Wrust Ncws Issued by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust to Members of t he Trust JUNE, 1964. Price 1/- MANY "FIRSTS" IN 1964 TOUR S EVERAL operas and ballets which have never 'pl-ev iously been staged in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are scheduled for performance in these cities during the joint season to be presented by the Elizabethan Trust Opera Com- pany and the Australian Ballet during 1964. Included among the season's "firsts" are: • World premiere performance (in Bri bane) of " Roumjelay", a new ballet specially devised for the Au - tralian Ballet by Ray Powell. to music by Western Australian James Penberthy, with decor by Melbourne palllter John Brack. • Au tralian premiere performance of the Carl OrIT opera, "Catulli Car- mina". • Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne premiere performances of the Robert Helprnann lyre-bird ballet, "The Dis- play", recently given its world prem- iere at the Adelaide Festival. MARGOT FONTEY N presents a £1,300 scholarship, donated by "Woman's Day", to CA ROLE ROGERS, of Wollongong, N.S.W. The preselltation at • Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne the scholarship, )\'hich entitles Miss Rogers to tll"O years' study at the premiere performances of the Carl Australial/ Ballet School, was made in Dal1l e Margot's M elbourne dressing Orff opera, "The Wi e Woman" room dllrin g th e historic FOl1t eyn/ IIreyev tOllr )\'ith th e A ustralian Ballet. ("Die Kluge"). • Brisbane premiere performance of tbe Betty Pounder ballet, "Jazz Spec- Ballet- Programme 1: "Jazz Spectrum", • "Catulli Cannina": Conductor, WaI- trum", recently given its world "The Display'·. " Lady and the Foor·. ter Stiasny; Producer, Joanne Priest; premiere at the Adelaide Festival. Programme 2: "Aurora's Wedding" , Designer, Wendy Dick on. " Roundelay", "Pineapple Poll". • The first Bri bane, Sydney and Mel- • "The Wise Woman" : Conductor, WaI- bourne performances for half a cen- Among the outstanding world artists who ter Stiasny: Producer, Stephan Beinl ; Designer Ronald Sinclair. tury of the Verdi opera, "Macbeth", will appear during the joint season a re: as recently staged at the Adelaide • "Macbeth": Conductor: Walter Sti- Festival. • Jean Madeira, America n mezzo- asny ; Producer. Stephan Beinl ; Dc- The repertoire for the tour will bc as soprano, who is widcly regarded as signer, S. Ostoja-Kotkowski. as follows: the "greatest living Carmen". The ba llet presentations, under the Brisballe (July 24 to August 22.) • Nicola Filacuridi, Italia n tenor from arti tic direction of Peggy Van Praagh. La Scala. whose recent operatic work Opera: "Catulli Carmina"-"The Wise will have among the panel of conductors overseas has included appearances the Bri sbane-born conductor, Patrick Woman" (Orff). "Cosi fan Tulle" (Moz- oppo ite Joan Sutherland. Maria art). " Macbeth" (Verdi). Thomas. and Gerald Krug, another of Call as. Renata Tebaldi and Jean the Trust's associate conductors. Bal let-Programme 1: " Roundelay", Madeira. "The Display", "Aurora's Wedding". Robert Helpmann wi ll return to Aus- Progra mme 2: " Jazz Spectrum", "Gis- Conductors, producers and designer for tralia for the season to supervise pro- elle". the opera presentations will be: duction of his ballet, "The Display", • "Carmen": Conductor, Thomas Math- with designs by Sidney olan and music Sydl/ey (A ugust 28 to October 17.) ews; Producer, Raymond Boyce; De- by Austra li an composer Malcolm Melbourne (October 23 to Decel1lher 12.) signer, Raymond Boyce. Williamson. Opera: "Carmen" (Bizet), "Catulli Car- • "Cosi fan Tutte": Conductor, Patrick Ray Powell, who i Ballet Master of mina"-"The Wi e Woman' (0 rff) , "Cosi Thomas; Producer, Stefan Haag; the Australia n Ballet. will direct the fan Tutte" (Mozart), "Macbeth" (Verdi). Designer, Desmond Digby. company in his new work, " Roundelay". wrU!it NrlU9 HOPGOOD "HIT'S" RAISE PLAYWRIGHT'S' HOPES JUNE, 1964 HERE is every indication that author Alan Hopgood has come to T stay, long and heartily, in the front rank of popular Australian BIG BUSINESS playmakers. His gift of getting close to the core its aegis. The writers who have enabled BACKS SHOWS of what makes the ordinary dinkum this record to be achieved