Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 765, 19 March 1954, Page 24

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, ON AND OFF THE RECORD,

By

Swarf

EG WILLIAMS, of Napier (below), wanted to be a zoologist; his father favoured the law. But instead of swinging juries Reg took to swinging from a trapeze with his own professional troupe, calling his act "The Aerial Delgardo." The high life came

to an end when he slipped, landed heavily, and spent some time in plaster. Now, among other activities, he busies himself making on-the-spot Nature notes with a tape recorder. For the last two years Reg Williams has been giving talks under the title "The World of Nature" once a month over the YA and YZ stations, and a series of weekly talks over Radio New Zealand. "T’ve always wanted to »e a naturalist," Reg told me the other day. "Before I could walk I chased bugs." He had just returned from the Aldermen Islands off the east coast of Coromandel Peninsula. There he did some _ underwater recording through a microphone in his diving helmet. "A tape recorder gives a word picture of what I see, but there are no under-water sounds-only ‘the bubbling of the escape water. And I can tell you that this sort of research is a far bigger thrill than my trapeze act ever was." Mr. Williams contributes articles to several publications, illustrating them with photographs and pen and ink sketches. "In my opinion New Zealand is an outstanding country from the naturalist’s point of view," he said. +

VOCAL PHILOSOPHER

ge i VENTURE to ask you for a few lines on Ljuba Welitsch, and Victoria de los Angeles, and perhaps their photographs," writes Ailsa Bayes | (Mount Eden, Auckland). Ljuba Welitsch (pronounced Liewba Vellitch) was born in 1913 near Varna

in Bulga Her real name

is Welitschkova. Her interest in music started when she was still a small girl, and her’ sister gave her a violin. In the opinion of Plato, music should be studied in conjunction with philosophy, and such was the system of education adopted by Liuba at Sofia University. She made her debut at Graz, later appearing as prima donna in Munich, Hamburg and Dresden. Frank Granville Barker says that her ability to see the amusing side of all. situations makes her a most entertaining hostess. She loves to recall her performance in Salome at Covent Garden when, as she lifted from a silver

charger the head of the prophet to imprint a last kiss on its lifeless lips, a member of the audience gave one scream of horror before fairiting outright. Some years ago, obliged to travel from Vienna to Dresden immediately after a performance, she

revelied in the alarm created as she casually pulled from her head a mass of false curls, with which she proceeded to remove her grease-paint. She deliberately caused misunderstandings by speaking of her "children’-the name by which she referred to her black miniature poodles, Ali and Scheherazade, famous for their appearances on stage and screen. Victoria de los Angeles was born in 1925 in Barcelona and after only a few years of study the musical world heard a new and remarkable soprano (NZBS programmes feature her recordings frequently). After a tour of Spain she accepted an invitation to London, where she was recognised as a singer of international standing.

BRITAIN’S CONTRIBUTION

HE General Service of the BBC is broadcasting a series of programmes designed to illustrate Britain’s influence on European music during the last 500 years. Some critics have dismissed Britain’s contribution to European music as negligible, but in feality it

Nad a notable influence in Europe and could be compared

with a wheel which in the la&8t 100 years has come full circle, says a BBC London Letter. It began with "Sumer is Icumen In," that astonishing six-part canon written by some ‘anonymous genius in the first quarter of the 14th Century. This was so advanced in concept and construction that its composition in c. 1310 was as astonishing as it would be if a modern car were discovered today in a prehistoric excavation. The next great figure in British music was John Dunstable, the 500th anniversary of whose death fell last Christmas Eve, and whose sacred music is so enduring that it is

still sung in British cathedrals today. * Dunstable’s work had a great influence on the Franco-Flemish school of Dufay, Binchois, Okeghem and others during the 16th Century, and this in turn influenced the Italian composers of the 16th and 17th Centuries. The Italians in their turn influenced the Germans’ until towards the close of the 19th Century the circle was completed with the rise in Britain of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, followed by Britten, Walton and many other noted com-posers-of today. It may not be too fanciful to.presume that the wheel is now beginnifg its second circle, as the influence -of modern British composers stretches out once more towards Europe. «

"HAVE A HEART!"

8 GIRL rang me up the other day and asked for the name of a song which she proceeded to croon. As it’s

not the custom to answer anonymous questioners, I said, : "Who's calling?"

~Moes that really matter?" she asked, adding, "Have a heart; I do so want to know the name." "All right," I said, "let’s hear the melody again." It ‘turned out to be The Song from the Moulin Rouge ("Where Is Your Heart?")

