WELLINGTON WING WHISPERS

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 39

WELLING TON WING WHISPERS

Bt P. Rohfteu. January 8. Dear Pasquin,— There is nn need to send coals to Newcastle. You have so recently had tho Tom Pollard Opera Company with you that just a mention or their progress will suffice. - This week we have had "The Black Cloaks" on show, the said " Les Manteaux Noir" being about as " blue" as tbey make 'em. To-night and to-morrow " The Gondoliers " come on, and on Monday " Nell Gwynne" takes up the running. I am inclined to think the season will bs extended from threo week* to a month's duration. ■ In other frivolities there i« a scarcity. The band coutest is over at the exhibition ; small concerts are all the go ; the attendance keeps up remarkably well ; and the look-forward-to is towards a national tug-of-war. I paw a good thing in the Bulletin which tells of the visit of a theatrical company to the backblocks. The agent dropped into the printing oflice to «c« the editor, but he being out the hustler left a pass marked "The Editor— with comps." That same .evening, when the driiiua of " The Lost Bark ; or, the Revenge of a Sausage," went up, behold the editor and nil the conap-osi-tors of the office nought admission with their boat clothes— and that ticket ! That agent doesn't believe in contractions now. One of ourolonial theatrical critica(of nounse it must be the camp. !) credits Sandow with the authorship of " La Tosca," in referring to the Potte--Bellew repertoire. That's coming it a bit too strong, isn't it? Mark Hanna is a New York banker, and he ib was who pulled the wi'es fov M'Kinley during tho recent presidential election Mr H. is also the proprietor of a swell opera house in Cleveland, so he (should know something, and his reocut utterance upon the high hat question is so 'cute as to ba worthy of quotation. He said : " The law ought to he enforced. I have t»oti ed that all pretty women t*ke their hats off anyhow. The folk who depend on fine feathers to set them off are the ones who keep thsir hats on thsir heads during a play." The "waiter" whom the Princess of Chimay and Caramau eloped with is in reality a Hungarian musician named Tzigane, who was accustomed to play in the Paris lestaurants Mr A. H. Gee, whose fine baritone has oft been heard hereabouts, was to sing in " The Golden Legend" at the (Jiystal Palao t,a the last day of List year. Welliogtoniaus have a vivid recollection of his really grand interpretation of that work during the Mus>c&l Festival in the Op&ra Housa, and ifc should prove his opportunity in London. Other ringera knowu to us are getting on in the City of Bisr Smoke. Miss Larjje, of Napier, and Herr Balling, lvcently of Nelson, wpre soloists at a hi# pop., Herr introducing his viola alta. Miss Her Iha llos&ow was on the Cry-til Palace onrert pvo^iMnitnes. "Dorothy" was the Christmas and New Year attraction up at New Plymouth. The aniateunT were the interpreter-'. : Sojm friend "Orpheus" of the Post :— " Th<« j baby in the theatre i 3 an unknown quantity till ; it wants something to drink, and will have it. 1 Theu also the theatrß baby appears to be difficult topl<nse at eventide in the matter of its favourite Ijoiiiiu, so to speak. The adult man go*s out to see another man about a dog. and by some occult proce«<j his thirst is temporarily allayed. But'ihe theatrts baby appears to want just the kind of tipple which is not on tap on the spot, and yowls for all it is wor h because tho hock or *auterne, .or whatever it may be, is ' off.' Oddly enough, I it never strikes the mother of the theatre b*by to | take ifc out to see another hiby about a rattle, or a woolly sheep, or something. JUy object in these ; remarks is to persuade {if it be possible) mother* who take their babies to theatres to adopt this course with the other masculine ways they are I commencing lo anu^x. Anyhow, the baby in the ! theatre is a superfluity, and only fear of consequences prevents it being sat up in by the heaviest man present. Some day the theatre baby will j loom larger than the fear of the law."