have given Aussie tick, as life runs its ordinary to their Australian audiences every indi- An outstanding encouragement of Aussie course, has been so happily re- cation that an increasing flow of works, Trust activity over recent seasons vealed in his "And the Big Men Fly" at the several major levels of theatrical in several States as to keep packed audi- effectiveness, can be expected of them has come from the readiness of ences in a much tickled condition of in the years immediately ahead various industrial and commercial delighted self-recognition. companies to donate many thou- Already enjoying a return season for sands of pounds to the Trust, each the U.T.R.C. at Melbourne's Russell donation (some being as high as Street Theatre, where its romping com- £5,000) being directed towards de- ment on football addiction has already traying the production cost ot an conquered, this Hopgood play is to be followed there later in the year by opera or ballet or play. another from his pen - "The Golden In addition to the major financial Legion of Cleaning Women", a title which points to another laugh-laden support extended to the Trust in investigation of an Australian tribe this way, many other companies which, being amply equipped with have given an open-arms welcome brooms, is said to have a unique brand to a Trust plan whereby a business, of witchcraft for audience spellbinding. at a cost of £250, may sponsor a These plays by the U.T.R.C., jointly single performance of opera or presented by the U ni versity of Mel- ballet, this enabling them to extend bourne and the Elizabethan Theatre Trust, help to underline the policy of hospitality to friends and clients in practical encouragement and assistance the fifty seats to which sponsorship to Australian playwrights which has been entitles them and also enabling the vital to Trust operation since the first sponsoring party to meet the stage seasons of Ray Lawler's "The Summer artists socially. of the Seventeenth Doll" This year the Trust is to celebrate The immediate value of this won- the 10th anniversary of its formation, derfully generous financial help in and it is worth recall ing that, in this ALAN HOPGOOD easing various budgeting pressures decade, some si xteen Australian-written for the Trust is very great indeed. plays have been professionally staged, It is one factor contributing to the either directly by the Trust or under Caution to Trust's successful application of the twin principles of high quality and Tennis Stars low cost in production, and box- Nureyev Recipe for THE opera in which he is "hero" does office support for productions pre- Losing Weight not tell us as much about* him as pared on these twin principles is of Operating a theatre curtain the famous short novel from which the such volume that there are very has not generally been regard- opera libretto was derived. few opera and ballet managements ed as a taxing task, but the He was a Ba·sque. His surname was in the world who have been able to curtain operators at the Eliza- Lizzarrabengoa. And he was forced to narrow the gap between expendi- bethan Theatre, Sydney, for flee from his nati ve country because he tures and revenues so fortunately. had been indiscreet enough to beat a Rudolf Nureyev's opening local princeling at tennis. He joined But the far-reaching value of the performance of "Le Corsaire" the a rmy of a neighbouring country. financial support given by many were much of the opinion that Who was he? As the saying goes, you companies to the Trust is rather their job was even more can answer this one on your head. more than these financial satisfac- strenuous than Nureyev's. '"dogs lj sy P;}!Jj e OgM uew pro ue" tions. They give abundant confir- One of the two Sydney seM (;};}UJI1;}W 01 1iUlp.rO:J:J1l U1 e1ie) oqA'. 'eqsed s,elll"1 'J01;}!Jdo.rd ;}gl 01 1iuU;}neu mation of the growing belief in the operators of the manually A[;}W;}.l) X;} Sl 'AeM ;} q) Aq 'pe puo:J;}S Australian community at large, not controlled curtain swears that s.eJ;}do ;}lj1 jO qll[:J )g1im sno.rowe [1i merely among coteries, that cultural he lost 5 lb. in weight during ;}g.L 'sluu;}) )e ;}SO[ 01 lj3nOn;} ;} SIM advance is every Australian's re- the ups and downs involved in U;):lq pug ;}q JI ;} [[I A;} S JO AlOpe] O:J:JllqO) ;}gl ;}P!S)1l0 u;}w.l e:::> ;}[ e)e] ;} WW;}J AsdA 1i sponsibility and that every advance, the 31 curtain calls given to the ;}g) );}W ;}Ae q .I;} A;}U Ig1i lw ';};}UJ!J;}W as made, is every Australian's en- electrifying Russian genius. J;}dsOJd JO ;}[ e1 ljs!ueds snoweJ ;) gl 01 richment. 