Directed by Guy Daines
(From Edinburgh)
The Golden Toy, which recently had a long run at the Coliseum, was remarkable in at least one sense, for the whole of the music was taken from compositions of Robert Schumann. This legitimate plagiarism was, in this case, entirely successful, as indeed it was-at any rate from a popular point of view -with the ever green Lilac Time, the musical play which, based on the life of Schubert, was set to Schubert's music throughout. At the same time, this kind of adaptation is not always successful, for one remembers that Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and even the theatrical Offenbach have been drawn upon in a similar way. None of these three examples, not to speak of others, was really successful. It may be that the theatre is exacting in this respect, for symphonic music adapted to pure ballet has had its very striking successes, for instance, the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Brahms in the repertory of the Russian Ballet company now appearing at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden.