Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 932, 21 June 1957, Page 18

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

TENOR

HEN Richard Lewis, now on a tour of New Zealand for the NZBS, sings with the Bach Choir, one of London’s leading oratorio groups, he has one particularly keen and _ critical listener among his fellow performers:

his wife, Mary, who sings in the ranks of the sopranos. The daughter of

a former leading flautist of the Halle Orchestra, Mary Lewis also plays the flute and the piano, though not professionally. Talking with Arthur Jacobs in London before he set out on his present tour, Richard Lewis discussed his reactions to working under such eminent

composers as Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten and Sir William Walton. Mr Lewis took part in the first performance of Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum in St. Mark’s Church, Venice, after Stravinsky had heard him sing the leading role in The Rake’s Progress, and he created the role of Troilus in Walton’s Troilus and Cressida, and sang

the Male Commentator in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Both Stravinsky and Britten, he says, are very strict in knowing exactly what they want, but in Troilus and Cressida Walton was glad to have suggestions on how the music should be sung, and Christopher Hassall, who wrote the libretto, was ready to alter some of the words to help the voice. Incidentally, Mr Lewis learnt the first act of The Rake’s Progress during nine days’ "holiday" on the French Riviera-each morning he spent two

hours on the beach with the score while his wife swam. When he travels Richard Lewis takes an expensive cine camera with him and even prepares a script of the subjects he will take and the sort of shots he hopes to use. Then back home _ he edits his films carefully and records commentary and background music. *

" HAVE spent the last 10 or 11 years trying to persuade stories to move ._down my sleeves on to my typewriter fast enough to fool the wolf," says Nat Easton, whose short story "Echo" will be heard from 3YZ on Saturday, June 29. "The first time I did get a bit ahead of that animal I spent writing a play which nobody, rightly, would look at. In 1955 I again managed to out-

distance his fangs a little and produced a thriller, Always the Wolf." This was due to be published in March this year. Born in 1913, Mr Easton describes himself as "a Yorkshireman from Bridlington, where people resort to fish and pleasure." He had six years and 10 days’ war service, and when he became a civilian again he simply went down to

London "to be a writer." Mr Easton adds: "I have a daughter of six who goes to the French Lycee here in London, and who is generally called CanCan, because that was how she pronounced Caroline in earlier days. I also have a wife who has a job in Mayfair and who is a brick." Nat Easton, incidentally, is only a pen name, but it was borrowed from a real person, "my great-grandfather, an auctioneer from The Land of Green Ginger, Hull, Yorks." *

REHEARSAL of the National Orchestra at St. Paul’s Schoolroom, Wellington, was interrupted one morning not long ago when a group of young cheir boys filed in. James Robertson had heard that Stanley Jackson, organist and choirmaster at

the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, was holding a three day choir school, and he sent word that if the boys could spare a few minutes he would like them to sing with the Orchestra. "We handed parts . out to the Orchestra and from memory the boys sang the hymn ‘Lift High the Cross,’ by Sir Sydney Nicholson, a founder of the Royal School of Church Music," says Stanley Jackson. "The boys were thrilled, and it was feally the highlight of the three days." *

SOPRANO

HE soprano Maureen Wilson, who will be heard from 2XP on Sunday, June 30, in songs by Quilter, Head and Bridge, is no newcomer to the air, As Taranaki listeners will remember, her

broadcasts from the original 2XP included work in the Children’s Session, and she has also been heard from 1YZ, following her. appearance in a demonstration concert at the Rotorua Com-

petitions. She has had wide experience in competitions — at Auckland,

Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Rotorua, Hawera, Wanganui and, of course, New Plymouth-and everywhere has had a fair measure of success. Her interest in broadcasting is reflected in placings in the radio test at both Auckland and Wellington, and at Wanganui she has won the vocal and dramatic scholarship. Maureen Wilson-who, incidentally, holds the Licentiate Diploma for Singing of Trinity College, London, and the

Royal Schools of Music, London, as well as a Teacher’s Diploma in pianoforte — does not, however, confine herself to broadcasting and competitions work. She took the soprano solos in Messiah for the New Plymouth Choral Society in 1955, and at the Stratford 75th Jubilee, and had the lead in Rio Rita when the Stratford Operatic Society produced it last year. At New Plymouth she has also been a guest artist of the Philharmonic Society.

Since her early days in music Maureen Wilson has wanted to \attend the Edinburgh Festival, and she plans to do that when she goes overseas to | study at the end of the year, )