1iulp.ro:J:J e 'e03U:lqeJJ llzzq ;}&O f uoO Page 2 TRUST NEWS JUNE 1 Is Filacuridi Setting a Fashion? HERE is a curious irony in the fact that, while so numy AustraJian T singers feel impelled to go abroad to live and work, one of the world's most gifted Hatlian tenors ch ooses to make his home in Australia, and to fulfil his busy overseas schedule from Australia as home base. The singer is Nicola Filacuridi. who, parents, his father being a civil engineer, a rostered artist at most of the leading The films of Nelson Eddy first stirred opera houses in the world, believes that the boy's interest in singing, and he is dozens of great international singers quite straight-faced to this day when he would do just as he is doing if they describes the nine-year-old delight he shared his knowledge that Australia is had in imitating Eddy's love call, which "an incomparable place to Jive", reads rather like a multi-rrlillionaire's bank balance: "I'll be calling you 000- Isn't it conceivable then that, as other 000-000, ooo-ooo-ooo!" international artists observe the Fila- curidi example, Australia will become Filacuridi, then in training to follow the "home country" of many of the his father into civil engineering, made supreme operatic talents of the day, and his first amateur appearance as an opera that Australian opera presentation will singer in "Cavalleria" in Alexandria in draw huge advantage from this-as it 1945 , has in Filacuridi's own case, he having already registered a spectacular personal He was promptly summoned to the NICOLA FILACURIDI success in the Trust's "Carmen" at the Royal Opera in Cairo, the opera house Adelaide Festival? He is to follow this by which Verdi's "Aida" was commis- After singing in Charpentier's "Louise" appearance by singing the 'same role sioned 100 years ago, and within a year at La Scala, Filacuridi was invited to during the Trust Opera Company's main he was beginning his Italian career in the Aix-en-Provence Festival to sing in tour in the second half of 1964, "Traviata" at Genoa, (Indeed, the scene " Carmen " with the meteoric contralto Jean Madeira (who appears with him "I like to live here;' says Filacuridi, in several performances of "Carmen" in 'This country is goi.ng to be the great the Trust's 1964 season), They were country-economically, diplomatically, both signed at once for several seasons and, "'hc:1 the Opera I-louse is finished, of "Carmen" at the Vienna State Opera, culturally, Also for Vienna, Fi lacuridi was con- "Australia l1:1 s many fine singers, but tracted for "Traviata" and "Madame I do not understand why they go away, Butterfly", They should stay here, because this is During 1960 Filacuridi was engaged going to be the best place for singers," to sing with Joan Sutherland in Bellini's * * "Puritani", both at Glyndebourne and A USTRALIA S are sometimes said to at the Edinburgh Festival, Theyappear- be excessively eager to hear their ed together again in the same opera country and themselves well spoken of, in Italy in 196 1, this year also marking but this opinion from one of the world's Filacuridi's starring appearances in "The top tenor is much more than the idle Tales of Hoffmann" at La Scala, compliment to which touring musicians * are prone, because Filacuridi backs hi s belief by setting up house here with hi s T HE extent and the adventurousness wife and two young children and by of Filacuridi's re pel10ire may be including these Australian operatic ap- grasped from the following titles among pearances in hi s international schedule, his past performances - Ross ini's "The Italian Girl in Algeria", Werner Egk's Indeed. in order that he could 'sing "The Inspector-General" (after Gogol) , 1964 Don Jose in the season of "Car- FILACURIDI WITH JEAN MADEIRA AS Schumann''S " Genoveva ", Alfano's men", he only recently declined an invi- CARMEN, " Resurrection" (after Tolstoy), Mozart's tation from La