MUSIC
THE main events of the week have been operatic—The Barber of Seville at the Cambridge Theatre on January 8th and Carmen at Covent Garden on January 14th. The New London Opera Com- pany are to be most warmly congratulated on their Barber. Here was a classical Italian comic opera with only two Italians in the caste, sung in Italian and, with minor reservations, completely suc- cessful. William and Murray Dickie (Figaro and Alinaviva) are an extremely gifted pair of brothers, with an obvious gift for language as well as singing. Figaro inclined to overplay his part, and his in- ability to stand still was irritating ; but his voice had just the right quality and the necessary flexibility. Almaviva's appearance might have been improved. Being small and neat, he should have been made into a dandy, a Frenchified gallant dolled to the nines, whereas he was simply allowed to suffer for his smallness, which could have been converted into a dramatic asset. flis voice is very pure and liquid, and he managed his roulades beautifully. His use of it is still a little stiff and, like his acting, self-conscious ; but with time and experience both these brothers should develop into first-rate operatic singers. Ian Wallace sang Doctor Bartolo with relish, and it was not his fault so much as the producer's that he was sometimes converted into a mere buffoon—the vast red nose made that clear. Liana Grani sang the part of Rosina with great verve and skill, and her display pieces—Una voce poco fa and the singing-lesson—were a delight. The smallness of the theatre is not flattering to the singers, and in a normal opera-house the grimaces which accompanied some of her top notes and fioriture would have passed unnoticed by the audience. Andrea Mongelli was the most superbly squalid and rascally Basilio I have ever seen (and his hat was one of the biggest). His acting was far the best of the whole CASI, and no one needed to know Italian to understand the operations of a cunningly devised slander as explained by him to Doctor Bartolo. Natalia Goncharova's scenery and costumes were excellent in Acts I and 3; but the patio of Doctor Bartolo's house in Act 2, with its colossal magnolia and picture-postcard colours, seemed to me a trifle vulgar.
Carmen was a sad contrast. All the inhabitants of Seville were aggressively English, and the gentility and refinement of Don Jose (Kenneth Neate) and Micaela (Muriel Rae) were only disturbed oa rare occasions, while Zuniga (David Franklin) seemed to have been deliberately modelled on a Punch cartoon. The voices were pleasant but of the type associated with the musical play rather than with opera, light and " charming " without any hint of dramatic, let alone tragic, power. Edith Coates is a competent Carmen, but she, too, seemed unaware of the starker, more tragic, significance of her part and confined herself to perpetual flaunting up and down the stage, which robbed her of all the instinctive, animal dignity which Carmen should have. Dennis Noble was not well cast as Escamillo, but he did sing and act with style and conviction_ The lesser parts- Frasquita and Mercedes, Dancairo and Remendado—were spoiled either by a dreadful archness (the women) or ludicrous buffooning (the men). Edward Burra's sets and costumes were too arty and far too tidy. It may be impossible for the soldiers to spit and pick their noses, and even the gipsies are conventionally represented as clean ; but the guard-house and the cigarette factory, Lillas Pastia's dive and the bull-ring must be dilapidated and squalid-looking, and there should be plenty of pealing plaster, orange-skins and general squalor and neglect. As for the translation, can anything exceed "Love resembles a wilful bird" for the Habanera? And would not everyone prefer perhaps unintelligible French to governess English?
MARTIN COOPER.
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