MIMES AND MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1910, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC

[By Oaphkusl

COMING EVENTS. OPERA HOUSE. J. C. Williamson, 26th March to 16th April. Clarke and Meynell. 19th to 27th April. J. C. Williamson, 28tli April to 18th May. J. C. Williamson, 10th May to 3rd June. Allan Hamilton, 4th to 18th June. ClarWe and Meynell, 4th to 23rd July. July 25th to 30th. vacant. Hugh Ward, Ist to 13th August. THEATRE UOVAL. Fullers' New Vaudeville Company, in season. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. His Majesty* Pictures in season. THE KINO'S THEATSE. Royal and West's Pictures, in season. TOWN HALL. Besses o' th' Barn Band, season closes tonight. His Majesty's Picture*, Eaiter Monday night. BT. THOMAS'B BALL. Star Picture*, In teaton. At the Opera House on Easter Saturday, Mr. J. C. Williamson, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Frohman, will present Mr. J. M. Barrie't. charming phantasy "Peter Pan," and Wellington theatre-goers wiP have an opportunity of following the example set them by Mr. W. T. Stead, who clapped his hands with delight over the exploits of the "darling, delightful, invincible Peter Pan." Mis* Lizetto Parkes will make her reappearance here in the title role, and this clever young actress is said to be the embodiment of this strange and fascinating character creation. Mr. Williamson is sending a very strong combination, including many members of the original company and Mr. Thomas Kingston. The scenery, by Mr. W. R. Coleman and Mr. George Upward, is said to be a special feature of the production. There will be a holiday matinee on Easter Monday, ami several special matinees during the season. John Fuller and Sons, who now have two permanent shows running in Wellington, have secured the Town Hall for Easter Monday night, when they in- ' tend to put on a supplementary picture show to the one in His Majesty's Theatre. Judging from past experiments, the venture should prove successful. < Recently an opera company chartered a steamer to enable it to transfer from a West Coast town of this island to the South Island, preferring that method to travelling by train to Wellington and then taking steamer, for the reason that it was cheaper. Other companies have also complained of the excessive charges on the railway, and a Southern paper states that Williamson's Opera Company travelled by boat from Christy hurch to Dunedin for the same reason. It is stated that negotiations were made with the Railway Department for concessions, but without success, and that now the .Williamson Firm has decided to utiliso steamers wherever possible, taking out through tickets for the wholeof New Zealand from Sydney. The lucreas« in railway charges would have made a difference of nearly £100 in transferring the company by rail from Christchurch to Dunedin. When the last mail left England Madame Lydia Yeamans Titus, of baby songs celebrity, who twice visited Australia, was. appearing with Frederick J. Titos, the pianist, at the Empire, Sheffield. Madame Titus hopes to pay a third visit to Australia in July. Wellington U now well provided with houses of amusement. The Town Hall and Concert Chamber, Opera House, Theatre Royal, His Majesty's, The King's, and St. Thomas's Hall should be sufficient for Wellington's needs for many years to come. Three of the halls, however, are given over to permanent picture shows, and one is inclined to think that such a surfeit of the one class of entertainment will tend to make it pall. Miss Alice Pollard a little while ago received an offer from an Australian theatrical entrepreneur to play leading roles in Australia, but George Edwardes would not release her from her engagement. The result has been that she has been cast for one of the leading parts in "The Green Butterfly," one of Kdwardes's forthcoming production* in London. New Zealand is to be well catered for with theatrical shows tbic year. "Peter Pan" will be here at Easter, and in May Williamson's Grand Opera Coy. will come across, followed later by the pantomime "Aladdin." Nellie Stewart will pay another visit, with a new company and reportory, including the great American success, "What Every Woman Knows." It is alao said that the Williamson Firm will send through the Dominion an American comedy company. Clarke and Meynell will be represented by George Willoughby's "The Night of the Party" company, and Mr. Harry Roberts with Matheson Lang's success, "Pete." It is also on the cards that this firm's new opera company will be eeen in "The Arcadians." The Loißlon "Era," January 29, announces that a reward of £5 has been offered bj Mr. Robert Arthur, for information which will lead to the detection of the person who maliciously damaged the stage costume of Miss Maude Thome, principal girl in. his Liverpool