Scala, Milan, to sing from Filacuridi's new home at Clontarf, "Idomeneo" and Dargomijsky's "The the leading role in Hindemith's "Cardil- Stone Guest", lac" as a follow-up to his own spectacu- Sydney, reminds him of the Italian lar success in the same composer's Riviera near Genoa,) Tall, tanned and robu t, witb a kink "Mathis der Maler" at La Scala in a in the no e as a ouvenir of hi s earlier recen t season, Appearances over four seasons with the Monte Carlo opera were interspersed career as an amateur middleweight boxer, Filacuridi celebrates hi new life in the Success in Hindemith's music is testi- with engagements in Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Australian outdoors with a boundingly mony to the extraordinary range and enthusiastic tennis and swimming, depth of Filaeuridi's musicianship, a South America, as well a's the major quality which, along wi th polished vocaJ- operatic cities of Italy, His first appear- It was no idle comment by the Dallas ism, has not only enabled him to develop ance with Callas was in "Traviata" in " Morning News" critic when he recently an im mense repertoire of some 80 operas, Sicily, Hi s first appearance with Tebaldi declared: "Fil acuridi looks like a but has also kept him in ready demand was also in "Traviata" at Florence, His matinee idol, could be a full-back, and for appearances opposite sucb illustrious earliest appearances with baritone Tito can spin a bel canto line as pure as prima donnas as Joan Sutherland, Maria Gobbi included " Rigolelto" at Covent the best." Callas and Renata Tebaldi, Garden, La Scala chose him for the world premiere season of the Poulenc Now in his thirties, Nicola Filacuridi opera, "The Dialogues of the Carmel- was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Italian ites", in 1957, JUNE 1 TRUST NEWS Page 3 JalDlDing 'he JilD; CralDlUing 'he Craw "Shakespeare gives me the jimjams", said a loud-mouthed theatregoer in an interval during the late John Alden's smash-hit, "King Lear", in St. James' Hall, Sydney, a dozen years ago. And he was to get the answer he deserved. N full-bouse occasions, it is not un- a show is a hit or a flop. O common in tbe lobbies to overhear The chewing and crunching noises of such brave assertions of individual inde- your neighbour in a theatre cannot pendence from the "mob taste". For on worry you, according to showmen's ex- tbat occasion, as all through that mem- perience. if you yourself are so gripped orable "Lear" season, the house was cer- by a play that you feel no need to hunt tainly jammed to the doors. around for extraneous buck-passing Audience resporrse to the play was reasons as to why you are not enjoying electrifying the atmosphere all around. yourself. The dainty old ball of St. Jim (as And yet, in complete contradiction of Eliza Doolittle would very likely call basic human nature, it has long been it) was looming larger and stronger at established as a principle of well-man- tbat proud time than any of the tall and nered theatregoing that one does not prosperous modern buildings which munch. That is why the idea of a lunch- leaned in upon it from all sides with time theatre, which has now opened up thug-threats of consuming it. in the new and modern theatre of the Consuming? The lolly boys did a new St. James' Hall (which has con- raging trade in chips and cbocs., and sumed the old one), makes resounding Loud-Mouth was among tbe first to run commonsense. to tbem for succour, security and com- The theatres of Shakespeare"s own fort wben tbe house manager answered time, when King Lear itself was new, him witb a vague wave to all the sur- were often converted inn-yards where Director of the Lunchtime Theatre, rounds; "Funny you sbould say that! the taverners did a roaring trade in food ROBIN LOVEJOY, Sbakespeare usually gives us the Jim- and drink with the audiences. It is Iy suspected of aphrodisiac properties, jams, too." * recorded that, even in non-inn theatres, It was given much the same status as * * the audiences babitually munched nuts, marijuana is given now, L OUD-MOUTH'S retreat to the 10Uy apples and pears and used shells and So it is then that the lunchtime boy for chips gave one more con- cores to pelt a9tors who displeased theatregoers to