Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 751, 4 December 1953, Page 24

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, ON AND OFF THE RECORD,

By

Swarf

you've seen a young woman _ dedging about the place in a neat little red car lately> you may have asked yourself, "Who is she?" I'll tell you. She’s an English actress named Ria Sohier, who has been in Wellington for just on a year,

‘taking part in NZBS productions and generally playing the feminine lead. Three years ago she visited Australia with a show starring Joe E. Brown, and when he returned to America she played for the ABC in Sydney and for some of the Commercial stations. Ria Sohier told me the other morning that she trained with Elsie Fogerty at the Cen-tral-School of Speech Training in London, following up with 10 years of repertory work. She played in the West End of London opposite John Mills in Duet for Two Hands, and with the New Zealand author, Merton Hodge, in his own The Wind and the Rain; Hodge played Charles and she was Ann. This play later toured round the military camps in England. Ria’s first big radio show in New Zealand was You're Welcome, Second Edition, 1ZB’s Christmas 1952 production, when she joined Peter Gwynne, Pat Smythe and Lee Humphreys, who led the comedy team. NZBS productions in which Ria Sohier has taken a leading part (most

have not yet been broadcast) include Comedienne, The Young Mrs. Barrington, The Bluebird, Of Ye Meat and Of Ye Drink, The Pistol Shot, Simplicity, The Fall of Dandy Dick, Many Parts, Tweltth Night, The Guinea Pig, Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat; The Buddha, Peggy and Paul, and L’Aiglon. On December 17 she will leave for Australia to spend Christmas with her sister, and later she hopes to do some radio work in South Africa. "I’m too lazy to go back to the stage when I can get as much radio work as I like,’ she said. "It’s much nicer not to be bothered with shakeup and costumes, and there’s always something new coming along." In the photographer’s studio, after her picture had been taken, Miss Sohier entertained us with an assortment of accents. The Australian, she © said, seemed to get along conversationally without bothering toe move his lips at all. She treated us to a demonstrationas good a piece of ventriloquism as I’ve seen for a while. ’ ; "Tell me," she said, making a quickchange into the role of interviewer, "how is it that the shops in the South Island are so much more-how shal] I put it-than those in the North Island?" "Hrr-hchm," I told her, "it all depends on the way you look at it." Hobbies? Miss Sohier designs book. jackets for some English publishers, does modelling, rides horses and drives her little car. te : "RADIO FAN" (Hamilton) asks for some information about the Italian singer Paolo Silveri. ' Tall, dark and handsome Silveri, an outstanding baritone whose plece is firmly establislied in * England and Europe, was born in 1913 at Ofena, Italy. As a child he sang and played ’ the harmonium in SAILOR, TAILOR, church. Then he OPERA SINGER was sent by his parents to a Dominican College near Florence to become a priest. But Paolo was too fond of the secular life and he joined the Italian Navy. Life at sea didn’t come up to his expectations either, so he spent the next few years in the tailoring trade, with singing and boxing as his recreations, until he was called up for the Army. By showing his seniors his ability ee

to organise concerts for the troops he was kept at Turin instead of being sent into the Abyssinian melee. At the end of his period of service his voice was out of condition, and there seemed to be no chance of earning a living with it. He went to the Academy in Rome, where he won a prize. but

. unfortunately they persisted in trafning him: as a bass instead of a baritone, and his voice became tired out with deep arias. In 1938 he was called into th armed forces again, but managed to suade the authorities to give him leave from time to time to fulfil various singing engagements. When the Allied troops occupied Italy, Silveri found himself a civilian again and set out to develop his upper register. He sang a great deal for the Allied Forces in Rome and appeared in concerts at the New Zealand Club. He visited England for -the first time with the San Carlos Opera Company in 1946, and even went with the company on*a concert tour of Billy Butlin’s famous holiday camps-a tour which is said to have cost Butlin a surprising sum. The following year he sang at three Albert Hall concerts. eS KG

These brought him an invitation to sing for Sir Thomas Beecham and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the chance to make a provincial tour. In the summer of 1947 Silveri joined the Covent Garden Opera Company. When he first arrived in England he knew not a word of English; but he soon learned and did not share the view of some people that English is a hopeless language for singing. The ease with Ivhich he picked up English pronunciation is said to be due partly to his wife, Delia Cirino, whom he married in 1941 and who speaks English fluently. Both Silveri and his wits. are good pianists. ERE is Mavis Martin, Invercargill soprano, who will provide 4YZ’s contribution to the linked New Zealand Variety Magazine on the evening of

Wednesday, December 9. Mrs. Martin has been heard as a radio performer regularly for the last 10 years; her concert work includes INVERCARGILL appearances as a SOPRANO soloist with choral societies and choirs in Invercargill and Dunedin. In 1951 she won the Duhedin Competitions Society’s Grand Opera Aria Contest, and her latest success was as the soprano lead, Roszi, in the Invercargill Opera Society’s recent production of Magyar Melody. * F ever a man conceived the great idea of his life in the most unpromising surroundings, Edward Gibbon Wakefield was that man. The train of events that set him on the path of colonising reform was a three-year sentence in Newgate Gaol for the abduction of a young girl to secure her GREAT PERSUADER fortune. It is a remarkable tribute to Wakefield’s character and talents that he not only lived down that episode but was chosen as one of the team who helped Lord Durham to bring order and justice to Canada. While he was in Newgate Wakefield was brought face to face with the system of transportation of felons in the early 19th Century. That led him to study the whole system of

colonisation and the way it had been mismanaged by successive governments. His energy ‘and vision led to successful colonising in Australia and New Zealand, and finally to his notable share in the famous report submitted to Lord Durham after his migsion to Canada in 1838. Wakefield is one of the subjects in the BBC series The British Overseas, now going the rounds of NZBS stations. * HAD an old friend, a retired colonel, who had, in his day, been one of the great hunters of big game. Most of his life, when he was A COLONEL not soldiering, he had NEVER FORGETS been on shikari_ in the jungles of Asia and the forests of Africa. One day I was driving with him in his car down a country lane when we came upon what I can only describe as a super cow-pat-the most enormous cow-pat you have ever seen. The colonel, swerving the car to avoid it, remarked quite casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Hm, elephants," and sure enough in the quiet English lane a mile further on we overtook a travelling circus with an elephant marching behind the cara- vans."--John Moore, in a BBC programme. *: "SYLVIA" (Christchurch) asks for the ‘Christian names of the Beverley Sisters, and if it is a fact that two of them are identical CHRISTIAN NAMES twins. The names are Joy, Teddie and Babs. The twins are brunettes and the other is a blonde, The sisters make up one of Britain’s popular vocal teams. Not long ago they finished third in a country-wide popularity competition (vocal group section). In America, too, they scored a a success. ATHOL ~COATS, who has returned to New Zealand after five years in Australia, is settling down to free lance radio work*in Auckland-for 1YA in the variety field, for the production : studios, and for 1ZB , SUAVE VILLAIN on "commercials." ROLES Coats spent three years in Sydney as night announcer for 2GB, and working on Cinesound newsreels and documentaries; then for two years he was an announcer at 3DB Melbourne. He has taken part in many Australian radio serials, such as Doctor Mac, Daddy and Paddy, Imspector West and Woman in Love-some of which are familiar to New Zealand listeners. "I usually struck

the suave villain parts," Coats remarked the other day. As a sideline to radio work he appeared in three productions at the Independent Theatre in Sydney; these were Toad of Toad Hall, in which he played the judge, The Miser, and The Amateur Gentleman. Athol Coats was only 10 years old when he did his first radio show at the original 1YA in France Street. ;> ",