Strauss Up-to-date

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 7

Strauss Up-to-date

NUMBER of top-ranking actors whose voices have previously been heard only in the spoken word, have recently added to their already well-established fame by producing singing voices of various qualities. Notable among these are Sir Laurence Olivier, who delighted his fans when he sang in an agreeable baritone in The Beggar's Opera, and Rex Harrison, who as Higgins in My Fair Lady, a musical comedy based on Shaw’s Pygmalion, has been raucously cackling his successful way through the Broadway hit. Now Anthony Quayle and Michael Redgrave have joined the ranks with outstanding success in the film Oh, Rosalinda, which is described as Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus brought up te date. Excerpts from Oh, Rosalinda, will be heard this week in YA Theatre of Music. The plot of Strauss’s operetta has ‘been altered very littleand the music not at alli-to make it a merry, modern comedy. Baron von Eisenstein in the original becomes Colonel Eisenstein of the French Army (Michael Redgrave); Prince Orlofsky becomes General Orlofsky of the U.S.S.R. (Anthony Quayle); Frank becomes Major Frank of the British Army (Dennis Price); Alfred becomes Captain Alfred Westerman of the U.S.A.F. (Mel Ferrer); and Notary Falke becomes Dr. Falke (Anton Walbrook), Rosalinda herself is played by Ludmilla Tcherina, who was in Red Shoes, and starred in Tales of Hoffmann. Not all these actors sing their own partsthe New Zealand baritone Dennis Dowling sings the part of Frank, Sari Barabas sings Rosalinda, Alexander Young sings Alfred, and Walter Berry sings Dr. Falke. The story is of a practical joke and the revenge that followed it-a gay extravagant plan that swept the whole of Vienna into a game, The highlight is General Orlofsky’s masked ball, at which Anthony Quayle sings a magnificent solo welcoming the guests to the ball and telling them of the relations between East and West. Rosalinda arrives masked and Eisenstein flirts gaily with her, not realising that. she is his own wife. The music is played by the Weiner Symphoniker Orchestra conducted by Alois Melichar, and the production and direction is by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The musical director is Fred Lewis, and the lavish choreography is by Alfred Rocriques.