MUSIC AND PICTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 98, 16 July 1927, Page 16

MUSIC AND PICTURES

REGENT’S NEW PROGRAMME For a picture audience to demand a repetition of an orchestral item is nowadays a rather unusual occiirrence so much so that it calls for special mention. The insistent and sustained applause that followed the playing of the entracte, Suppe’s overture “Zampa,” at the Regent Theatre last evening, gave the management no option but to respond. Included in the applause was undoubtedly a tribute to the newlylormed Operatic Orchestra, and its musical director, Mr. Maurice Guttridge, for the splendid treatment previously accorded the Beethoven music played as an accompaniment to screened incidents from the life of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Synchronising with the picture the orchestra contribLited the massive “Egmont” overture, “Sonata Pathetique,” “Country Dance,” and that exquisite little melody “Minuet in G.” The “Sonata in C Minor,” better known as the “Moonlight Sonata,” was also played as a pianoforte solo, and it was well up to the hight standard of the orchestral performance. The new orchestra is a well-balanced combination, and the remarkably clean execution already attained augurs well for future programmes of good music. That the picture-going piiblic are prepared to welcome good music was very evident last evening, a fact which should prove decidedly encouraging to the Regent management. In “Children of Divorce,” the Paramount special, which headed the picture bill, is contained a startling indictment of the evils of the present-day American divorce laws. . "When Edward Larribee, desperately in love, and endeavouring to prove himself in the eyes of the girl he ioves, wakes up after an unfortunate all-night carousal to find himself married to another woman, the outlook is rather disastrous. The three parties concerned are children of divorce” and rather than follow in their parents’ footsteps they determine to see the thing through. To the girl responsible for the forced marriage, a loveless union only brings remorse, which even the wealth and position she sought cannot compensate. The man she really loves refuses to be a party to a divorce, his religion proving an insurmountable barrier to escape in that direction. Realising her responsibility for the unhappiness she has brought into four fives she ends it all. With her death happiness conies at least to the other two. Jeanette Gerrard, the girl from Montmartre, presents a dainty and very original turn, in which she proves herself to be a “ragtime artist” in more ways than one. Her artistic manipulation of multi-coloured rags helps along a very novel act. An “Australian Gazette,” “Pathe Review,” a “Mutt and Jeff” cartoon, and items by Eddie Horton on the Wurlitzer organ add to the enjoyment of a varied and very interesting programme.