1955-03-19 — Page 13

R

"MADAM BUTTERFLY, 1955

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1955.

Warid Conwright by arrangement with the Manchester Chuardian

རྩྭ

TOMORROW IS THEIR 65th BIRTHDAY

Gigli and Melchior, The Tenor Twins

B

By GERARD BOURKE

the not

It WILS in 1020, too, that Melchior went to London to join

Y curious chance, Neither has been a success. In November 1920, Gigif" made.

Beniamino Gigli and ful Mozart singer.

his debut

New York's Lauritz Melchior, two

Metropolitan Opera. The men- Cigli Was born at rure of his wrocess was that he of the greatest tenors of the

regularly Recanati, in

for the inter-war years, were both

central Italy, sung there

next 12 years, receiving about born on March 20, 1890, the son of a shoemaker who £20,000 a season. But they

direct was also verger at were not

volves Cathedral. So it was rivala, since their were so different in quality surprising that the boy en- Dame Nellie Melba in the first that their parts scarcely tered the choir shephorded broadenst given by the now Marconi Experimental station. ever overlapped. A few of by his father.

He returned the following year Verdi's more dramatic When Beniamino's voice to continue his studies that wore |characters such as the Moor, attracted attention, his more prolonged thara Gigi's

father wished to send him change..

partly because of the Volco

1.0 the famous Sistine Chapel choir in Rome, but the young singer was fuse admission. Perhaps, to console him, they recalled B won how Verdi himself was once was invited by Wagner's aged

Otello, were exceptions.

a

Gigli, an Italian, became supreme lyrical tenor, master of the clusive bel canto, or beautiful song. The Dane, Melchior, honours chiefly Wagnerian tenor of

kridentenor solid

type.

WILLIAM STEVENSON, Toronto Star correspondent, ends

this three-part series by summing up his impressions

of a two-month trip through Communist China

NOT QUITE THE

GIANT WE THINK

T Pes nimost im-

Wherever 1 weird. officials askerl * crept harder cond-

possible to guess what asked for my villicisms They uns Sourbody hai to すず

coarse the new regime

criticism of

ldn't mean politiend system,

the made i scapegoat, And what but of their better way than to publicise the 121 Chena will lake. way of doing things to Shang-

through the courts. warning Most of us who have been hai 4171 other great centres, The main task of the nation' there are like blind

furtories, mines men Western

and

Judiciary { Mao Tse-tung: mills Inves stumbling

Inken over Rround 2673 Production elephant. Ench touches some going separate part of the beast stay longer at their and feels he knows exactly an ever before and what it

Mem

that 2172c

The trouble us

"f

agresu.

Napoleon

14

#*

quoted saying: "Chion? Here lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep, for when he wakes he will move the world."

'X-

It seems to the we can aggerate the value of that pre- diction. China is immensely

up.

no amouri

ECHOES

should

u

ali

το

the

politi si catechisinis mid slept in tomilalike dormitorie

Their bigges, honey, un i say, was Formosa,

the Coin-

ro-

refused admission Lo Milan academy on grounds of Insufficient ap Titude for music {

Tide Turned

To Bayreuth

þUT Melchior's intensive tralu- ing was rewarded. In 1923,|he

widow, Cosima, to sing Siegfried the at the Bayreuth Wegner Festival, after his detrit an Siegmund in London's Covent Chrden. Among his finest re- cordings are those made in these two parts.

Gigli did not appear at Covent Garden until 1930.. Heng

THE tide soon turned when there in Giordano's "Audre Gigli won a scholarship Chenier,"" though by then he

to the celebrated Academy had toured DTC widely than of St. Cecilia, patron saint of Melchior because of the wider repatory open to a lyrical tenor, nnusie, in Rome.

Arul

so it balanced up-Gigli had sting at the "Met" six years Melelour, whereas

Meanwhile, in distent Copen- before heggen, a thorister wis sing or Melchior had beaten him to

alogandily in the city's English Covent Garden, also Church that

Mrs.

Preced

a career in music. When Melchter's voice broke, envrged at a lowny level than young Gigli's, and it was as baritone that

Melchior entered the historie Royni Opera School

بودی

Six

By the time the Second World War broke vul, restricting cul- tural exchanges, both singres had reactred the peak of their profession. Shortly before the

A1 Copenhagen, where Hans war, Melchior had sung-his 100th Christian Andersen was once a Skagfried at the "Met," though scholar for a short time! There, for a singer with

in April 1913, Melchior made his operatie debut in Leoncavallo's "Pagllover" at the age of 23.