the new theatre in St. firmation to the old rule among show- them. James' Hall can enjoy not only many men that the audience which is most BUT it would be wrong to suppose of the heartiest theatregoing practices of eager to eat is the audience which is the from all this that Shakespeare him- Tudor England (short of throwing appJe- most shaken, excited, gripped, stung .. . self, when setting out to have a look at cores) , but they can enjoy a good deal Indeed, American showmen have refer- a show, would have said to his wife more that the all-knowing Shakespeare ence figures which 'show them, from the some such thing as, "Pack me a nice did not know. And as they bring heart'S spending done at intervals on food or lunch for the theatre, darling-a couple as weI! as stomachs to this new theatre, similar stomach appeasement, whether of tomato sandwiches, say, and a there is general thankfulness that it pre- banana." serves and sustains the brave traditions For one thing, "Lunch" was not a of the little old St, James' Hall which word (in the meal sense) in those days. were thought lost forever when the "VIRGINIA WOOLF" The word, according to the Oxford Dic- demolition men moved in a year or for Brisbane tionary, came into use during Shake- two ago. and Canberra speare's lifetime- but it merely meant * * * "a lump" on the basis that, if hump THIS quaint little theatre was for Plans are well advanced for and hunch meant the same thing, lump years an oasis in Sydney'S theatrical presentation in Brisbane and and lunch could mean the same thing, desert. Sydney John Kay's Mercury too, Theatre brought 'such memorable pro- Canberra of the Sydney Old Perhaps it is worth noting, in passing, ductions as Molnar's "The Guardsman" Tote's much-discussed produc- that mump and munch ·are also inter- and Anderson's " Winterset" into it- and tion of Albee's, "Who's changeable words , , , though it is safe then went down under the financial bur- Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to suggest that not only lunchtime dens. The John Alden company moved theatregoers would rather have munches in , not only with that unforgettable These presentations (dates to than mumps, "Lunch", in the sense of "King Lear", but also with a superb be announced) will mark the being a mid-day meal, did not come all-star performance of Shaw's "Mis- first occasion on which the into use until the 1800's. alliance" Old Tote Company has ex- As for Shakespeare and fomato sand- After 'Alden came Sydney's first rib- wiches - impossible! For one thing, tickling excursions into modern topical tended its operations outside sandwiches did not get their name until revue under the banner of the company Sydney. the 18th Century when tqat notorious which set up house in St, James' Hal! Discussions are in progress gambler. John Montague, fourth Earl as The Phillip Street Theatre, itself the to explore the possibilities of of Sandwich, was so to day- entrepreneur for English comedienne long sessions at the gaming table that he Joyce Grenfell's first full conquest of early production in other cities demanded that rounds of beef be Sydney's audiences. of this excoriating expose of brought to him between slices of bread, Inclusion of a theatre in the new two derelict American mar- Tomatoes and bananas did not make office building on this site was a tribute riages, a play which has stirred their first appearance in England, indeed to all who had fought there for either, until many years after Shake- Sydney's theatrical survival. Loss of all many critics to rank Albee as speare's death. Nor, in fact, did tea- that these valiant earlier ventures had high in drama history as or the meal that was later to be called stood for could have brought a little Eugene O'Neill. tea, The tomato, in fact, was for many lunch (sorry-a little lump! ) to the years under terrible suspicion, Known throats of all who remember at first as the "Love apple", it was wide- Lindsey Browne. Palle 4 TRUST NEWS JUNE 1 LETTER TO Fonteyn believes in the Australian Balle t THE TRUST "Some outstanding dancers, a very gifted director and a very fine The Sutherland Season company spirit ... " So says Dame Margot Fonteyn Sir, Australians generally and Aus- in speaking of the