MUSIC AND DRAMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1938, Page 5

MUSIC AND DRAMA

TOSCANINI’S PASSPORT CANCELLED. FORCED TO STAY IN ITALY. Signor Toscanini, the conductor, is unable to leave Italy, as the police have withdrawn his passport. It is believed that the authorities consider that he is too outspoken when abroad. Toscanini, who was conductor at La Scala Opera House, from 1898 to 1903, and from 1920 to 1926, has also lived for long periods in the United States. He was at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, from 1908 to 1915, and was with the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York from 1926 to 1936. Leslie. Howard Farce. The/next production of the Sheridan Players, Auckland, is to be the farce; “Tell Me the Truth,” by the English actor, Leslie Howard. The play will be presented on November 15 and 16, and will be produced by Howard Newcombe. The plot of the play is cast on typically farcical lines and has much witty dialogue, while the story broadly concerns the impact of a rather wild young relation on the lives of three elderly women who have the power to withhold the young man’s legacy. Covent Garden Ballet. “Why. oh why, was I not’ born a poet?” asks a Melbourne pressman in referring to the first performance of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet Company in Australia. “The ordinary writer might just as well try to grasp a sunbeam or take a handful of moonlight.

“The company that was in Australia and New Zealand a couple of years ago thrilled playgoers, but compared with the glory of ,this company it was as moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to wine.”

Popular Songs. A recent bulletin from the United States placed popular song numbers as follows: —(1), “Music Maestro, Please.” (2) “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.” (3) “Says My Heart.” (4) “I Married an Angel.” (5) “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You.” (6) “When Mother Nature Sings Her Lullaby.” (7) “Flat Foot Foogee.” 18) “It Can’t Be Told” (“Alexander’s Ragtime Band”). (9) “A-Tisket A-Tasket.” (10) “Little Lady Make Believe.”

Gloria Swanson is to return to the screen ,in “Lady in the News.”