boblipton This is one of those interesting misfires that happens when no one is looking because no one is quite sure what story they want to tell. Is it the story of a young Irish woman anxious to make good in the world of opera in fashionable Paris? A showcase for a opera diva in the pre-war years? One of a woman who sacrifices everything for her art? The story of how the Great War destroys everything for one woman? The sad tale of a washed-up artist unwilling to let go of past glories? You might cram all of them into a novel, and possibly into a three-act play that might please a contemporary audience, but it's too much to stick into a movie. It's too crammed with details, with great songs, with great performances, with great montages, with great thises and great thats for the audience to catch its breath.Evelyn Laye is Maggie O'Neill in Ireland. She runs away with Emlyn Williams to Paris, he to study music, she to study opera. Boom! She is ready for her audition and Williams is going to shoot her because she is going to leave him, but her singing is so wonderful, he writes her a note and leaves. Boom! She reinvents herself as Madame Irela! Montage of triumph, with showers of gold coins! Boom! Affair with Austrian Archduke, who insists on marrying her, but World War One is Declared! Boom! Victor Saville is in charge of this great mass of plot and music and acting and he does much better than you could imagine from what I've written up there, thanks, in no small part, to some superb montage work by Otto Ludwig. Also praiseworthy is the performance of Fritz Kortner as Miss Laye's impresario. In fact, there is nothing in this movie that is not, in itself, good. It's just that there's just too much of it.

alandun I really don't get the whole - it's not like the book - thing, as films really can't be like the book . . . but this is a bit different.Evensong is an extraordinary book by (Mr) Beverley Nichols about a famous opera singer as an old woman dealing with the agony of impending retirement. Published the year after her death, it is a subtle, fascinating and actually notorious portrait of Nellie Melba (the author was burned in effigy in Australia - I kid you not), who Nichols, as her private secretary and the ghost writer of her memoirs, had known intimately for the last five or so years of her life. It was a huge success and Nichols made a successful stage version which starred Edith Evans.This film has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it. Well, not absolutely . . . the last 15 minutes of the film have her as an older woman, but the context and conclusions have nothing do with Nichols, who naturally enough had nothing to do with the screenplay.Just don't spend the money to buy it, like I did, thinking it's an adaptation of the novel. This is a clichéd, melodramatic nonsense about a young woman becoming a star, made cheaply to cash in on the success of the novel. Interesting I suppose, that they did that sort of thing even in the 1930s.

TheLittleSongbird Evensong based on the personality and twilight years of Nellie Melba is not perfect, being flawed, but the film is absorbing and intelligently done. While the pacing is somewhat pedestrian, the script rather sketchy(though I loved "my cousin has been assassinated at Sarajevo- God only knows what this is going to lead to!") and the direction is a little too smug there is much to enjoy. The production values are very nice, and the music ranging from popular tunes as seen in the Soldiers' canteen scene to heavier opera is superb. There are also some poignant parts, which I appreciated, and the acting and singing is good as well.Evelyn Laye plays her title role(the Prima Donna Irela/Maggie O'Neal who leads a successful but tragic life) with decisive sharpness that is certainly memorable, and Fritz Kortner is surprisingly powerful as the impresario Kober. But I do want to mention Conchita Supervia as Baba L'Etoile for her presence was charming and her rendition of Quando M'en Vo(La Boheme) is positively beautiful. Overall, it is flawed, but it is also absorbing. People may find it silly in alternative to poignant and slow, the slow complaint I can understand but Evensong has never struck me as silly, melodramatic perhaps but not silly. 7/10 Bethany Cox

pmhoward Old fashioned stolid yarn about sacrificing true love to chase the dream of singing on the world stage. Eventually the old diva knows in her heart she will be replaced by the young up and coming 'star'. Will she retire gracefully??. The new diva (Baba L'Etoile) sings beautifully and is a delight to listen too. Her real name is Conchita Supervia and she dies 4 years later in child birth.