Australian Ballet tralian opera-lovers in particular and of what she believes to be its will be delighted to have read in prospects for the future. the press that soprano Joan Suth- erland is to return to sing in opera "I think that in perhaps ten years in her homeland. it can become one of the leading The special opera company ballet companies in the world," she which 1. C. Williamson Theatres sa id in an interview during rehear- Ltd. arc to form as a setting for her art will, it is reported, include sal at Sydney's Elizabethan Theatre, a number of other outstanding while exuberant teen-age Melbourne si ngers, and the repertoire will dancer, Walter Bourke, was striving include several operas that have on stage, under Rudolf Nureyev's not been performed in Australia lor very many years. guidance, to reproduce some of the This is a prospect to raise the renowned Nureyev leaps. very highest expectations among Australian music-lovers, but the All morning, as the small rehear- circumstances in which Miss Suth- sal group of Australians took the erland has chosen to tour must stage with Fonteyn and Nureyev, it MARGOT FONTEYN always give considerable alarm to was plain to see the enormous surge all those people here, singers among them, who are interested of drive and devotion that has en- that they get tbis," she said. in establishing regular annual tered the work of the Australians as She made it clear, too, that no- seasons of opera in Australia. a simple res ult of dancing with two body need take too seriously a pub- One can.not doubt that Miss of the world's greatest exemplars Sutherland has very carefully con- lished statement that she would sidered all the likely effects of her of their art. advise no child to enter a ballet decision to align her talent not "Why do you say ten years?" career because of "the hard life". with the existing Australian opera Dame Margot was asked. "Is it company, operated for so many * years by the Trust, but with a because some such length of time "I suppose all lives are hard," new and transient company. is needed before the very young she laughed. "Certainly, if I had What the likely effect of that children now in ballet training all my own life over again I would be is to be on the opera-going atti- over the country will have matured tudes of people outside the pres- a dancer! ent hard core of opera-goers is a to take the stage?" matter of conjecture. It could "The important thing is not to "Not that at all," Fonteyn said. discourage the young people who work destructively; it could work ''It is just that nobody could expect creatively -and most of us will want to become dancers, but to be hope that the latter will prevail. a company as young as this one- quite firm in telling those who It is unthinkable that any threat barely two years old-to come to clearly cannot become dancers that to Australian opera would be in its peak for some little time yet." Miss Sutherland's mind. they cannot." She is thoroughly entitled to * * * plan her horne-corning in terms And she recalled how long a which she feels will show her off period of years had had to pass to best advantage; but there is ample room to question whether before she and her companions of she has decided wisely, both on Britain's world-famous Royal Bal- MOSCOW* CIRCUS the surface merits of the various let were generally acknowledged to ONE of the spectacular future uses courses he needed to consider, have "arrived". and on the ultimate cost her de- of the tent-theatre recently used cision may extract from the whole Fonteyn did not agree that the for the Trust's parkland presenta- ca use of permanent opera in her total dedication needed by child tions of " Henry V" in Adelaide and homeland. students, if they were to develop to Sydney will be as domicile for the R. AGNEW, Seaforth, N.S.W. mature dance artists, necessarily Moscow State Circus. prevented them from acquiring a (The above leiter was sent 10 the It is understood that the com- Trust in the ordinary course 0/ rich knowledge of all the allied arts pany owning the tent is basing its business. The correspondent has (literature, painting and so on). present letting policy on the expecta- consellled to our using his letter which could serve to feed their in "Trust News". /1 is intended tion that the Moscow Circus will to make Ih e "Letters to the Edilor" imagination as dancers. begin its much-mooted Australian a major feature of future issues.) "It is up to their teachers to see tour in Perth in February, 1965. JUNE 1 TRUST NEWS Page 5 "THE DISPLAY" - new ballet by Robert Helpmann
