NZBS Produces a Ballad Opera

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 869, 29 March 1956, Page 7

NZBS Produces a Ballad Opera

A LIFE on the ocean wave has never been regarded as exactly synonymous with a life of ease, but, until the middle of the 19th century (when concern for the souls of savages eventually spread to rather milder concern for the well-being of native Englishmen) naval life was several degrees worse than purgatory. During the Napoleonic Wars in particular the sailor’s lot was not a happy one. Press gangs were everywhere, waiting to pounce on the fool, the unwary, the drunkard and the deserter. Pimps (£3 for every man shanghaied aboard) likewise flourished. England’s naval glories were bought by methods that were often shamefully inglorious, yet the strange thing was that these reluctant heroes still fought like tigers when the time came. _. A new NZBS production, The Darkeyed Sailor (to be broadcast in YA Theatre of Music on Saturday, April 7), is a ballad opera set in the Napoleonic War days. It is, however, a new experiment in an old form, because it was written and first produced for the BBC’s Third Programme during Coronation Week. 1953. It proved so popular then that it was later re-broadcast on the Home Programme. The songs which (in true ballad opera style) dot the text and comment

on it are genuine songs of the Napoleonic period. ‘The music for them was arranged by Francis Collinson, who also wrote the incidental music. The text, a really salty tale, was written by Francis Dillon, It is mercifully free from what any schoolboy would call "wetness" -the kind of niminy-piminy writing that attempts to soften up a tough age for our tender ears and has often ruined attempts at using old dramatic forms. The story of The Dark-eyed Sailor is simple but sufficient. Two sailors, Tom and Dick, have deserted from their man-o’-war at Plymouth. They are tacking across Devon and_ shelter from the filthy weather

at a farmhouse. Johnnie, a farm-hand there, loves Nancy, the daughter of the house, but, because he has no money, he decides to go off with Tom and Dick to try to make his fortune on board a privateer. In between voyages and battles on land and sea the sailors drop anchor at "The Spyglass," whose. hospitable landlord and even more hospitable hostesses brighten their harsh lives. Eventually, Johnnie wins his Nancy and his discharge from the Navy at the war’s end. In producing The Dark-eyed Sailor, the NZBS used a considerable part of its available resources, both musical and dramatic, The part of Irish Tom is sung by Thomas Hanna and spoken by Roy Leywood; Lying Dick by Ian McNeilage and William Austin; Johnnie by Robin Gordon and Alan Jervis; Nancy by Betty Evans and Gae Harding; Harry the Robber by Antony Vercoe and Michael Cotterill; Malaga Mary by Merle Gamble and Davina Whitehouse; the Negro Seaman by Frank Malthus and Bernard Beeby;. Nell by Alice Graham and Wendy Gibb; Paul the Pimp by Owen Bonifant and Gavin Yates. Mr. Bell is played by Harry Painter; the Landlord by Peter Read,

and Captain Vincent by Selwyn Toogood. The orchestra is conducted by Alex Lindsay, and the producer is Bernard Beeby. ‘" With such a large cast. of actors, singers and musicians, rehearsals

created quite a problem for the producer and musical director. The singers rehearsed together on a number of occasions before beginning rehearsals with the orchestra. All in all, the singers had a busy. time because, in scenes where they were not required to sing solo, they filled out the chorus strength. Dialogue and music were than recorded separately and the complete show produced from the two sets of recordings. The Dark-eyed Sailor, though it forms part of a

lively tradition in English music dating back to Gay’s Beggar’s Opera of 1728, is still unusual on two counts. First, its traditional tunes are taken largely from sea chanties, and second, it was written especially for radio. Senes apss mapomnid