THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 460, 16 April 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

| A Run Threugh The Programmes

! Gigli’s Daughter { OST opera enthusiasts know the name and voice of the Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli, but it was only recently that his daughter, Rina, became famous. as an operatic soprano. When Gigli appeared at Covent Garden in 1946 with an Italian company, he caused a sensation when he announced that he had brought his daughter with him to make her English debut in leading roles. Rina sang opposite him in some operas. When asked for his opinion of her voice he said: "Naturally I think she has a good volte; but it is perhaps wrong that she should appear with me, for one is always tempted to think what people are saying-‘Ah, but she is Gigli’s daughter.’ So it is good that she has received an offer to come back to London next year to sing alone and to make records." Recently the NZBS_ received the first recording made by Rina Gigli. Listeners will hear it from 3YA on Wednesday, April 28, and from 1YA on Wednesday, May 26, between 10.0 and 11.0 in the mornings. She will sing two operatic excerpts-‘Nought is Left Me," from Act 3 of Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz, end "My Thanks, Good Friends," from Act 5 of Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers. The series in which Rina Gigli appears is under the general title of Musical Families. Fisticuffs to Golden Gloves pust about everything to interest fight ~ fans is contained in a new BBC programme, The Fight Game, which takes us back to the good old days of bareknuckle fisticuffs when James Figg was

the acknowledged champion of England, and then brings us, step by step, up to the time when prize fights, no longer battered out

in defiance of the law in some open field, became front-page news and attracted million-dollar audiences. (Included are extracts from actual broadcast descriptions of famous fights, and some well-known boxing commenta-tors-Barrington Dalby, Raymond Glendinning, Stewart MacPherson and J. D. James-swapping reminiscences of contests they have seen and discussing the sport from every angle.) The Fight Game will be heard from 4YA at 9.22 p-m. on Sunday, April 25. And, incidentally, Wellington boxing fans will be able to hear from 2YA a round-by-round commentary on the opening professional bout of the season (between Endicott and Dornan) at 9.30 p.m. on Monday, April 19. From Darkest Australia TALE of Australian aboriginal history, under the title of The Search for the Golden Boomerang, is to follow The Story of Flight, at the four ZB stations. We are told that George Edwards, the producer, spent months in research among the libraries of Australia, gathering details of aboriginal customs, folk-lore, and mysticism, for this series of programmes, What he has produced is a serial directed mainly at

youthful audiences, yet adult listeners may also find it interesting. A modern touch is introduced through the adventures of a white man and his family searching for gold, and listeners will discover for themselves what happened to ‘the elusive boomerang. The serial will be heard on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6.0 p.m. It started at 1ZB on Thursday, April 15; and will begin at 2ZB on Thursday, April 29; 3ZB on Thursday, May 13, and 4ZB on Thursday, May 27. ; New Delius Recording A NEW Delius recording, Song of the High Hills, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Luton Choral Society (conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham), will be heard from 2YA at .9.30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20. This work, an impressionistic picture of the Norwegian

mountains, is scored. for an unusually large orchestra, including extra woodwinds and brasses, besides 66 strings and a mixed choir vocalising as additional instruments. It starts with a characteristic melody by the woodwinds with flowing ‘string accompaniment that portrays the first sight of the hills and the emotions inspired by their grandeur, moves on to soft horn passages, which with flute and harps present a vision of the pastoral life on the slopes of the hills, and continues through successive climaxes and a haunting theme by muted violins to the final climax of the work --the ascent of the hills, and the wonder and majesty of them. The very soft closing bars seem to depict mists finally veiling the hills from sight. Beecham’s inspired "conducting has produced a superb performance of this work, which for sustained beauty of sound has no equal among Delius’s compositions. Lady from Lambeth HERE’S a real life story in "This Was the Cockney," the first of a new BBC series called The Old Order Changes, which starts from 3YA at 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20. It’s the story of Amy Sands, a London costermonger now in her sixties who set out to work by herself with ninepence in her pocket, and grew up amidst poverty, hardship, and ill-fortune with only her stout heart and Cockney sense of humour to see her through. By September, 1939, she had two vegetable shops and two stalls in the Lambeth Walk, ang although they were wrecked in bombing raids during the war, she made a fresh start and today is carrying on her costermongering

— \ trade in Lambeth once more. The second programme in this series, "The Family Album," takes listeners into the circle of a professional English middleclass family, and traces their fortunes from 1907 to 1946. Cure for Kleptomania O illustrate the modern, humane ways of treating mental affliction in England, a BBC producer, Edward Livesey, spent three weeks in one of the country’s larger mental hospitals before making up the programme The Walls Are Down, which will be heard from 3ZR at 8.28 p-m. on Tuesday, April 20. This programme presents the imaginary case of the cure of a kleptomaniac, and although the characters, both staff and patients, are entirely fictitious, the details of conditions in the home are said to be absolutely authentic and based on Livesey’s own first-hand observations, Travellers’ Joy HAT famous pair of well-intentioned but slow thinkers, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, are back on the air in another comedy thriller from the BBC, called Travellers’ Joy. This is the fifth radio serial in which "Woolcott and Spencer," as they are calied, have taken part (remember Foo/]’s Paradise and Double Bedlam?), and it looks like being the craziest yet. Just to give you a hint of the plot (for it would spoil the fun to disclose too much) it may be said that Woolcott and Spencer, who are supposed to be playing golf in Scotland, have sneaked off to a bridge tournament at Cannes, where they run into a band of grooks who are on the track of a famous gem, the Queen of Diamonds. Just to complicate things, Woolcott’s wife Sally and a girl friend are also in France, but neither party stays there long. An idea of their travels is given by the titles of subsequent episodes, "Dutch Courage," "Swedish Drill," "Swiss Roll," "Turkish Delight," "Grecian Bend," and so on. Travellers’ Joy will start from 2YA at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21.