THE OLD VIC .sx " TALES OF HOFFMANN " .sx Until last night Offenbach's Talcs of Hoffmann had not ever been given at the Old Vic , but its reception by a large audience suggests that it will quickly prove to be one of the most popular operas in the repertory .sx The great applause forthcoming was thoroughly well deserved , for the production was really excellent in all respects .sx The opera presents many difficulties with its long cast and diversity of characterization , its apparently simple music which yet requires the greatest accuracy , and its ensemble generally .sx But it seems as though the new conditions now established at the two theatres are beginning to bear fruit and to allow some of the finer qualities of opera performance to appear .sx To Mr. Aylmer Buesst must be given the credit for some not only accurate but dramatic playing from the orchestra and for the assured singing of the choruses , while the accompanying of the soloists was always neatly done .sx The scenery and the dresses were well planned and the lighting effective .sx In the role of Hoffmann Mr. Arthur Cox was a vigorous figure , and his singing had fervour and power , though it still needs some more elasticity in the blending of word and tone .sx Miss Nora Sabini took the part of Olympia and sang her coloratura music with charming quality after a somewhat nervous beginning .sx Miss Constance Willis made Giulietta a duly dramatic figure with warmth in her voice , and Miss Joan Cross sang the music of Antonia with her accustomed ease of style .sx Among the other parts mention should be made of the Dapertutto of Mr. Leslie Jones , who sang the Mirror Sung beautifully , and we heard every word .sx An effective Nicklaus was forthcoming in Miss Betty Thompson , and Mr. Booth Hitchen's Coppelius was much to the point .sx Entertainments .sx DALY'S THEATRE .sx " MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE " .sx Music by ANDR MESSAGER .sx Lyrics by ADRIAN ROSS .sx Book by FREDERICK LONSDALE from a story by BOOTH TARKINGTON .sx There are old hands in the theatre who speak of " cast-iron situations , " and swear that before no audience and in no circumstances can these altogether fail .sx Eager dramatists may be assured that such miraculous plots are few .sx One of them concerns a traveller who comes to the wrong house without knowing it ; another tells of a beggar maid who took the wrong turning and found that it was the right one ; a third conceals a lady behind a screen ; a fourth describes the adventure of a great or noble hero in humble disguise who , having been mocked by every one except ourselves and the heroine , reveals himself and our own superior wisdom in the last act .sx It will be observed that all these legends give the audience an opportunity to hug a secret and to pat themselves on the back , which is among the chief purposes of popular drama .sx Monsieur Beaucaire , telling how a French barber was insulted by the noblemen of England and turned out to be none other than the Duc d'Orleans , belongs to Type 4 .sx In the prologue we are generously given our secret to hug and we hug it in romantic content through a ball , a duel , a garden-party , and a gathering of the rank and fashion at Bath , until at last the French Ambassador , releasing the long-familiar cat , enables us to applaud ourselves for having known that it was in the bag .sx Odd that such a story should be so pleasant , but of course it is pleasant to be a snob and at the same time to take rank among the angels .sx Besides Messager's music has a pretty swing and is well sung , particularly by Mr. Raymond Newell , Mr. Darroll Richards , and Miss Barbara Pett-Fraser .sx There were , we confess , moments in which it was a little too plain that the feminine beauty and the masculine elegance of Bath had been chosen for its vocal excellence , but one cannot have everything in this difficult world wherein the gifts of Polyhymnia and Aphrodite are seldom poured into the same lap .sx PLAYER'S THEATRE .sx " LOVE TO ORDER " .sx By GORDON WHITEHEAD .sx As soon as Tom Clough has stepped into Sir Edwin's study he is a familiar character the typical Yorkshire mill-owner of the stage .sx Typical , we suppose , because Lancashire dramatists in satirical mood have a habit of looking just beyond the borders of their own county .sx Rough .sx of speech , shifty of eye , rolling in money , scorning ostentation , he will stick at nothing to prove that he is a tougher customer than any local rival .sx Sir Edwin has set up a statue of his father opposite Tom's office in the market square of Durn Bank .sx This is ostentation , and Tom is determined to stamp upon it .sx He hap-pens to know that the man it is proposed to commemorate once committed a theft .sx His terms are precisely those we should expect this familiar character to make .sx Sir Edwin must either get rid of the statue ( it is already too late for him to do so ) or he must compel his socially ambitious daughter to marry Tom's son , a young man obviously destined to become the typical Yorkshire mill-owner of the stage .sx Some subjects are meant to effervesce , and the subject of this piece is surely one of them .sx The contest of wills between the shameless Tom and the pompous Sir Edwin must be treated with exuberance or it will seem a flat absurdity .sx Mr. Whitehead tries without success to treat it on the plane of comedy .sx Consequently we seem to be the spectators of a farce that is moving much too slowly .sx The girl who is urged to sacrifice herself for the good of the family is much too sensible and dignified in the temper of her mind to be thrust into such a ridiculous quandary .sx She is moving in a world quite different from that which holds the zany who is forced to make a broadly farcical proposal of marriage to her .sx Yet the farcical bits , for all their slowness of movement , are amusing .sx Mr. Whitehead is a shrewd observer of character , and the battle that rages about the statue is sometimes a very witty affair .sx The millowner of stage tradition is good fun throughout the play .sx There is a certain pigheaded splendour about him to which Mr. Alban