GOSSIP FROM STAKE AND STUDIO.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 124, 29 May 1886, Page 4

GOSSIP FROM STAKE AND STUDIO.

(Bt Ejjwrapis.)

Walter Reynolds was to commence a tour atGlasgowon April 12th with his own drama " A Mother's Sin." „ The eighth Silesian music festival will be held[atGorlitz in June, under Deppe's conductorship. Madame Albani, the eminent voca ist is shortly to undertake a professional tour through the Australian Colonies. Leon and Cushman's Minstrels are at the Christchuroh Theatre Royal. The. CogiU Brothers are with the company, and.their laughable programmes draw good houses. Lytton Sothern is suffering severely in Lo/donfroman ulcerated «'F° at a"*oo^ jestion of the lungs. His illness is eerious Within a period of four years, extending from 1881 to 1884, inclusive, the German stage has given .2,913 "P^^'EjJ Shakespearian pieces. Hamlet leads with a record of 380. Mr Herman is about to collaborate with Mr D. Christie Murray, the well-known noveliat, in the production of a domestic drama, the scene of which will be laid partly in Devonshire and partly in Denver, U.S.

At the Sydney Gaiety, the "Fun on the Bristol" Company are playing to satisfactory business. Some changes have been made in the Company, which now consists of Misses May Livingstone and »?V h™ Harris, and Messrs J. F. Sheridan, Knight Aston, Myrtin Hogan, James Walsh, Alfred Holland, William King, Charles Morgan, and Arthur Baker, At the Royal " The Magistrate" has been produced .with Mr Ansqn.as Poskett, and Miss Maggie Knight as Charlotte.

Louis Kbhler, well known,to English players on the pianoforte for his excellent works died on the 16th of February, at KBnigsberg, Prussia. He was born at Brunswick, on t,he sth of September* 1820, and in his nineteenth year went to Vienna, to study composition and pianoforte playing His works, which were numerous, and in all styles, include operas, pantatas, orchestral and chamber music, besides a number of valuable pieces for the pianoforte, which earned for him the title of the " Czerny of his time."

Miss Georgina Weldon has followed Mr Gounod to his retreat in. Paris, where he is safe from the English verdict adjudging him to pay her damages, and she intends now to persecute the unhappy composer .with the assistance of the French tribunals.. It is not surprising, in view of this, to learn that Gounod is greatly changed. He spends much of his time in prayer, goes several times each day and kneels on the stone floor, an example of piety. He is very mystical, cad, and solemn. For Miss Weldpn to hurry the unfortunate musician into his grave is evidently a matter of time.

Auckland playgoers will remember Miss Marion Melrose (Mrs W. if. Bmmett) who was here with Clark and Ryman's Minstrels. They will regret to learn of her death, which took place ia .Melbourne on May 2. Seven years ago (says a Melbourne paper) she was one oFthe.most, promising of our Victorian actresses. She was young, beautiful, talented, with a most engaging manner, and a fine intelligence. Her early death, and more especially the circumtances of it, represent a very melancholy episode in the annals of the Australian stage. She had a brilliant future before her, and, if she had so willed, she might have reached it. Nobody could help liking her, and everybody who knew her regrets her untimely death.

Mr Monty Browne, some 10 years ago subeditor of the " New Zealand Herald,"has been engaged by Mossrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove as the business manager of the Melbourne Theatre Royal, in the place of Mr H. R. Harwood. Mr Browne is, without exception, the most popular and experienced theatrical manager in the Colonies, and (says the •' Leader ") Mossra Williamson and Co. are fortunate in securing his services. He has ebown hie capacity by the fact that every Company and combination he has piloted, and every season of which he has had the business management, have proved successful. On May 4th Signor Majeroni, lessee of the Bijou, presented Mr Browne with a handsome gold locket, set with diamonds and sapphiree, as a mark of his appreciation for his management of the Bijou during the late comedy season at that theatre.

