POWDER-AND-PATCHES BALL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 350, 10 May 1928, Page 14

POWDER-AND-PATCHES BALL

EVENT ON EMPIRE NIGHT For some years one of the outstanding events of the winter’s gaieties has been the Powder-and-Patches Ball. The ball this year is being held at Scots Hall by the Victoria League on Empire Night, May 24, and an added interest is being taken because of the promised attendance of their Excellencies the Governor-General and Lady Alice Fergusson. There will be six sets of 16 dancers each, who are at the present time busily engaged in practising graceful Old World dances.

Angelo Minghetti, th'e new young lyric tenor who has been secured for the Williamson-Melba Grand Opera Company, is heard well in the “Che gelida manina” number from Puccini’s “Boheme,” and “E il sol dell anima” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and other numbers from “Rigoletto.” Duet with Luclla Paikin. (H.M.V. D.B. 952 and D.A. 800. Minghetti hails from Bologne, where he studied singing. Within a short time, Minghetti made a name for himself in the principal opera house of Italy, and “His Master’s Voice,” ever on the alert to secure real talent, promptly signed him up. His first records are certain of meeting with conspicuous success, because they amply display his limpid and warm voice, as well as artistic phrasing.

The H.M.V. list for May is full of good things, and among the very best is a record by Apollo Granforte (baritone) in the “Prologue” from “Pagliacci” (Leoncavallo). Apollo Granforte has risen to the front rank of baritones since his first visit to Australia in 1924. Those who heard him will remember his impassioned and dramatic singing of the “Prologue” from “Pagliacci,” which always evoked a storm of applause. The realistic .record mad© by Granforte vividly recalls his capital voice and singing so magnificently brought out by “His Master’s Voice” electrical recording. A dramatic hush and then a voice . . . golden, pure . . . on the front cover refers to th© superb singing of the prologue by Apollo Granforte. What thrilling vitality surges in the arti ■2s magnificent baritone! manly vigour, what tender feeling, what power and control, as the clown sings a plea for the actor, the musician, and for art generally. H M V D 81044. v ”

Speaking of his own records, Mr. Robert Radford, the well-known bass says; “Under the new conditions, l think the old Irish song, ‘Father O’Flynn,* is as good as any. I was always pleased with the big bass airs of Osmin, ‘When a Maiden takes your fancy, and ‘Ah, my pretty brace of 22°'c. s ’ from the Mozartian opera Ihe Seraglio.’ The latter is one of the most difficult songs in existence for bass voice. Both these, however, were made under the old conditions ” M Marcel Journet says of his that “My favourite is the ‘Serenade de Mephistophele, from ‘Faust’ (Gounod) and La calunnia e un venticello’ (T 1 Barbiere’).”

The great foreign conductor, Wilhelm Mengelberg, conducts the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in Beeth oven s' Egmont Overture.” (Columbia L 1799). Beethoven composed the Egmont Overture” in 1810. It epitomises Count Egmont, the hero of tn--18 ether lands, who resisted the ruthless oppression of his country by tlie Spaniards and their leader, the bloodthirsty Duke of Alva. Beethoven depicts the two opposing personalities and toward the end of the second side fi su< J den stroke is heard synchronising the decapitation. There is a solemn lull, but immediately afterward the music works up to a magnificent climax announcing the increasing resistance of the Dutch and leading to the eventful overthrow of the Spanish tyranny. The playing i s full of fire and sparkle, emphasising the dramatic moments with rare discretion, and the recording is splendid the lower instruments coming through with convicing realism.