Blakelock does full justice .sx And Miss Peggy Livesey and Mr. Edward Irwin , one on the plane of comedy and the other on the plane of farce , both give good performances .sx THE CARLTON .sx " THE HOURS BETWEEN " .sx The Hours Between is in essentials thorough melodrama .sx But the thin artificiality of the plot by which a husband and wife , disconsolately unfaithful to each other , wearily seeking distraction from their sorrows , are united after overcoming each other's excruciating nobility , is embroidered with a mass of plausible circumstance .sx The diversity of place is managed with unusual neatness , and the unity of time the action comprehends 24 hours equally well .sx There are many ingenious connexions of an almost formal nature and peculiar to the technique of the films .sx The acting is even better .sx Mr. Clive Brook hides an aching heart behind a stiff upper lip with a marvellous courtliness , and the sober composure with which he gets drunk is a lesson in deportment .sx Though it is a rather poor part , Miss Miriam Hopkins as the husband's mistress fills it with her own character and vitality , and Miss Ray Francis is most adept in sorrowful sophistication .sx But these real people in a plausible world seem to have been hurried against their will into fiction , the values which the story exposes are conventional and tedious and the characters seem to have been driven towards their happy ending by a neurotic compulsion .sx In fact , here is a large and wonderfully ingenious apparatus used on a trivial pretext .sx The comedy Local Boy Makes Good is , it is curious to observe , far more subtle and discriminating , and it well fulfils the promise of the richly suggestive title .sx It turns on the familiar subject of the shy and hard-working youth who suddenly finds himself compelled to take part in an important athletic contest and miraculously succeeds .sx But here his change from failure to success occurs not as if by a miracle , but subjectively .sx He is , in fact , forcibly psycho-analysed , a process which provides many excellent jokes .sx Mr. Joe B. Brown , the clown , is himself an unusually realistic embodiment of the pathetically unsuccessful fool .sx COURTAULD-SARGENT .sx CONCERT .sx TWO NEW STRAVINSKY .sx WORKS .sx When M. Stravinsky opens his port- .sx folio and takes out a new work , he .sx generally releases with it a small swarm of aesthetic theories .sx We in London , .sx warned in advance from Paris , have con- .sx sequently picked up the habit of asking .sx on occasions such as last night , when two new works were produced at Queen's Hall , either " What is he up to ?sx " or " What has he gone back to ?sx " .sx His latest work , a violin concerto , came first and showed unmistakable signs of a return to tonality .sx The permanent features of Stravinsky's musical predilections were there too the irregular rhythms , the dry tone-colouring , and the toccata-like use of the orchestra .sx But the solo part , excellently played by Mr. Samuel Dushkin , did no violence to the melodic character of the instrument , and the work is boldly styled a " Concerto in D " Stravinsky in D !sx In point of fact the concerto is unusual in form , consisting of a toccata , two arias ( one of them said by the composer to be like an operatic aria of the seventeenth century ) , and a capriccio , but , beyond this it raises no problems , is beautifully clear both in intellectual content and in its rather austere scoring , and has a spontaneous impulse behind it .sx The Symphonic des Psaumes is now a year old and is a more problematical work , in which the composer has tried to strike a new balance between chorus and orchestra .sx The intention is declared by styling a choral work a symphony as composers have a fancy for doing nowadays but the construction of the three movements , and even the selection of words from the Psalms , does something to justify the claim .sx In the first movement a single vocal line or a line of harmony is pitted against a toccata-like movement in the orchestra , and the effect is powerful .sx The second movement is a battle of two fugues :sx wind instruments and violoncellos ( there are no upper strings in an otherwise much enlarged score ) work out their dissonant counterpoint relentlessly , while the voices pursue a more diatonic subject .sx The voices win , as is inevitable in such a contest , but it is a Pyrrhic victory , and the word " sperabunt " ( the work is sung in Latin throughout ) is negatived by the music .sx In the last movement the balance of discordant wind instruments and diatonic vocal writing is made right , dissonance has its time-honoured ( and psycho-logically proper ) effect of pushing the music and its emotion onwards , or rather in this case upwards , so that the work ends on a note of real spiritual exaltation .sx M. Stravinsky con-ducted his own works with a crisp and alert beat .sx The two novelties were preceded by an unhackneyed and piquant symphony of Haydn ( No .sx 86 in D ) and followed by Schubert's C major symphony , which Dr. Sargent held on a light rein , with very pleasing results .sx THE PALLADIUM .sx Mr. Leslie Hutchinson , the Houston Sisters , and Mr. Will Hay are included in the Palladium programme this week .sx Mr. Hutchinson is a pianist with a technique that requires the intimacy of a drawing-room , and if the vast spaces of the Palladium did not do strict justice to his sense of humour and his virtuosity , there were his band of " Cuban Revellers " and the dancing of Miss Dorothy Cole and Mr. William Tacey , the winners of the Star Tango Championship , and Mr. Laurence Highsmith to make up for it .sx Mr. Will Hay is the perfect headmaster of that fabulous school where the pupils are allowed to make to a master's face the remarks that only the most Americanized of normal school-boys would think of uttering behind his back .sx The Houston Sisters , although they have altered their setting and their patter , still keep their vigour and their peculiar ability for quarrelling between themselves whether they are being interviewed by a woman journalist or dancing obscure Spanish dances .sx