Page 6 TRUST NEWS JUNf; 1 dancer, Ted Shawn, then visiting Perth, CUPID AMONG THE SYLPHS advised him to train seriously in dancing and, specifically, to acquire 'Some back- NLIKE lightning, Cupid has no objection to striking hard and often in ground in classical dancing. U the same place--and the place, in this instance, is the Australian Ballet. A member of the Victorian National Theatre's ballet company after two years Already in the short period that the father in his quest for first-class physical of training, Douglas Gilchrist's determ- Australian Ballet has been in existence, condition is matched by the attitudes of ination to continue his career a broad ten members of the company have Douglas Gi lchrist, who believes that was checked by his period of national married (Marilyn Jones-Garth Welch; passionate determination to be a dancer service. On leaving the Army, he work- Kathleen Geldard-John Moulton, Peter and to remain a dancer of distinction ed his way around Western Australia Condon-Rhonda Russell, Rosemary can involve a man in two most intimidat- as a shearer's cook, and in six months Mildner-Noel Smitb). ing personal struggles, one of them he had saved enough money to travel Two other dancers of the company physiological and the other psychological. overseas. married in Perth during May-Robyn Take the physiological problem first. * * * Croft and Douglas Gilchrist. Here, according to Douglas Gilchrist, a WITHIN days of arriving in London The alliance is one of Cupid's cleverer man undertake a regimen of physi- in 1956 he was offered a place in pieces of conjuring, for, quite contemptu- cal training which has demands far the London Festival Ballet for a tour of ous of the old saying about East is exceeding those made on most top- Western Europe and for several appear- East and West is West, he has spent a line sportsmen, with the possible excep- ances in London. On leaving that com- good many years in shrinking the geo- tion of swimmers and boxers. He points pany, he worked nine hours a day for graphical distance between Townsville- out that the ordinary day's routine of a four months at a London restaurant, born Robyn Croft and Perth-born ballet dancer demands as much as 12 th is time to finance a study holiday in Douglas Gilcbrist, as reference to tbeir hours work demands of a coalminer. the world capital of Russian Ballet, separate careers will sbow. Very few of the strong-man activities of Moscow. Attendance at ballet classes But Cupid does not always shrink sport and industry are as taxing, he there was followed by advice that his the distance between tbose he aims to emphasises. long-forgotten application for a scholar- unite. Take Robyn Croft's own par- ents, for instance. Tbey were both born in Dundee, Scotland, but tbey had to await their first chance meeting at the other end of the earth-in Townsville, Queensland. One important thing about the Towns- ville marriage of the Dundee-born Crofts is the inheritance which they have pass- ed to Robyn Croft-her mother's pas- sion for music and dancing; her father's delight in all the physical controls of high-d iving. It would seem, even with the sketchiest recollection of Men- del's laws, tbat the daughter of such a marriage could have no choice but to be a dancer. * * • HILE it may be argued that the W climate of Townsville would not readily call to mind the atmosphere of Bonnie Dundee's beloved Higblands, the Croft household was not to be easily discouraged from its attempts to pre- serve the spirit of the tbistle in the land of the prickly pear. Robyn Croft was an ardent Scottisb dancer from early child- hood. There were numerous competition successes. In due course she was High- land dancing champion of Townsville. ROBYN CROFT AND DOUGLAS GILCHRIST Encouraged by both her father and mother, she travelled to England in 1958 The psychological problem centres in ship to Prague had been