“LOHENGRIN”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 16

“LOHENGRIN”

PERFORMANCE NEXT WEEK The performances of Wagner’s great music-drama, which have been given In Auckland are few and far between. At the Albert Opera House, on July 19, 1901. a very good Musgrove company, with an excellent orchestra under the baton of Gustav Slapoffski, produced the opera, and the next and only performance since was on July 30, 1907, at His Majesty's Theatre by George Musgrnve's company. The 1901 company Included Agnes Janson, Madame Slapoffski, Max Eugene, Baron Berthold, Lilian Coomber and Lempriere Pringle. Among the 1907 cast were Sarah Anderson (Elsa), Fraulein Heinze (Ortrud), Hans Mohaukel (Henry the Fowler), and Henry Runger (Telramund). It is thus 21 years since Auckland has seen “Lohengrin,” and its revival next Monday at the St. James Theatre by the Fuller-Gonsalz Company is not only the musical event of the year, but of many, many years. The strength of principals, chorus land orchestra in the present company is not to be denied, and with a cast which includes Margherita Flor (as Elsa). Nina Algozina (as Ortrud), Ernesto Fumagali (as the King), Franco Izal (as Telramund), and Brandisio Vannucci (as Lohengrim), with full Italian and Australian chorus and augmented orchestra, there is not much doubt that a huge success will be registered and a memorable performance will result, l EMIL JANNINGS A VERSATILE ACTOR Modern ideas in regard to screen entertainment are changing rapidly. The motion picture public demands vivid characterisations of life as it is. The day of the hero that is all good and the villain who is all bad is gone; stories of human nature have come Into their own. Emil Jannings, the great Paramount etar. is tcv-day rapidly becoming one of the most popular of screen actors. Yet he is middle-aged, inclined to stoutness, and certainly not the handsome screen hero who was the popular idol of yesterday. Jannings has risen by reason of his wonderful portrayals of character. In ‘ The Way of All Flesh,” he was a prosperous middle-aged bank clerk, and in his latest Paramount picture, “The Last Command,” he plays the role of a .Russian Grand Duke in the last days* of that great Empire. He is a dignified and yet kindly soldier now, who works out a chapter of his life before the camera. There seems to be no limit to the man’s ability. During the coming season he will be seen successively as a bully of the London slums, a mad monarch and a vaudeville actor. Jannings is never the same, there is always something new to be discovered in each of his performances.

Harry Langdon’s new comedy has been titled "Heart Trouble.” It is First National’s story of a would-be fighter who never achieved success. A good story, with human touches, it leaves the spectator laughing whimsically at the quaint little comedian, who introduces some fine new gags. A surprise climax that is totally unexpected is the outstanding point of the film, which gives Harry a chance to be funnier than ever.