THE new entertainment at the Coliseum is a curious hotch-potch.
It begins with a performance of Tchaikovsky's " an Overture," illustrated with a drop-scene of the Kremlin, whose buildings, I believe, unaccountably survived the holocaust here displayed, and passes on to a generous selection from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, Sadko. The second part contains such diverse ingredients as a mildly salacious " turn " in which various light ladies are portrayed, a somewhat crude caricature of Mussolini singing Figaro's air (with appropriate words) from The Barber of Seville, and a ballet, danced to Prokofiev's " Classic Symphony," in which the progress of Russia from the Stone to the Machine Age is set forth.
Plenty of energy, enthusiasm, and a good deal of talent, especi- ally in the designs for the scenery, have gone to the making of this entertainment. But it is a little difficult to see what sort of audience it is designed to draw. Musically, it is hardly of a standard to attract the public that is interested in opera and ballet, nor is it striking and broad enough in its effects to reach across the footlights to that popular audience which likes the more refined type of variety performance so long associated with this theatre. Most of the dancing is, not to put a fine point on it, elementary in technique, and the singing in Saako too often confirmed the truthfulness of the operatic scenes in the film Citizen Kane. Only Mr Francis Russell in the title-part, singing with conviction and every appearance of ease in Russian, did justice to this charming and original music.
DYNELEY HUSSEY.
Previous page