granted. and joined the corps of the Royal Ballet, the many setbacks which a career dancer T he scholarship, granted by the with whom sbe danced solo roles at must face to be 'able to practise his Czechoslovakian Ministry of Culture, times. In two overseas tours by units profe sion and in the degree of will was to mabIe him not only to dance of the Royal Ballet, she danced in which the dancer cfin command to over- professionally, but to make an intensive Africa (Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, ride these To be a dancer study of dance teacbing metbods, this Durban and Capetown) and in Asia Dougla Gilchrist ha for several periods course comprehending such subjects as (Manila, Hong Kong and Osaka). She during his career worked as a cook, in music, dance history, anatomy and returned to Australia to undertake tele- shearer's hut and in gi ld ed restaurant. psychology. vision dancing in Melbourne. It was thus that he was able to In Czechoslovakia for five years in During tbe main tour of the Australian finance his way to dance study and to all , Douglas Gilchrist was for four Ballet's first year, her dancing included dance performance. years the only non-Czech. member of the Pas de Trois in "Swan Lake", the Douglas Gilchrist found his first The ational Theatre Ballet, and danced cup-winner (Archer) role in "Melbourne interest in theatre during performances in such Prague ballet presentations as Cup", the valse in "Les Sylph ides", tbe given by his father, a noted dramatic "Othello" "Doktor Faust" and "Romeo husband bunter in "Lady and the Fool", actor in Perth, and he was 14 years old and Juliet'" , the last to Prokofiev's music. Swanhilda's friend in "Coppeli a", and when he joined in tbe work of the Auditioned in London in 1962, he the Pas de Trois in "Rendezvous". dance studio associated with Perth's was accepted as a soloist for the Austra- The tremendous zeal of Robyn Croft's " Patch" Theatre. Famous American lian Ballet on its formation. JUi>
ll,!IUSTARD-KEEN Orchestra. is so forcible that some Guild Whatever the reason is, per- members feel it carries almost the haps a resentful feeling that Aus- menace of a gun at the head. tralian "alltomatically" set th eir Mr. Lovejoy's own inclination is work on a lower level than sym- to fire a 21-gun salute. phonic work in M elbourne and Sydney, the m embers oj the South Australian Symphony Or- B ELSH AZZAR'S Boomerang ? chestra impart an element of People close to composer Sir st ri ving enthusiasm to everything William Walton are so convinced NF;W Ballet. "Roundelay" is th ey do. Th e great vitality of of th e rich pleasllre he has found Ray Powell's new ballet for th eir playing was an olltstanding in the temper of Australian life world premiere presentation dUT- feature of all opera and ballet while louring for the A.B.C. that ing the Australian Ballet's ma m events of the recent Adelaide there is wide speClilation whether tour with the Trust Opera, begin- Festival. the Australia-inspired work he ning in Brisbane in JUly. hopes to write will be an opera, perhaps of a character and theme With music specially written by LUNCH-TIME Playlets. Organis- suitable for the opening of the Western Australian James Pen- ations devoted to the interests Sydney Opera House. belihy, tbe Powell ballet projects of writers have thrown them- It seems IInlikely that his pres- a Cbaplinesque mood of comedy selves wholeheartedly behind the ent interest would run this way, pathos as it observes the vicissi- quest of Trust producer, Robin partly because he is now said to tudes of a little man in a bullying Lovejoy, for 40-minute Australian be engaged on an "Antony and world. plays suitable for lunch-time pre- Cleopatra" opera and partly be- Our dictionary says a "rounde- sentation. Circularising its mem- cause he does /lot write rapidly. lay" is "a song with a refrain". bers, the Writers' Guild has de- His "TroilllS and Cressida", as This ballet will be the Australian manded devoted and determined seen at the Adelaide Festival, Ballet's third world premiere action on this at once! The " this- ,,'as the work of some five or six venture for 1964. means-you" lone of the circular years. -L.B.
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