Next year, shortly after the munist claim that the Ameri-outbrak of war. Gigli maufe cons are using Chiang Kai-shek tus debut

111 Ponchiell's "Lá against

China. Gunadas,” wenpan This raised in my mind a few

now

remembered vulside Italy chiefly for the "peaceful questions about

co-"Dance of the Hours." He had existence."

previously won an international

First War

The Communist Party theoresinging competition. ticians in Morrow say peaceful co-existence can apply to the commercial and diplomatic Neids, but not to political war- fare. In other words, this com- paige to have Us ail live. together in peace does not mean an end to the political struggle preleted by Marx.

EVASIVE

sach phono-

menul stumu, the feat was not mill comarkable.

Welcomed Back

FTER Italy's collapse the Allled Military Control in Rome forbade Glgil 10 sing there for a while. He had been a favourite singer of Mussolini, and they feared, incidents. But the barriers were quickly with- drawn, and in Merch 1945 his delighted compatriots welcomed him back in Puccini's "Tosca."

THE First World War disturbed TH

I still remember vividly hear- than Gigi's in fly. Although the following year in the com- Melchior's Danish career more ing him sing at Covent Garden he continued to sing in Copen- poser's "La Boheme," with Rina hagen during those years, we do Gigi, his daughter, playing not hear of him again until 1918, Mim!. when he re-emerguti singing not baritone, but tenor parts.

as own words) "is to be a weapon in theory should be for the further consolidation of Isn't Workers the Peoples Democratic Dicta-

machines torship. they get

That

doesn't leave much room thing is wrong and

varations. Yet Some- fur any nousense about abstract

It seems Justice. likely China's leaders recognise So you find fear at the root this fact and would be glad to of all this apparent enthusiasm. do something about It with I don't mean fear in any drama- Western help.

he sense, because the Chinese are 100 much accustomed lives of uncertainty. Nor do 1 mean the dull, nagging fear that io our own society keeps a mun doing a job he hates, sometimes Whether we should offer that

beyond an belp. I'm not qualified to say.

age

which he reure.

This All I know is the first fine blush artificially

fear 13

Since the war, Melchior, has large but her leaders want us

manufactured and uf Communist fervour carried used

13

only in America, infre sung to think her larger still. They China through

with considerable cunning.

Now it's a strange thing, but several cases of baritones becom→ Time

There have, of course, been quently, except for film work. the aimcult cia a population of six bun-

For instance, I saw very little

when I asked the Chinese Coming tenors,

deals severely with period of revolution. It knitted dred million and say it's rising the nation

munists about this, they were coming sopranos, but the voice great Kirsten Flagstad seemed

and contraltos be- Wagnerton voices, into

a single unit propaganda against

the unit except In twelve

though the million every year, I

the

evasive. They did not say like idom towers itself. But don't forget it

Mao

Industrial

trial centres is propaganda, it's danger-

Tse-tung

and particularly in Manchuria. the Russians that co-existence

to belie the fact, until her récent Who Interpreted Com- This swopaganda bestaune it

This province

Gigli was more fortunate. In retirement. now called

should got apply to the political

Thero la munism for the Chinese people Northeast China but

sphere; I told them until it did, 1815, he sang at Naples the tenor however, much to a time when Chin will suggests a

and added Д few of his own ier to expand.

suons sull carry Russian algas, nothing Embellishments. If you

had really

a fine set- Cigll's frequent recitals. changed part in "Mellstofeles, study Many people feel

sympathy

and if you mave quickly enough since the cold war began. This ing of Goethe's "Faust" writings-as

Thust every for the Chinese in their new Chinese youngeler you find dificulty

around the hotels, you have no

Music lover's posed by Bolto, who also wrote

send greetings they seemed to found pride. That doesn't meani

the stories for some Russian valid argument. surprising

of Verdi's to two distinguished anusicians echoes of the great civillans there's

powerful great deal to be proud Chinese scholars and

going about their

operas. The conductor was Pletro on their joint 65th birthday! warriors

mysterious errands. of hyr own standards. They

There's another way of look-Mascagni, composer of the famous have a long, long way

this country's

"Cavalleria Rustleana." ing at this, of course, Here there are coal, iron and

and it In pust centuries. before they rival most of usToday, the revolution

ollier mineral resources. Steel

brings me back to this matter either 121 state welfare. fact, and the Chinese are getting horizon which, in clear weather,

of China not being factories betch smoke on 1

quite 22219 education schemes or in techni-

ghunt we think. All the Chinese down to the real task of re- caf knowledge. What they've

extends to the Korean border. construction and development. achieved has been inrgely by

The Russians have contracted to Synthetic petroleum is produced sheer physical effort, with

build some 141 new

in former Jap factories, which factories, great deal of material assistance

and Russian devices are used at look as though they could do from the Russians.

