Oyly Carte iCompany at 35s a week, and then came the "never-to-be-forgotten day" when he was chosen for a "part." It oonsisted of marching on with a sword and arresting King Gama in "Princess Ida" — feut it also meant another 5s! Sir Henry can alford to look back refleotively and amusedly on a life that has been ,so full of interest and delight. His admirers — in fact the 3,000,000 who form the Gilbert and Sullivan public — iwill enjoy to hsar. him talk pleasantly andi unaffectedly about his work and his hobbies, the places he has seen, the hotels he has yisited and - the people he has met. R-adiatiwg! through it al'l -there is the lovable personality of the author. 15,000 Appearances. •Although' he co.mputes -that he has made 15,000 appearances in Gilbert and. Sullivan, Sir Henry is -still the "Peter Pan" of the company. He is 66, and has not a grey bair. No. wonder that he is so often asked: "Wihat is -the secret; of perpetual youth?" He has replied in a few wise sentences, hut really the whole ,of "A Wandering Minstrel" supplies the answer. He has spent all the time that could be spared from his work in outdoor sports. The thrills and excitements of salmon fishing are enthusiastically praised; in addition, Sir Henry has always been a keen golfer, and he was one of the early oniotorists. He tells a goo(| -story about the exciting day be drove his Wihite steam^engine miotor "all the way from Turnham Green to Kew Bridge, a dist-ance of at least three -miles." He immediately sent a letter about his great achievexnent to a friend, who replied laconically by wire: "Congratulations; how did you get back?|" One of the best of the early chap.ters deals with his experiences in Dublin in 1916. The company was there on that fateful Easter Mbnday, and the first intimation of the "trouble" was an ambush in the street in which Sir Henry was takinig a stroll. He makes one realise that the revolution was a well-organised surprise. Some of the D'Oyly Carte people were rescued from a burning house and sheltered in.a police sta- ' tion, where they lived upon prisoners' fare for three days-. After some harrowing days Sir Henry Lytton thought he. was t0 be arrested as a spy. "I must have' turned deathly pale, for everyone in the room ! looked at rnle," he says. "At that mo-m-ent the officer ca.ught sight of me, and exclaimed, 'Henry Lytton'." He was hande-d a note from his son which said, "Don'it be nervous. I am guarding you. — !Harry." He was home on leave from France, and had been "suddenly collared 'and sent over t0 Ireland for special duty." It is typical of the kindly good nature of the man that Sir Henry dievotes a whole long chapter to fhe amateur actors wh'o piay his parts in the operas — land very sound advice he gives them.