Theatrical novelties in preparation in London include " Clito," a new classic play, which Mr Sydney Grpndy has written for WiUon Barrett, and " The Pickpocket," at the Globe. The scene of " Clito "iB laid in Rome and Carthaee at the time of the firet or second Punic War. Wilson Barrett will enact a noble Roman tempted away from honour arid fealty by a fair temptress - a Delilah —of course, Miss Eastlake. The scenery and costumes are from designs by Mr Godwin, F.S.A.-, and will, no doubt, be as absolute a reproduction of the period as were those of " Claudian." Toole is getting a little "played out" in England, and would do well to make a colonial tour before he grows older. " Erminie," at the Comedy, may be followed by an adaptation of "Josephine et Ses Secure," an opera bouffe at present the rage of " tout Paris."

"lolanthe" is attracting large houses to the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. Mr Frank Thornton as the Lord Chancellor, and Mias Nellie Stuart as Phyllis, have nightly met with the most cordial reception. It was continued until Saturday last, when " The ■Sorcerer " was to be produced. At the Opera House, the comic opera " Falka " is still being performed with conspicuous success. The music is said to be weak and the construction flimsy. At the Bijou Theatre, " Queen Elizabeth " is as popular as ever. "Doctor Faustus," a laughable burlesque by Mr B. L. Farjeon, localised by Mr F. W. Hume, was produced at St George's Hall on May 5. Messrs J. L. Hall and H. Hall, Mone. Loredan, and Misses Amy Horton, Blanche Lewis, and Nita Franks fill the principal parts. At the Victoria Hall, on May 7, Hugo's Buffalo Minstrels closed a highly successful season of ninety-six nights by tendering a complimentary benefit to the Principal of the Company, Mr Charles W. Hugo. .

" The Schoo'.wietresß," which aucoeeded " The Magistrate " at the Court Theatre, London, is a uoreaming farce—hopelessly absurd as regards plot, but with exquisitely humorous dialogue, poliehed up to "Gilbertian " perfection, and characters that fit the leading member* of the Company admirably. More than once during the performance "first-nighters" must have glanced down at their programmes to make cure the author of the new piece really wasPinero, and not the great Gilbert. It is, indeed, far more like " The Wedding March" than "The Magistrate." Mr Pinero has struck out in quite a new direction, and, evidently enough, succeeded. People commenced laughing five minutes after the curtain rose, and giggled on almost unceasingly till the end of the fourth act. To attempt to describe the coir plications which make up the fun of " The Schoolmistress " would take up too much space. Suffice it to say, the one and only Mrs John Wood is a schoolmistress secretly married' to Mr Arthur Cecil, who once more appears in the character of a volatile gay deceiver. We have Mr Clayton admirably made up as a bluff old Admiral, Mies Norreys as the most chic of pupil teaobers, Mr Phillips as a droll Cockney page boy, and any number of dear delightful schoolgirls. Playgoers will thoroughly enjoy "The Schoolmistress" when it reaches this end of the world. With "Jim the Penman," a striking and

original play by Sir Charles Young just produced at the London Haytnarket Theatre, the management have at last achieved a definite and well deserved success. The scene is an elegant lady's elegant boudoir in the house of James Balaton, a rich financier, or at any rate something in the City. Characters—the financier, who is all courtly dignity and cheque-boqk; his charming wife, who does not look more than thirty, though she has a grown up son and daughter; their guests, Lord Drelincourt, who courts Agnes Balaton; Captain Redmond, who has a mania for dropping asleep whenever he sits down : a somewhat shady Baron Hauteville, from France; and last, but not least, Louis Percival, from America, who, from information he has received, has come across to discover the forger who has robbed him of £60,000. The plot ia worked out in a steady and perfectly natural way, and the society small talk in the first act is crowded with, amusing lin<*=. For example, a silly woman of fashion sagra to the American, Percival, ••And how is the President? I knew his father, the late President." Of course she is told that the office is not hereditary • upon which she says, "Really, how stupid' of me; 1 made the same mistake when I was introduced to the Pope."