A Magnificent Opera House.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

A Magnificent Opera House.

The English Opera House, built by Mf D'Oyley Carte for the production of ' Ivanhoe ' and the like, is described by a leading journal as 'the pride and glory of London. , The theatre is at Cambridge Circus, Piccadilly, and is completely isolated and fireproof, with 162 ft. frontage to Sbaf tesbury-avenue. It seats 2000 people, and the whole is bedecked from floor to roof in arches, balustrades and columns with gorgeous Algerian and Italiau marbles, which harmonise with the stained glass and painted panels of the loggias and lounges. The prevailing tints are green and gold, but the greatest surprise is the proscenium arch, 34ft wide and 35ft high, made entirely of Mexican onyx and marble, producing an original framework which cannot but be of service to the picture which it frames. The etage itself, one of the largest in England, is 66ffc between walls, the height from the boards to the ' gridiron' being 70ft. But to the general public some of the greatest marvels of the house will never be revealed. 'Clapham, Junction' signal-box is a plaything to Carte's 'prompt-side,' was the dictum of one of the most experienced London managers, who had inspected the marvellous mechanical methods by which Mr Walter Pfefier Dando has dispensed with the scene-shifter and the carpenter. Every , bit of scenery, no matter what the ' tonnage, , appears or disappears by the simple application of a handle or rope ; ' bracing ' or ' ghnletting ' is a lost art, and counter-weighte and wire ropes make accuracy of change an absolute certainty. It may safely be prophesied thab Mr Dando's patent—he also, by the way, invented his wife, Madame iEnea, the flying dancer—will revolutionise stage effects. The scenes do not walk on and off by themselves, bub they very nearly do.