་་་**་

with a thorcigh overhaul.

oils

STIFLING

to

s

who built

RO RU

in

Kriz

each

טין

other Marxist-Lenintam han production yet to prove magic formula reason to think it do

16 well among the

wiy

19

1

PROPAGANDA

West

accept

its

U

Peace Years

COM-

1 I talked with and that means only Party members and ap- TWO years later, Gigli received said: "Why don't you accept abroad, to sing in Spain, artist

· ONLY. proved citizens-all these people his first acceptable offer from our challenge? We think the moment for raising produc-

our career es a fully equipped system will produce tion the Soviet concept of

better dates from a performance again results. You say yours is much "socialist emulation" in which

better. We don't have to go to ing Day, 1918, at L

in "Mefistofeles"—given on Box- workers of

challenge to achieve

war

to prove who's right

Scala, Milan. This time he was conducted by new

So targets.

even 1 peaceful Co~ There's

1 don't know where all the existence is not meant to bring was heightend by being held

Arturo Toscanini, The occasion work doesn't

from these factories

an end to propaganda wars, memory of the composer, Bolts, in for producing a mighty indus-

Chinese, Products

Ko. The Chinese were defensive should we worry? Our case is who had died six months earlier. trial nation. All it does is stille in the official newspapers and

Every now and then you read about the whole thing. I could enormously strong, and it

So both singers entered the the naturni initiative of the

there are no others about some this into the centre of heavy unlike the Russians were not placas among the leading tenors. developing seemed to me the Chinese peace years ready to take their Chinese people, by foreing them

industry if it was really meant above looking at it to spend long hours repeating poor ittle the same dusty old lemons which against the traces.

to serve the Chinese people, the bulk of whom live a long dis- lance away around the river

DOUBT basins.

'Their

simply do not apply to this

modern world.

1.0

chap

who kicked

FEAR

The great conundrum is, of ecurse, to what extent may The case of Criminal Liang is

see no reason for

sand young

China's leaders be aware of Lypleal. He was 22 years old, But I do know the 'violently They won't admit anything. this. It's a matter of history A cool miner, and he was shot anti-Western propaganda here They can't of their dictatorship that Mao Tse-tung and the men on the spot when n People's was based entirely on what collapses. But behind the bold around him have deviated from Court found him guilty of set- Russian news agencies tell front there may be a nagging Moscow's Instructions WHEN Tr ting fire to mining machinery China is happening in the West, doubt Already, Peking has SUITED THEM. On the other and so causing the death of 14 Once it had been aimed against asked if it can hand, China today is utterly de fellow miners. This happened the Americans in Korea. Since engineers to study in Britain. pendent on Russian and East while I was myself talking to then, the campaign has switched There's a change creeping into European aid-she is helpicas coal miners in Manchuria, and to Formosa and the Americans the

the universitics,

and I saw without Czech anti-aircraft

there. It craft his story was being told every. ther

Formosa Is guns, Pollsh artillery

St Jade glish textbooks replaced in!

Hibraries from which they'd His real crime, th880TH Russian jets. The factories you where as an object

WIE would be next, since threats of been taken during the early, see in Manchuria are Russion

are the fanatical days of revolution that he objected to going back fosign aggression rebuilt from or have been

alternatives to our The Chink I was allowed to

:M regime had introduced a system own Incentives of botter

pay.

she was poor; the people in the countrydde were often quite obvidualy unidaried. They badly

and

опе

Man Japanese equip. to picco rates alter the new Necessary ·

a lot of it looted by the of straight salarios. He wanted The technique was

Russian

only five or six years to change jobs, to move to the operatore Chinese, whether ago. The cars in the city streets another mine where he felt he in propaganda or Industry as needed education in every field

deal. Switch tried hard to find out where all

though the greater per

are East European or Russian, could get one back to pieva,the seamless 'steel tubing what bentaro of books published"; in ]

on his knee. Today he kans on

except for the few second-hand ing a coal American and British limousines rates would be regarded as a from i brand new, robot factory Faking bro süll Communist which have slipped any well-respecting trade union notely controlled by you a lot of noise-making, but

through very backward step indeed by bulk by the Raina, but re Party texts. blockade and embargoes

Tiere was

Was i lot of

of bravado, Still this giant might be going in our part of the world. Court Chinese" girls.. places if only there were signs evidence showed Lang - had the wire alda's caro whether felt this thant was not get even of intelligent planning, Ford fought bravely awake in the freight train were lubetes Russia for help, Some day ho Chou Enlai himself. comrades to rescue workers in Onak," Tomsk or Vladivostok, may find it necessary to lean on admitted recently -That- in the fire, shd had behaved more Tháy, had just enough educ others, bore he lands upon

like a hero than a knave. Yet Ten to believe it was all in his own two fout. even before sentence was progood cause anyhow, and beat

to keep

Let they danced the "Rumdan, folla music, read their

· efficiency and waste were up pearing in industry. He blamed factorý mantigors who are Food Communimas bubba famoses, and today, a Party bura win lungur muninnises à Vore jüb.): over..

"nouhded" he had buàn)

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