THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 414, 30 May 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

| A Run Through The Programmes

Harmony from Hollywood 4 Yyusic FROM THE MOVIES" and *'" similar titles don’t even indicate what type of music to expect now that Hollywood has gone highbrow. Chopin and Crosby are quite likely to bob up cheek to cheek. It would be interesting to know how much of the music that has been universally popular over the last two decades has not been featured or even starred in a picture at some stage of its career. And if we have many more of these Musical Lives with a composer’s entire repertoire in one picture, it will soon be hard to find anything that is not music from some movie or other. So let us hope that other stations will copy 2YA’s example and label their film music sessions clearly with the title of the film the music is from, then we can have some idea of what we are going to get. On Monday, June 2, at 7.30 p.m., it is music from Two Sisters from Boston. If you saw the film you will know what songs to expect and if you didn’t we won’t spoil the surprise. Pitcairn Revisited "7 HE last time we encountered Captain. William’ Bligh was when he said, through the expressive lips of Charles Laughton, "Carry on, or carry under, Mr. Christian." Whether the real man issued that stoic order, we are not sure, but we are certain that Pitcairn Island would not have figured so largely in the history-books had not "Breadfruit Bligh" been its unwilling press-agent. Every schoolboy (and nearly every filmgoer) knows about the mutiny on the Bounty; how Bligh, with 18 others, was set adrift while the mutineers made the 1789 brand of whoopee at Pitcairn, leaving the skipper to carry on for the paltry, 4,000 miles to Timor in an open boat. No doubt some reference to the famous mutiny will creep into a series of recorded talks on Pitcairn Island by F. P. Ward. ©The first, entitled "A Ship Calls," will be heard from 2YA on Tuesday, June 3, at 7.15 p.m. All Laid On HE BBC play Faith or Folly is a sort of super de luxe double chocolate sundae radio feast. Nothing has been left out that could vossibly have been added to improve the flavour. The scene is occupied Alsace-Lorraine and there is a nasty Nazi and, just to’ be different, a comparatively nice Nazi, a deaf Frenchman and a mad Frenchwoman (Is she mad or saner than any of us? Who knows which way madness lies?), a ghost, an atrocity and a re-prisal-and a counter reprisal, a whodunit death, a miracle, a great deal of philosophising about faith and folly, and, as if that were.not enough to go on with, it ends with an unanswerable question, which you, the listener, must ponder for yourself. It is difficult to see how the most querulous critic could fail to find something to his taste if he tunes in to 2YA at 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4. Shakespeare and Verdi ‘| HE opera to be heard from 2YA on Sunday evening, June 8, is Verdi’s "Othello," which will be heard in the full recorded version. And at 4.30 p.m. on

the same day, 2YA will also broadcast some scenes from Shakespeare’s "Othello," done from the studio by Beryl McMillan and Robert Newman. The libretto of Verdi’s opera was written by Arrigo Boito (who also did

Falstaff for Verdi). Here is a brief synopsis of Boito’s version: Othello arrives at Cyprus and announces that the Turkish fiéet has been annihilated. Iago begins to plot against Othello because the latter has promoted Cassio over Iago’s head. Roderigo is in love with Desdemona, recently married to Othello. Cassio wounds Montano in a brawl incited by Iago. Othello relieves Cassio of his commission and Desdemona is prevailed upon by Cassio to intercede for him. She accidentally drops a handkerchief which Iago’s wife Emilia, picks up. Iago builds Othello’s jealously of Cassio by showing? Othello the handkerchief. Othello, infuriated, decided to poison Desdemona, but Iago counsels smothering her. He himself will take care of Cassio. Othello promoted Iago. Desdemona, who has interceded before this for Cassio, is insulted by Othello, who later enters Desdemona’s bedroom and strangles her. Before she is quite dead Emilia arrives saying that Roderigo has killed Cassio. Though Desdemona says with her last breath that she died by her own hand, Othello maintains he killed her because she was mistress to Cassio. Emilia then explains the whole handkerchief business, and as she does, Montano comes in to report that Roderigo in dying has told of Iago’s plot. Iago escapes, and Othello, seeing how he has wronged Desdemona, stabs himself. Yodelling Cowboy ONN REYNOLDS, Canadian yodelling cowboy, who has lately been touring New Zealand and broadcasting over National and ZB stations, recorded four short programmes of Westefn songs before he left for Australia, which are to be heard on the air in the near future. He started out in life as a real cowboy, and then served with the Air Force in the Aleutians. He joined a group of camp entertainers called the "Joe Boys" and was about to tour the Islands when the war ended. Back on the mainland he went to a dude ranch for a while, but then decided he wanted to come and have a look at New Zealand. (His father, who served on the old Rimutaka, was so keen about this country that he nearly persuaded his wife to come and settle here. He arrived in January, and has been singing in picture theatres and on the air. The programmes he recorded in Auckland have been made up of songs requested ° by 1ZB listeners, (See photograph on page 21).

Narrow Escape "AY CAVENDISH (well known to listeners as "Kay on the Keys") with Efizabeth Welch, the ‘coloured singer, Richard Hearne, comedian and eccentric dancer, and Douglas Byng, female impersonator, had a narrow escape from death recently. On their way to give a troop show at Gibraltar, their plane crash-landed in a swamp near Cadiz, Spain. The-pilot and the four entertainers spent the night on a farmhouse floor, Then Hearne and the pilot waded three rivers to reach a telephone and tring the British Consul at Cadiz. The Consul did his best and got a mule team to the very remote farmhouse. The little party then rode, two to a mule, to Algar, whose 1,500 inhabitants gave them a great welcome and a banquet. The stars are buying a stained glass window for Algar’s church by way of thanks to the villagers. "Kay on the Keys" will be heard from 2YH Napier at 6.0 p.m. on Saturday, June 7. Correspondence School HE regular broadcasts to correspondence school pupils begin again this week, and by the time this issue of The Listener is in readers’ hands the first broadcast for the second term will have been heard. The programmes did not reach us in time for printing in last week’s issue, but next week’s will be found, as usual, in a panel on one of the programme pages. For those pupils who receive their Listener by Thursday, here is the programme for this Friday, May 30: 9.5 a.m., Miss R. C. Beckway: Chamber Music. 9.15, Mrs, A. S. KingTurner: Our Silver Jubilee. 9.24, Miss E. R. Ryan: Shorthand Dictation.