FRUITY VOICES €

8 SS NE of the most active amateur choirs in the Nelson province is in the fruit country, from Appleby to Mapua. Twenty-five people make up the Hills Choir, which was first heard in 1951 when a few orchardists and their workers got together to sing carols at Christmas. This choir has made

a number of lotal appearances between Richmond and Mo-

tueka, and has performed annually at Nelson in the Adult Education Country Choirs’ Festival, broadcast by 2XN. A good deal of the credit goes to the conductor, R. A. Lawson, a still youngish man, whose career has included much military activity. He is a Liverpudlian who joined the Cheshire Regiment as a lad to play in its band. He was at Kneller Hall for som@ years and in 1939 he was appointed bandmaster of the _ Royal Ulster Rifles. But on the outbreak of World War II he gave up music for soldiering overseas. He’ was on active service with the Baluch Regiment (Indian Army) and also in New Guinea and Burma; he was discharged

with the rank of Major in 1946. For the last seven years he has done orchard work in the apple lands of Nelson. In its first studio broadcast from Station 2XN at 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24, the Hills Choir will present a programme ranging from Elizabethan airs to songs of the present day. Lilian Beere will accompany some of the pieces. 4

DUETTISTS

"| NQUIRER" (Brooklyn, Wellington) asks about Frank Parker and Marion Marlow, popular duettists, heard the other evening from 2ZB. Frank Parker, who was born in Manhattan, started out as a chu:ch chorister. He spent some time

at the Milan Conserva-

tory and returned to tne U.S. to appear in Broadway productions. Eventually he was given leading roles Fand later he joined the casts of such well-known shows as those run by Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Eddie Cantor. He has also sung in grand | opera. | Marion Marlow was born in St. Louis and began her radio career at the astonishing age of five. Aided by her mother she took up "little theatre’ and light opera engagements, and later in Hollywood she underwent dramatic and vocal training which secured her a role in a London musical production. On returning to America she sang for one night at a hotel on Miami Beach and

attracted the attention of Arthur Godfrey, the American radio and television star, who engaged her for his shows. *

MORE ABOUT THE WINKLERS

"REGARDING the inquiry about the Winkler Quartet in Open Microphone, I would like to tell you that this group consists of two brothers and two sisters, all members of the same family,"

writes (MTS: ) IV1 Moore (Bur wood, Christchurch). {How-

ever, 1 WaS aiways under the impression that they were Austrians, as I remember their singing long before I thought of coming to New Zealand. Their records are for me my most prized link with my native country. One of the recordings mentioned in The Listener is "Fischerin vom Bodensee," which means the "Fishergirl from Lake Constance." Another well-known record is "Fliege mit mir in die Heimat," which became popular as the hit ‘"Forever and Ever" a year or two ago. There are many more of their quaint recordings. I hope this little information may be of some help to you." Thank you, Mrs. Moore. +

"EFFIE" (Tauranga): Diana Decker is an up and coming young American actress who went to Britain as a child, but "can’t get rid of’ her American accent. She has appeared (mainly in "tizzy" parts) in revue. *

SMALL MAN, BIG VOICE

"(GABIE" (c/o Hospital Staff, New Plymouth): Eric Kunz, sometimes called a baritone and sometimes a bassbaritone, has come into international prominence since the end of World War II. At present he ‘s

appearing at the Metropolitan Opera House.

He was bdorn about 4 years ago in Austria, the son of a minor Government official. The singer’s early musical training consisted of rather indifferent choir practice. at school .and church. He used to perform at small social gatherings and at one of these he was heard by a teacher who had him enrolled in the Vienna Conservatorium. After more downs than ups in professional life he reached a part in Don Giovanni at the Vienna Opera. His career was interrupted by World War Il and little was heard of him until 1947, when he visited London as principal bafitone with the Vienna State Opera. Though he has a big voice Eric Kunz is of slight build, and somewhat

like the dancer Robert Helpmann. tt has been said that there is no "male singer on the Muropean stage with more charm than Kunz. |

BLONDE BUT SHY

"PEGGY LEE FAN" (Wellington) wants to know all about Peggy Lee and Billy Eckstine. Peggy Lee (Norma Egstrom before her marriage) has been singing as long re P|)

@s Sie Call Cie, Wl began in Minneapolis with Sev Olson, and for a brief

period she sang with Will Osborne’s Band; then she did single turns at Palm Springs, California, and Chicago’s Hotel Ambassador. Benny Goodman engaged her in 1941. Aged 34, Peggy Lee is described as "blonde, shy and sartorically impeccable." Billy Eckstine came to light round about 1946 when American night club managers were hiring a_ little-known Negro singer and labelling him "The Sepia Sinatra" and "The Bronze Balladeer" to lure customers in. Eckstine found his way to Broadway’s Paramount Theatre. For a few songs, in association with Duke Ellington, Eckstine was able to make a respectable weekly wage. Pittsburgh-born Billy Eckstine is described as a modest, soft-spoken man off stage, who lives quietly when the auto-graph-hunters let him, with his wife and his collie "Crooner" in Manhattan. His one recreation is golf. YS

RENATA TEBALDI

as A. wm: CHIARONI (Invercargill); All can tell you about Renata ee the young Italian soprano, is that her singing in most of Italy’s major opera houses, in London, Edinburgh, Los

Angeles and san Francisco and on

4s0ong- piaying fecords, has established her in the front rank of the world’s operatic sopranos. She was born at Pesaro in 1922, and studied at the Arrigo Boito Conservatoire,- Parma, completing — her studies with Carmen Melis at the Gioacchino. Rossini Conservatoire, Pesaro. She made her debut at Rovigo in May, 1944, singing Elena in Mefistofele; in December, 1945, she sang Verdi’s Otello at Trieste, and from then on the story of her career is success in various opera houses and in a variety of roles. Sorry, no photograph is available oh.

"LATIN FANS" (Arthur’s Pass): Your letter is unsigned.