ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 286, 30 May 1912, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

MISS ROSIXA BTJCKMANN. Although tlie heathen who have the misfortune to live outside New Plymouth ,;i " v "'""''if -*ly rage" at the bare suggestion -and imagine innumerable "vain things," it is no exaggeration to say that at the moment Miss Rosina Buckmann is quite the best soprano, both lyTic and dramatic, at present in New Zealand. The large awl enthusiasts audience that attended at the Theatre' Royal last niglit may have been prompted to some extent by local patriotism, but before the concert was far advanced they were able to lay to their souls the, flattering unction that their local songstress had more than "made good" the elaborate- managerial eulogies that preceded her return from a visit to Aus- • tralia. Miss Buckmann is, of course, no debutante, for she is known both on the concert platform and the operatic stage throughout Australia as an artist of exceptional parts. She suffers, of course, from the disability of Jiaving elicited the warmest tribute of admiration and approval from Madame Melba—tne most brilliant untemperamental songstress of j the age. This is a hard reputation to j live up to, but Miss Buckmann api preaches it with all the sweet aggressiveness of youth and the confident charm of a delightful personality. Her voice has matured immensely during the last few years, while it has lost nothing of its freshness and of that careless rapture of the thrush, "climmng half a rapid arc of song," which has alj ways characterised it. One of the charms of her singing is that she aTways sing* as if she meant it, and this characteristic is extremely helpful to her. It cannot be said that her programme last night was a specially classical one, and some of her numbers were obviously sops to the Cerberus of public taste, and we cannot help thinking that it is something of a prostitution of her wonderful talent to indulge in "flapper" lyrics anent the tying of mutches under dimpled chins, and also that bedizened melodrama "Good-bye" which has gibbered down the musical grooves of time for many weary years, might well now be afforded the rest it has amply earned. But this is hypercriticism. Her selections last night gave Miss Buckmann little opportunity for the talent she is known to possess of coloratura work, but it showed her at her very best in lyric work. "One Fin« Day," that pathetic, dramatic appeal from "Madam Butterfly," was'beautifully sung, and incidentally acted. Many artists would have been tempted to oversing, but Miss Buckmann gave it just that proper quality of reserve that mad* it at once both natural and convincing. Parker's "Moorish Maid" was a pretty illustration of temperamental coloring which was effectively sung, but probably the lady's most striking contributions to the concert were Alfred Hill's "Waiata Maori" and his "Poi Song." Hill has notably cultivated the gift of onomatopoeia in his Maori music—which bids fair to become the folk-songs of tne country—but it requires something more than a technical knowledge of dominant sevenths and minor fourths to interpret the studied music easily and naturally upon the stage. It was here that Miss Buckmann triumphed. It is not easy to be a Maori maiden iw evening dress singing in the glare of the footlights to the accompaniment of a Brinsmead piano at concert pitch, but she caught the spirit of the compositions admirably, and there is probably nothing more difficult than the interpretation of folk-lore music foi the concert platform. It is not necessary to follow Miss Buckmann from numbe* to number. She brought to each of he* items a thoroughness of conception and a charm of personality that isolated them convincingly. If she lias a fault it is a tendency to be a rtifle academic overcareful in her phrasing, but when' once the spirit of the song has gripped , her she loses this, and her music becomes as spontaneous as any in Nature's vast orchestra. The support accorded to Miss Buckmann was not uniformily good. Mr. Charles Larsen, an Australian baritont who had to support very extravagant credentials, was somewhat disappointing, though something of this was probably due to an injudicious selection of songs. He is «, light lyric baritone, whose voice lacks timbre, and his intonation! throughout the evening was consistently faulty. But for this his "Garden of Allah," although it was quite a new interpretation—would have been excellent. In his declamatory work in "The Watchman" and the "Cavalie* Song," which was given as an encore, he was sadly deficient. It must be recorded to his everlasting credit, however, that his production, his enunciation and his pronunciation, were all unqualifiedly excellent.

Miss Ina Boswcs.th, the solo violinist, has an admirable 'technique, and secures a very fine tone. At times her bowing was cramped, and her playing generally was immature, but she gave abundant promise of developing into a forceful and temperamental player. Probably her best number was a soulful little interlude for muted' strings, which she played as an encore. Miss Aileen Warren is

hardly a solo pianist yet, although she deserves something more than a word of praise for her sympathetic accompanying. The Godard composition was wooden and erratic, and the Chopin nocture* was taken far too slowly, and was dull and colorless. Her best number was a bright and skilful playing of "Lorelei." The concert concluded wu~ Amy Wood-forde-PindMi's highly-colored and sensuous song cycle, "On Jhelum River," which was sung .prettily, yet withal dramatically, by Miss Buckmann and Mr. Larsen. It lost some of its effectiveness, however, by the soprano quite overshadowing the baritone.

EMPIRE PICTURES. There was a fair audience at tha Empire Theatre last night, on the occasion of the iscreening of the bi-weekly changa of programme. "The Moonstone," adapted from the celebrated novel written by. Wilkie Collins, gave experiences of » diamond stolen from an Indian idol by a British officer, and the strange way in which it was returned to its rightful owners. Two very interesting scentf films were screened, one showing th« ancient Roman buildings of Rheims, many of which seem in as good condition as ever. Agriculture by aid of tht motor was illustrated by a compariso* of two methods—tihe old horse or oxdrawn plough and the most modern way, by means of the motor. The great improvement was obvious, the motordrawn plough and cultivator doing mor» than eight times the amount done by, the old system in the same time. Besides these a number of the best dramatic and comic films were shown. Of these, the film depicting the experiences of a cowboy, who has a baby thrus4 into his arms, and who is told to look after it by a woman, who instantly disappears, evidently in pursuit of her erring husband, proved one of the most laughable. The timely arrival of th« mother of the child prevented the unfortunate cowboy from being lynched by a crowd of men for the nttempted desertion of his child. The same pro* gramme will be repeated to-night.