Our London Flaneur.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 3867, 6 January 1883, Page 6 (Supplement)

Our London Flaneur.

Literary, Social, and Theatrical Oossijt.

(FEOM OUE OWN CORKESrPKDEHT.)

Levy tub (jornetist, Bktobns to loxdoj) : His Nose Put Our of Joint by A SUCCESSFUL HIVAL, - EjIILY SOLDINE: FATTKR AND PuISKIER THAX iiVKR.—TKNNYSON'S NEAV IHYATTHE Globe : it's Complbtu Failure.— Doras Sosg, "Ihe Promise ok May :" A True Tennysonias Idyll. —Gilbert and Sullivan's Nttw OPERA: ■'TALANTHE OR THE I'UKE >, A^D the Peri." - Gounou's " uedemption " is London.—Thk Pubwshino Season. — Xmas Books For. Youm;sters1.

London, November 17. It i 3 now more than a month since I put pen to paper on the subject of London frivolities, and during that period a good de;il seems to have happened, in the first place you will be inteiested to he:ir thut our erstwhile colonial visitor, Levy, the cornctist, has, after many years' absence, returned to London, and made his appearaoce at ihe promenade concerts on Thursday last. The great man only played once. It seems that during his foreisn tour, another "human grampus," known as Howard Reynolds, lias arisen on the musical horizon, and when the pair performed together on Thumlay, a iickle public had the bad taste to show a marked preference for its latest favourite. At lirst Le?y—who believes himself to be the most marvellous trumpeter of this or any other aR;e —could hardly be persuaded he had heard aright., 'l'he applause, however, proved moat marked, and on Reynolds being efFusivclyV encored, Levy lost his temper, and declined to afford Covent Garden the privilege of listening to him again. The iact|s, the man has—to nse a vulgar expression—" lost his form " altogether. In America they have no really fine cornetists, and Levy was able to delude " musicos " into the belief that his powers retained their pristine vigour. Here, in London, unfortunately, audiences are not so easily deceived, and when to pitted himself against a really clever artist like Reynolds he committed an absurd blander. The promoters of the promenade concerts are bringing an action against Levy for breaking his contract, and he will certainly be mulcted in heavy damages. In appearance the fellow is fat, bloated and most repulsive. An overweening conceit has tpoilt him, and he can never a^ain hope to command either the tcrnu or tke applause he once did. Quite accidentally the other day I came across another histrionic personage, who, a few years ago achieved a tine run of success in New Zealnnd. Of coorae you remember Kmily Soldeue, wilh her ample figure aud her frisky ways. Well, her figure is ampler and her ways friskier. The theatre I saw her at was the Alexandra, Liverpool, and the piece or rather the opera, turned out to be "Bocaccio." Emily enacted the hero, and waltzing on to the stage wiih the frolicsome gaiety of a young mastodon, met with a very warm reception. Behind me sat o young Frenchman, and 1 heard him mutter t > his companion, " Mon dieu ! but la Soldene has yon ver grand poncho,1' The .Englishman was scandalised, "Look here, mounseer," quoth he, "you must'nt talk like that. Our girls have waists, I am told, and some of them even plead guilty to chests, but paunches! never." The principal theatrical event of the past fortnight has been the production at the Globe of Tennyson's pastoral play " 'Hie Promise of May." This piece was heralded with a great flourish of trumpets, and the first night's audience was' one of the most representative and distinguished ever gathered together'within the walls of a playhouse. In a stage-box sat Mr Gladstone (who is an ardeut admirer of the Poet laureate's), and Boyal personages from the Prince of Wales downwards, were as plentiful as playbills. After this preamble you will be surprised to hear the drama proved a dismal failure, People listened to the first act tolerably, but grew very impatient as the second dragged wearily along, arid in the course of the third, the play was unequivocally gnyed and damned, "The Promise of May," is written in prose of the mostlons»- winded description, and the plot reminds one of half a dozen worn out melodramas. Here is the story, Philip Edgar, Ksq., artist* philosopher, and atheist, woos Hva Steer, a farmer's daughter, seduces her and deser s her in the old familiar fashion. Six years later he returns and tries it on her sister Dora, who doesn't recognise him, She prattles innocently about dear Eva, whom they had sought one morning, but never found, her little white bed being unslept on—her chamber empty. Unfortunately Eva returns just in time to save Dora, and then hides with the whitehaired father of the girls, while the miscreant Philip is seen safely off the preinms by Dora's true hearted admirer, Dobson, A worse constructed stage play I never saw. It is fnll of lot>g soliloquies and heavy " talky talky." Moreover, the sentiments of the hero (or rather villain), Philip, are most atrocious. When Eva asks him to make her an honest woman he stands aghast and calmly bids her " look at the birds, who pair together for a season and then pait." The only bit in the whole farrago of rubbish worth remembering is Dora's song. It runs thus :

" Tho town lay still in the low sunlight Tho hen clucks late by tho white farm gate The maid to her dairy came in from the cow The stock dove cooed at the fall of night 'JChe blossom had open'd on every bough. Oh! joy for the promise of May, of May Oh 1 joy for the promise of May.

" But a red flro woke in the heart of the town, And a fox from the glen ran away with the hen And a cat to the cream and a rat to the cheeso And the stock dovo cooed till a kito dropped

down And a salt wind burnt the blossoming trees Oh! grief for the Promise of May, of May, Oh 1 grief for the Promise of May.

