1938-12-10 — Page 10

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, Saturday, DECEMBER 10, 1938.

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The

Thongkong Telegraph.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1938.

Peace by Bargaining?

THE road of general appease- ment winds toward Spain. between Reciprocal gestures London und Paris on the one hand and Rome and Germany on the other reflect the possibi- lity of removing the Spanish monkey wrench from the four- power machinery which went into operation at Munich.

From the nature of these gestures we may see that the Berchtesgaden - Godesberg- Munich shake-up loosened more than Czecho-Slovakia's hold on territory and western friends. It apparently has all but releas- ed the grasp of world public opinion on that active idealism which the peoples heretofore had Insisted be respected by states-

men.

While there can be two points

of view about the relative prac- tical value of so-called "idealis tic" and "realistic" methods in an opportunistie work, it is well to recognise that a clear choice has now been made between

these methods, It is a choice between collective security and democratic procedures in inter- national affairs which were the

best hopes that came with Allied victory in 1918, and those methods of international bar- gaining which preceded the World War.

As the four-power method begins to deal with Spain its relation to League of Nations principles becomes mirage-thin. It may be argued that the Czecho-Slovakian settlement in removing errors of Versailles was not altogether at variance with the ima of collective security as described in Article XIX of the League covenant: to make territorial adjustments without decisions of Versailles. That argument can be a long one. on both aides. But the Ethio- pians were not attacked in the nume of minorities. The Spanish Government did not owe its existence to Versailles,

Yet what is the price of a Spanish settlement to be, and who is to make the initial pay-

U

GLY DUCKLING of the Savoy Operas, "Ruddigore," which the Hongkong Philharmonic Society will stage at the Queen's Theatre on Wed- nesday, has had a chequered history that makes it unique

The Bold,

Bad

Barts of Of

stricken with a serious illncas and Lytton, then a stripling in his 'teens, was pitch-forked into the part of the proverbial mo- ment's notice..

It was an ordeal to substitute for the great Grossmith, yet Lytton played the part for six weeks and went on to become

RUDDIGORE

among the Gilbert and Sulli- TO ENLIVEN matters, the Gilbert had aimed his shaft probably the most famous of all van collaborations.

"Ruddigore's" original cast

Was:

ancient Frenchman who for across to the Surrey side of the Savoyards. years had served as correspon- Thames, to the "transpontine" Its opening run in London over dent of the Paris Figaro (he bore drama of the day; blood-curdling 50 years ago was a comparative the incongruous name of John- melodramma in which villains of failure and it remained un- son) took offence at one of the the blackest hue waved mort- revived until 1921, but the local

gages in front of absurdly in- amateurs are far from conduct-

genuous heroines and were re- scued at the eleventh hour by

songs.

ing a courageous experiment, Sings Richard Dauntless, a

and hissed in turns. But Gil-

Then our Captain he up and he bert forgot that his satire was

says, says hr.

not the satire of everyone, and while London appreciated the lilt

for in the last decade "Ruddi- man o' war's man, telling a la dauntless fair-haided heroes, gore" has lived down its dis- Diben of a brush with a French while audiences, wept, cheered favour to such an extent that privateer:-- last year in England, Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts placed it third on the popularity list, "Mikado" subordinate only to and "Yeomen of the Guard.”

Both librettist and

composer thought highly of his own par- ticular contribution to "Ruddi- gore" and modern critics place it among the best of the joint efforts of the famous pair.

Certainly, Sullivan's music is as lilting as any and bears little sign of the haste in which he wrote it, the pain he was suffer- ing and the fact that his lations with Gilbert were at the time more strained than at any previous period of their associa- tion.

re-

Robin Oakuppie George Grossmith Richard Dauntless..Durward Lely Despard Murgatroyd

Rutland Barrington

Old Adam Goodheart

Rudolph Lewis Rose Maybud...Leonora Braliam Mad Margaret .....Jessie Bond Dame Hannah..Rosina Brandram Stoclerick Murgatroyd

Richard Temple

܀

That chap we need not fear.-- We can take her, if he like. She is sartin for to strike, of his lyrics and the humour of FOR 4 YEARS "Ruddigore" For she's only a darned Mounseer, his dialogue, his burlesques of a lay forgotten in the D'Oyly

D'ye ser?

vacillating heroine, faithful ser- Carte vaults until it was brought vitors and villains accursed to out as an experiment on October commit a daily crime or die, 24, 1921 in the wave of post-war clever burlesques as they may. Gilbert and Sullivan popularity. have been, did not appeal to Vic- torian London.

She's only a darned Mannsegri But to fight a French fat-lal--it's

like hittin' of a pol~~ It's a lubberly thing for to do: For wee, with all our fanits, Why we're sturdy British salts, While she's only a Parley-roo,

D'ye see?

