STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 124, 26 May 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

J At the Opera House the Henry Dra- | malic Company will wind up a six nights' season this evening. | Fit/Gerald Bros.' Circus Company 'complete their brief return season this evening at Mechanic's Day, near : the railway bridge. . ! The Rev. Charles Clark commences a, return season of lectures on Monday evening at the V..M.CA Hall. The season will last for six nights. The. special programme at: the City JHall on Mafeking' night drew a crowd|ed house, anri the Gaiety have con- : firmed to do good business throughout j the week. The Thornton Sisters, the i latest additions to the company, made j their first appearance on Thursday [evening. Herr Albert Friedenthah the Ger[man pianist Who recently visited New [Zealand, is touring- in Italy. The Greenwood Family are playing at Townsville. and have been favoured with some flattering press notices there. Walter Bent ley's Dramatic Company commences a fortnight's season at the Auckland Opera. House on June 4th. Mr Bentley appears to be having a successful tour through the colony. Miss Kitty Grindlay, the contralto of the Amy Sherwin Company, was recently married at Melbourne to Mr J. ]'). Wilson, of the s.s. Star of England. Mr William Paull, who accompanied Die Pollards through this colony on flic initial trip <>f "The Geisha," returns to England shortly from Australia. Miss Ada Crossley, the Australian contralto, according to the cable, has been engaged for five great musical festivals of the year, including thu Liverpool Eisteddfod. Mr Ernest Toy, the young Queensland violinist, who made a tour through New Zealand some month:! ago, is in London on his way to Berlin to study under Dr. Joachim. The following definition of a "star," from a Loudon paper, is not without humour: —"A person with money' enough to pay salaries to a company, or nerve enough to owe them."' "Miss Ada 'Winston-Weir, the new prima donna of the Royal Comic Opera Company, made her first appearance as Mabel in the "Pirates of .Penzance" at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide, and made a good impression. Miss Weir is a. new arrival from London. Sir Henry Irving's return engageCharles Arnold's season at the Melbourne Princess has been so successful that it has been extended for another two months. When "What Happened to Jones" has run its course, J. M. Barrio's- pretty and amusing comedy "The Professor's Love Story" will be produced. merit, at New York litis been sterile of enthusiasm, and there has been a big loss totheatre ticket speculators. Miss Ellen Terry was ill, and the public has kept away. As it was quainfiy put, "Americans want Terry mayonnaise with their Irving salad." M. Wiegand, the City Organist, of Sydney, is about to leave the colony, owing to the termination of his agreement with the City Council, lie wili be a passenger in the German steamer ou June 30, and after spending a month in Ballarat, Melbourne, and Adelaide, will sail for Europe. Mr Percy Dix, manager of the Gaiety Company, has acquired a long lease "of the Exchange Hall, Wellington, with a view to starting a permanent branch in the Empire City. The advantage to Aucklanders of this arrangement will be that, having two companies to divide his artists be-* tweeu, Mr Dix will be able to introduce new talent much more frequently, and so make his programme even more attractive than in the past. Miss Nance O'Xeil, the clever young tragedienne, will commence a, short season in Melbourne at the Alexandra Theatre on Saturday, June 2. Upon its conclusion Miss O'Xeil will, return to the United States and begin her American season in San Francisco on September 10, making a short stay at Honolulu en route. Manager McKee Rankin is well pleased with the reception Miss O'Xeil has received dur< ing her short stay in Australia., and may possibly arrange for a return visit next year. Mr Bland Holt has been playing in his new military melodrama, "The Absent-minded Beggar," with great success at the Opera House, Brisbane. Miss Regina Nagel, the young Victorian contralto, who sang "Ben Pott" in the original production of "Trilby" five years ago, has been studying for two ' years under Mine. Marches! in Paris. Mine, Melba, wdio recently heard Miss Nagel sing, has written to friends in Melbourne stating that the contralto has made great progress, and iMme. Marches'! predicts a line career for her. A prominent Gloucester citizen, Mr Roe, entered a lion's den in connection with a show visiting that city, for a wager of £10. The building was crammed. Mr Roe entered the cage with tile proprietor, and the couple split a bottle of champagne, drinking Her Majesty's health and success to the British' forces in South Africa, Mr Roe was in the den about ten minutes. Her Majesty the Queen has, on the recommendation of Mr Balfour, as First ! Lord of the Treasury, approved of the ! grant of a Civil List pension of £100 a year to Mr Sims Reeves. Mr Balfour, in forwarding his announcement of the Queen's pleasure to Mr Sims | Reeves, informed him that the grant had been made in reco"fnition for his eminence as*a singer. Mr Reeves' financial resources have been in a crippled I state for some long time past, and he jhas been seriously ill for months past. IHe is now 81 years of age. The origin of the "Passion Play" at j Oberammergau is thus told by Mr- A. jDe Burgh, in the April "Temple Magazine": "The old parish records of Ober- . ammergau contain the following his- ! Tory of the 'Passion Play,' which is performed in that small Bavarian I village every tenth year: 'In 1633 the i pest (a particularly virulent plague) raged so fearfully that in the parish of 'Kohlgrub (only about eight miles from Oberammergau), there were only two ■ couples left, and a man, named Caspar ! Schuchler, coming here to visit his I wife and child, fell by the roadside ' and was buried. From that day to the Eve of SS. Simon and Jutje, a ! period of three weeks, eighty - four people died of the plague; accordingly, i eighteen inhabitants vowed that once jin ten years they would present in living pictures the Passion 'of Jesus ' Christ. From that instant the plague ceased, and those wlu» were ill instantly recovered.' With two exceptions— the French period, and different invasions of the Tyrolese—the vow has been faithfully observed every ten 1 years."