Royal Court Theatre pantomime. Miss fhorne entered her dress-ing-room to prepare for a matinee, when she was astonished to find the contents thereof scattered about in all directions, with her best costunje, a hat, and other articles, cut and torn in several places. Find the woman ! Sir Edward Elgar, who is the composer of the new patriotic song "The King's Way," now being sungi with tremendous success in London, by Mme. Clara Butt, probably owes a great deal of his success as a musician to heredity, for his father was an excellent musician, and he commenced his life in a thoroughly sympathetic atmosphere. One of his first appointments was bandmaster of a local lunatic asylum, where he used to conduct an orchestra composed of the attendants, and in those days he thought nothing of writing a whole score of & piece for the princely sum of eighteeupence. Nowadays, his income must run into many thousands a year, whilst it would be hard to say how many hundreds he will benefit from his latest production. But in spite of his great success, modesty has always been a strong point of Sir Edward's character, and had it not been for the genius and forcefulness of his music, he would probably never have reached his present eminence, like so many others who lack the art of selfadvertisement. "Peter Pan," the story of "the boy who wouldn't grow up," and who makes old boys young again, is a delightful fairy phantasy — not a dram* or pantomime or cornedy — but a poetic Wending of the three, a play said to possess the inestimable charm of making us all feel young again, and taking us back to the sweetest memories of childhood. Some idea of the phenomenal success of this play may be gathered from the fact that it enjoyed a run of 400 nights on its original production at the puke of York's Theatre, London, and has been successfully revived no less than nine times. "Peter Pan" is described by Australian critics as Barrio at his auaintest and best, and a sure play, full of whimsical wit, and that delightful topsy-turvy-ism of which he and Gilbert are masters. Even W. S. Gilbert never wrote anything with so light and sweet a touch as this very human fairy play, which is truly the heart of a bqy, dramatised

and staged with charming daintiness. 11l "Quality Street," "The Little White Bird," ( and "Tommy and Griselda," Barrio's feathery fascinating genius was abundantly evident, but in "Peter Pan" his airy skill is even more evident — with the result that he has achieved a master piece of drollery calculated to captivate all ages. Without descending into tho miro of pessimism, and without desiring to hasten shadows, one is compelled to say that at present the outlook for the stage in Now Zealand is not glaringly bright, writes "Prompter," in tho Canterbury Times. What are the shadows? Expense and competition ! The increase in the railway charges and the high rentals for theatres in the Dominion. The small towns are not so good as in the old days, and to take a company of any dimensions to tho lesser show-places is very risky, especially in these days of moving pictures. All through the North Island the small towns have picture companies and picture circuits. Big companies are feeling the competition, and a tour in New Zealand will in future depend more upon the centres than it would have done a year or so ago. The picture shows undoubtedly are deservI ing of patronage, but as yet they cannot supply opera, comic opera, or even good comedy. Dramas are admirably fitted for the biograph, but up to the present there have been very few comedies, and one misses the clever lines that one always hopes to find — and sometimes finds^ — in modern comedy. Therefore, if opera companies are to be kept in New Zealand it really behoves tho playgoers not to acquire too firmly the picture habit. Expense in theatrical management is a big item, and with pictures it is probably about a sixth, and therefore the difference in the prices charged is not alarming. Auckland and Wellington audiences will see, for tho first time, Henry Arthur Jones's famous play, "The Hypocrites," which created such a sensation when staged in Australia. It will be presented by the Harry RobertsBeatrice Day Company. Australians seem to be fond of the stags even from their birth. A baby, to be used in the Harry Roberts production of "Pete" in New Zealand, was advertised for, and more than twenty arrived — some carried, others walking. All were accompanied by their proud mothers, each of whom, naturally, declared her own child to be the best. The baby plays a very important — though not 5 "speaking" — part in "Pete." In a biographical sketch of Mine. Bel. Sorel, the pnma donna of the J. C. WiUiamson Grand Opera Company, a Continental newspaper remarks that her mother, Emma Sorel, was almost as renowned a singer as herself. Emma Sorel, however, was