While she's only a Parley-100,

After the initial disappoint- ment. Gilbert and Sullivan re-

By

Harold BROKENSHIRE

It was played by the following cast:

Robin Oakapple Henry A. Lytton Richard Dauntless Derek Oldham Despard Murgatroyd Leo Sheffield Old Adans Goodheart

Robert McQueen Rose Mayhttel .......Elsie Griffin Mad Margaret Catherine Ferguson Dame, Hannah......Bertha Lewis Roderick Murgatroyd

Darrel Fancourt Modern Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts, who cared little for ghosts, possibly used stronger Monsieur Johnson cabled his novated the piece, added here, words than "Ruddigore" and "RUDDIGORE" was first pre-

sented on January 22, 1887, wrath to Paris and a number of dropped there a song or two, but, appreciated Gilbert's satire, de- at the Savoy Theatre to a Lon- hyper-patriotic Britons likewise the opening run of "Ruddigore"

spite many of its lincs which don that had gone "Mikado" girded at the litly on the score was a failure, that is to say that had lost their topicality, gave

that it insulted not the French many a modern show would be the revived opera a mad, and while there was ap- but the British Navy.

glad of half its success.

better re- ception than their grandfathers, plause, the final curtain, for the

finding in it a selection of melo- first time in Savoy history, was

It ran for eight months, Gil- dies that, like most of Sullivan's,

Rumours went that Gilbert

greeted with a lugubrious "boo" had been challenged 'to several bert's share of the proceeds was were easy to remember and im-

duels and before the smoke had £7,000, Sullivan's more because proved on acquaintance. cleared away, Messrs. Gilbert of the sale of the music, and

from the cheap seats.

Sympathetic' critics said the cries had been directed to Lord Randolph Churchill, who happen ed to be quitting his seat in the stalls at the moment.

and Sullivan had collaborated on D'Oyly Carte made most because It is now never omitted from a new work--a letter in French, having only financed instead of a Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire to the Figaro, explaining that it creating it, he naturally made in England and abroad and was the farthest from their in- most. tention to ridicule & nation; aussi brave que chevaleresque,

But "Ruddigore's" most seri- and that their unfortunate "poor

makes more favourites with every performance,

Hongkong will have its first view of "Ruddigore" on Wednes- "Ruddigore's" original run performances on Thursday, Fri- day at the Queen's Theatre, with

ous handicap was its name: Parley-voo" had "precisely the AN INTERESTING POINT of Originally spelled "Ruddygore"

sense that 'rosbif' and same

it offended the crinolines, bustles goddam' were employed to ridi- was that it marked the debut as day and Saturday. The follow- and dundreary whiskers of Vic- cule the English in a French a Gilbert and Sullivan principal ing is the cast:

torian English drawing rooms, and the Graphic complained of its "not very happily selected title."

comedy-burlesque.”

OTHER POINTS that brought

of Sir Henry A. Lytton, who died last year, the last of the original Savoyards.

Chief funny man in G. and S. "The sterner and less mealy "Ruddigore" into disfavour in those days was George Gros- mouthed sex,” it philosophised, were the Victorian aversion to smith, who, after playing Robin "safe in the club smoking-room, ghosts and the satire, in which Oakapple in "Ruddigore" for might pass such a name with a Gilbert over-reached himself. the first six days, was suddenly amile. But it is different in the case of ladies, to whom Savoy Operna largely appeal, and whose lips such a title would scarcely sound pretty."

on

Roiled by such Sunday-school| comment, Gilbert, in a charac- teristic utterance, threatened to re-name the show "Kensington Gore," or "Not so Good as the Mikado."

ments? The price reportedly is to be recognition by France and; Britain of Italy's Ethiopian conquest, and the closing of the French border to supplies for the Loyalist armies in Spain.] When the French Ambassador to Rome begins talks on thei latter question, which will in- clude further withdrawal of Italian troops from Spain, France will have sanctioned a conquest which by pre-Munich law was illegal.

Thus as we move along the road to а possible genoral'] appeasement it is well to re- member what the signposts said at the last fork, Europa's peace: to-day is in the balance of bargaining.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

Robin Oakapple. Arthur Nobbins Richard Dauntless Jack Grenham Despard Murgatroyd Cyril Brawn Old Adam Goodheart J. Piercey Rose Maybud ....Kathleen Winch Mad Margaret Dame Hannah

Ruth

Zorah

Jean Grieg Ruby Mathieson Anne Dowbiggin .Noreen Jordan

Maurice Barton

Roderick Murgatroyd

Cyril Brown is producer with H. B. Jordan as musical conduc-

By Lichty tor.

Cage. 1911 by trustad Tulare Byrd, 1

"—and this we made over into a'den for Cadwell.”

HUSBAND AND FATHER AT 16

A husband and father, aged 16, stood in the dock at West Ham juvenile court recently charged with stealing a bicycle,

In the court waiting-room sat his 19-year-old wife, the note she was writing misted by her tears.

The boy-father told the magia- trates that he took the bicycle so that he could go farther afield in search of work. He had been maintaining his wife and baby, he said, on 15a. a week.

A note was handed to the chair-

man, Alderman A. G. Gay. He said to the boy-father: "Your wife pleads for another chance for you. She says you are a good husband and father, that she believes you love her and the baby, and that you took the cyclo so that you could secure work to help her."

The boy-father was given his

chance: discharged "~~with caution.

..

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