Alter a protracted ran of more than 600 nights, "Patience" shows signs ol •wearing out, and on Saturday next, the 25th instant, Gilbert and Sullivan's new whimsicality (which the papers now announce will foe called neither " Perola ". nor " Phyllis " but "Tolanthe") is to be produced. The Strand Theatre entirely rebuilt, re-opened last night with John &. Clarke iv " The Heir at Law " and a musical burletta called " Froliques." I have not heard much about it yet. Arthur Matthiaon has acheived a marked success with a farcical skit on the blood thirsty class of melodramas now so ripe which is called "More than Aver." The typical villains are Sir Crimson Fluid and the Lady Agna Toffana whose murderous arm s are thwarted by Kangy i^lo "man Kangaioo." Bow that excellent parody of Hie " man monkey" in " For Ever," poisons some of the characters, shoot* others, clubs other?, kills a policeman by making him swallow bis own truncheon and so forth, may be imagined. At last, havine cleared all the dramatis personce off the board,the " man kaDgaroo " commits suicide and as there are no more people lett to play, the curtain necessarily tails. The satire is screamingly funny, and will enjoy a great run without doubt. Two more theatres are to bo opened in London next month. . The "Pandora" (manager, Alfred Thompson) is in Leicester Square.and the " Novelty " in Great Queenstreet. An oriental opera bouffe by an unknown composer is to be the first attraction at the latter house. To-night (l bursday, November 10), the "Romany l'-ye," which has not proved so successful as the "Lights of l,ondoD," will be withdrawn from the Princesses Theal re to make room for a new piece called " The Silver King," of which great things are expected, Charles Eeade's much talked of drama, "Love or Money "comes out on Saturday at the Adelphi, and the Kendalls re-open the St. James's the same night, Gounod's " Kedemption " was performed for the first time in London at the Albert Hall the other day, the composer himself conducting. An enormous audience assembled to do honour to the occasion, but thepopular verdict is that the work is dull and commonplace; a succes d'estime, in lact. Every day now brings the unfortunate reviewer a large contingent of new books for criticism. The publishing season has indeed pet in with unusual severity, jnven'le literataie of all sorts teeming particularly plentiful and of excellent quality. Children nowadays (more especially growing boys),are provided with a much better class of story book than their parents ever enjoyed. The tone of write) s like Henty and BaUantyne is far healthier than the namby-pamby " goodineas" of such misleading nousenee as "Eno, or Little by ?<u,ilc;" and I may here remark that a better present for toys than the bound volume ot ihe " Union Jack " could not b? found. • . A very delicate subject Las been most wonderfully handled bylMrs Oliphant in a short s'ory called " Tb£ Little Pilgrim in tbe Unseen," which-treated a sen«ation when it r S n£t'i?'iAFvi arecl 'n Macmillan 'a "" JOHN KNOX/k .uvJ. .-. ■&& ,'...■■ ~

mngazinc. The tale is nor pnblislied aeiiurately as a hih;ill volume, at 2s Oil only, and I advise iinyose who cares to spend arcstfulhalf-lionro'iaSnnday evening to try it at once. Mra ' liphant contributes tho new serial to Macmillan next year. It commcncctl in Uic isovombßr number, and ii (wiled " The Wizard's Son," Kobert Buchanan, whp»o " God and Hie Man" ia so popular with novel readers, supplies the " Goutlemun'a Magazine" with a story to run through ISSIi. It is entitled " Tha jNhv aberlard," and " Maid of Athens" is to bo the name of Jantin McCarthy's novel iv "Ucl^rnvia." " Time " will rely on a romance by Francillon; "Tinslcy's1"' Under a Ban," by Mrs Lodge, and "The Wateia of Marali, by John Mill; Mid "Good Words" on "'AH iv ii QunlcJ Ufoi.ii," by Walter Besaut. Tlie Chrislmai nnni'.ali :ive decidedly below the mark, Unix us rcaards novaity and interest. Miss Braddon's story " I'lower and Weed," which forms the r»lc attraction of " The Mistletoe Bouuh " has not a singlo cjood point to make it worth reading. Tho ato>y could have been told in f jnr papc-i and shows signs of being a magazine aiticlo padded out to lill up spucc. Mr Uowling's " Lx^t Cluistmas live" (Xinaley's Annual), is more exciting than "Flower and Weed, but it seems a pity to give a shilling for it wlion me can get much the sumo stud' in the "London Header Novelist'1 fur ;i penny. Perhaps tho best of a bad lot is tho ''15elgravia," winter number, though I have no doubt Mr Boiant'a Christmas story for "All the Year Bound," which is to be oiled "Let Nothing You Dismay," will bo worth re.uling. In journalistic cliclea people are talking a good deal about the success of the " rictorial World," which has achieved a guaranteed circulation of one hundi ed and fifty thousand since Dulziel Bros, took it in hand. The "Pictorial" n now quite the he?t of the illustrated journals, nnd unless the "Graphic" improves considerably it will find itself ineoutincn ly muffed out. The coloured picture fjivtn away with thf Christmas number of the " Pictorial " is being bought up right nnd Lit, and outdoes anything of the sort ever before sold for a shilling. 1 hear the " Illustrated News" folks say the "Pictorial World" costs more than sixpence to produce, aud that the Dalziels aro mining themselves. Of course time aleue can allow whether this is true, but meanwhile all who care for good art cheap should take in the " I'ictorial World."