a concert artist, and toured Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, taking her daughter, at tho timo aged eight, as sole pianist. The wunderkind also played at concerts in Germany, where later on (in Berlin) she studied voice culture under the celebrated Bulow. This was in tho singer's early teens. Her progress was so inaiked, and her musical intelligence so quick that her mother decided that she should be trained for opera, and so took her to Paris, and afterwards to Milan. In the Italian city she won the notice of Edcaido Sonzqgno, a prominent imptessario, who immediately decided to entrust to her the part of Mirai in Leoncavallo's "Boherae," which work was produced with great success at the Lyric in the same city. She was now thoroughly launched on her career, and in the following years appeared in many of the principal cities. A season at the Imperial Theatre, Warsaw, a city which twenty years before her mother had sung to net feet, and one of Bel Sorel 's successes. Here she sang Mimi to Caruso's Rudolph in Puccini's "La Boheme," Carmen to the famous tenor's Don Jose aud Violetta to his "Alfred." Puccini has expressed his delight at the fact that co brilliant an artist will introduce hit beloved "Madamo Butterfly" to Australian audiences. Tho many friends in New Zaland of Mr. Eddie Odell, who was known from Auckland to the Bluff a* treasurer for several of the leading companies under Sir. J. C. Williamson's management, will be pleased to learn that My. Odell is now treasurer for Mr. Hugh Ward, the clever actor-producer, who is at present showing at the Palace, Sydney. Mr. Walter Monk is advanoe manager of the Hugh I Ward Comedy Company. | Mm«. Clara Butt and Mr. Kennerley \ Rumford have been engaged by Messrs. J. and N. Tait for a tour of South Africa, opening next March, and so planned as to enable them to givo about 20 concerts, returning to England during May (1911). At the. «nd oi next year ii is probable that they will revisit the Commonwealth, and subsequently tour India, the East, and Canada. When Miss Nellie Stewart appears at the Melbourne Princess Theatre in J. M. Barries comedy, "What Every Woman Knows," Mr. Harcourt Beatfcy will play tho part of John Shand, the Scotsman whose one thought is his career, and Messrs. Gregan, Macmahon, Eardley Turner, and J. B. Athohvood will be in tho cast. The four important musical events for the first half of the winter season have now assumed definite shape, the production of "Madame Butterfly" being fixed for Easter Saturday, followed at a reasonable interval by Madame Calve, again at an interval by Mme. Carreno, and a little later by Mile. Antonia Dolores, says Sydney Herald. J. and N. Tait have found it necessary to delay the appearance of Mme. Calve in Sydney, where her debut was to have taken place at Easter. That world-famous soprano was unable to leave earlier than by the Morea, which is not due in Melbourne until 4th April, and the season there will be from 16th to 28th April. Signor Gasparri, the Italian tenor, and M. Pintel, the new French pianist, will thus arrive by the same ship, the diva ' having decided not to break her journey at Colombo. Under the reorganised plans, Mme. Calve will open at the Sydney Town Hall on 14th May in the operatic scenas and excerpts by which she has attained eminence, will visit ! Brisbane Ist June, will pass on to Mcl- j bourne, Adelaide, and Perth, and will initiate her tour of New Zealand in j August. An immense amount of in- j terest is sure to be taken in the coming j of Calve, whose reputation is that of J one of the most fiery and fascinating Carmens who ever delighted Covent Garden and Parisian audiences. Herr Benno Scherek arrived in Sydned from South Africa during last week by the Pericles, and left later for Melbourne «anfl New Zealand, alter arranging preliminaries for the Carreno season. This great pianist is now undertaking a world's tour under his direction, and, as during her previous visit I to Australia, will be accompanied by ! Signor Tagliapietra and her two young daughters. Her farewell to London with the Queen's Hall Orchestra was one of the events of last March, since ] which time the star-pianist has been appearing on the Continent, fmaHy reaching N«w York last November. The American toirr will occupy the star until 22nd April, when she fiarls from Vancouver for Australia, wher_e her first appearance will be at the end of May at a State capital not yet fixed upon. Herr Scherek will then pilot th« great pianist to the Cape, where, during his recent thtee weeks' hurried visit, he arranged for appearances at Capetown, Durban, and Johannesburg. ' Ultimately Mme. Carreno will visit South America, whore she will be especially welcomed as the grandniece of Bolivar, the Liberator, and as the composer of tho .Yene•.zueloti National Antbem.