Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 24

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS,

ON AND OFF THE RECORD,

By

Swarf

| Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Lloyd Hardie, joined the staff of 2ZF (Palmerston North B Station) as an announcer, and at that time he was one of the youngest announcers in New Zealand. His work also included programme, organising, and conducting a ie 1935 an ex-pupil of the

children’s session under the name of "Uncle Phil." When the secretary of the Manawatu Radio Club (which ran Station 2ZF) retired, he took over. In 1938 he joined 2ZA Palmerston North as a contract announcer. He is married, has two children, and is the’ eldest son of J. R. Hardie, former Town Clerk of Palmerston North, who retired recently. This information is in reply to a request by "Whodunit" (Feilding). = =

MID-WEST OPERA

a ARON COPLAND’S first full-length opera The Tender Land — libretto by. Horace Everett-was given its world premiere in New York recently by the New York City Centre Opera. The New York Times said that the work was

"heard with every sign of respect and appreciation. but

the impression was of a reception somewhat conditional." The New York _

Herald Tribune found the opera "lacking in the inner compulsion, the sheer verve and spontaneity that have made Copland’s orchestral pieces a major contribution to the repertoire." The reviewer added: "What the composer has achieved, however, is to create a genuine atmosphere piece, that breathes, smells, even feels like the Mid-West (of the United States)." Aaron Copland. (the original family name is Kaplan, the change being due to a mistake on the part of immigration officials at the reception of his parents in New York) was born in New York in 1900, He took his first lessons from his sister, and then studied with Wittgenstein, Wolfsohn, and Adler and others. His earliest music was abstract and severe, but an absorbing interest in jazz and American folk music produced Music for the Theatre and El Salon Mexico. His mature compositions have a highly personal and poetic stamp and include Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, Our Town, and the ballet scores, Hear Ye! Hear Ye! and Rodeo. His Billy the Kid, a cowboy ballet suite, has been described as some of the most exciting and popular ballet music done in America. It has been heard from NZBS stations, played by the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein. e

MENUHIN’S MOTIVE

y EHUDI MENUHIN was recently criticised by a section of the London Press for his decision not to fly for the time being, and in a letter to The Times he has explained his motive. This, he says, "is dictated not by fright, but by a compelling impulse besetting a surViving itinerant violinist-and one who

never shrank from flying in bombers and under all conditions of war and

peace when he felt it in the line of duty-to take a constructive stand in the light of (1) the type of accident which has caused, upon three separate occasions, the deaths of three cherished colleagues, and (2) the puzzle ef why this decimation should particularly affect the ranks of my companions. In each case owing to impaired visibility the flight was abruptly terminated against an immovable object. Surely the most primitive of radar instruments can detect a mountainside dead ahead?

--_ Surely it is not asking too much that such equipment be installed in all aircraft? .. . I am confident that I wil! fly again because I have faith in man’s ability to conquer all odds. . ." (The three colleagues referred to by Menuhin are presumably William Kapell, Ossy Renardy and Ginette Neveu. Kapell was killed in October, and Ossy Renardy in December, 1953; Ginette Neveu met her death in October, 1949.) Fi

CRIED AND RAN

PIER ANGELI, a young film star, js shown here broadcasting for th BBC. Anna-Maria Pierangeli, just

than half that age, is and iookKing iittie i | one of twin sisters born

in Cagliari, capital of the Italian island of Sardinia. The little girl alwavs loved the theatre and went

to the opera with her parents; but she had little real inclination to adopt a stage career herself. Here was a rare case, however, of her mother holding different views, and in 1948 she was taken to tea at the house of a retired actress, Rena di Liguoro, to meet the French producer director Leonide

Moguy. For years Moguy had wanted to make a film, Tomorrow is Too Late, always hoping to find for the leading role an actress who, though an adolescent, had a depth of understanding far beyond her age. Directly he saw AnnaMaria Pierangeli, he knew he had found the actress he wanted, but Anna-Maria, when asked to walk about before him and read a few lines of script, burst into tears and ran home. After a few weeks of persistent persuasion on the part of her mother and the producer, she gave in and, helped by the sympathy and kindness of the great director, appeared in the film. It was awarded a prize for the year’s best Italian film, while she received a prize for the best Italian actress’s performance of the year. And so Anna-Maria Pierengeli was seen by the great ones of the

film world, snapped up by Hollywood and rechristened — for some reason or other-Pier Angeli. This girl who had to be almost driven to accepting an opportunity thousands of girls positively ache for is now a big star. But she doesn’t seem to have lost the enviable freshness which is her great asset. She is described as very simple, she uses no make-up and, by Hollywood standards, she leads a quiet life. *

THE EBB TIDE FLOWED

URING the voyage from America to England an American harpist, Robert Maxwell, who was_ booked to appear at the London Palladium, filled in the time by writing a

tune he called "Ebb Tide." The young British bandleader

Frank Chacksfield, happening to stroll into a music publisher’s office, spotted the manuscript lying on a desk. He borrowed ‘it and recorded it. That recording of "Ebb Tide" became immensely popular, not only in Britain but in America, where many hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold.

"HERE'S RICHNESS"

*x HE problem of adapting for radio a Dickens novel, teeming with subplots, characters, incidents, and descriptive matter is a- formidable one; so Charles Lefeaux, who adapted and produced Nicholas Nickleby for the BBC »

imposed certain set rules on his

: work. fils frst task was to sheer away anything which did not further the development of the plot; his second, to drameatise fully (except for the opening narration of each episode) and not allow the voice of the narrator to intrude or interrupt; his third, to remember that many characters admirable on the printed page are disastrous in the studio, either because they impede the story or speak in so literary a way that actors are quite unable to make them sound convincing. But even with the pruning knife applied "here’s richness"-to quote Mr. Squeers. Gordon Davies, who plays Nicholas, is a Birmingham man with a great deal of experience in repertory, the West End of London, on the air and in television.

He was one of the actors who played Dick Barton, hero of many juvenile listeners to the BBC’s programmes. He has many interests apart from his work, more than anything else he enjoys acting and watching other people act, both on the stage and screen. He’s fond of music end reading, and tennis and. walking keep him happily occupied when out of doors. Nicholas .Nickleby (12 episodes) has finished at 2,3, 4ZB and 2ZA, but it is still running at 1ZB on Sunday evenings.

MRS. U. G. MORRIS (Tahuna, Nela . . son): The name of the singer is Xenia Belmas, and she is a Continental artist. Books of musical reference and other musical authorities consulted here contribute little else about her, —

x ALMA COGAN, the singer in the BBC’s new Take It From Here, is also the singer in a new Morecambe and Wise comedy series on television called Running Wild.

"N Z. JAZZ FAN" (Mt. Albert, Auck- * land): Your letter is not signed.