STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

Dixs Gaiety Company completes its seventieth week at the City Hall tonight. Miss Eva Wilson, serio-comic and dancer, makes her first appearance with Fuller's Bijou Company at the Agricultural Hall this evening.

Another of the Sunday evening sacred concerts will be given at the Choral Hall to-morrow night, when an attractive programme of vocal and instrumental items and limelight views will be presented.

Melbourne "Punch" says that Raphael's Operatic Company, recently playing Victorian provinces, is coming to New Zealand. Miss Maud Hewson, formerly with Pollard's, is a menibeiof the company.

The Rev, Charles Clarke bade quite a pathetic good-bye to Melbourne people. He thanked all heartily for their uniform goodness to him, both during his residence in Melbourne and his frequent visits to the colonies. The probability was that he would never see one of them again in this world, and from these "garish lights," to quote the master to whom they had been listening/that night, he vanished now for evermore.

Mr Brough, it appears, is not going to let the Chinese trouble stop his visit to.Hongkong and Shanghai. He promises to be back in Sydney next June with new pieces, including E. C. Carton's new comedy, "Lady Huntsworth's Experiment," now being staged by Mr Boucicaulfc at the London Criterion. A season of six weeks at Perth, and a fortnight on the goldfields, is to be commenced on 6th September, and then the company goes to Singapore, etc.

Mr Edward Sass, who is playing Tigellinus in "Quo Vadis," at the London Adelphi Theatre, is a brother-in-law of Mr George Edwardes, and has acted in many countries, including Australia and New Zealand. For some time Mr Sass was the manager of the Grand Theatre, Croydon; but before that he managed many Gaiety companies in South Africa. Until recently he was acting-manager at the Strand Theatre. He married Miss Gwynne, the sister of Mrs. George Edwardes.

Begina Nagel (says the "Bulletin") hopes to make her first appearance in London next November, at a concert where she will get a fair start as the rival of Clara Butt and Ada Crossloy. It appears that Marchesi's faith in the one-time timid warbler of "Ben Bolt" has grown stronger than ever. After hearing Butt sing in Paris the other week, Marchesi declared th.it her pupil could give points to the big contralto, but Nagel took the flattery with several grains of salt. "They talk like that about all of us—before we come out," she said.

At the Alhambra Theatre, London, on the night on which the relief of Mafeking1 was celebrated, nearly 5000 people crammed the building. The one great attraction was not on the progTaxnme, says the "Era." Mrs BadenPowell sat with her daughter' and two sons in. a box observed by all. At every pause there were demands that the mother of the hero should make a speech. When for five minutes the thousands jelled continuously their admiration at the picture of the great colonel, his mother sat quiet, contained, drinking in the praise of her son. It must have been a proud hour for her.

A correspondent of "M.A.P." tells an interesting: anecdote concerning Mr James Doel, said to be the oldest reciter in England. He says: It was in Johannesburg, in the autumn of 1895. Mr. Doel was reciting at one of the local halls, the "Searellei-ies," or the "Sloperies," I forget which, and amongst his audience was a coarse bounder to whom Mr Doel's wit did not appeal in the least, and who manifested his displeasure by offensive interruptions. Mr Doel stood it for some time, but at last stopped dead, faced his tormentor, and said: "Sir, I would request j^ou to remember that I am not here for my own pleasure, but because I have to be here, and therefore I would ask you to let me finish my performance in peace." There was not much in the words, which probably I have not quoted, after this lapse of time, with absolute verbal correctness, but the dignity and pathos of the old man's delivery won the audience at once, whilst the cad slunk out to the bar sulky and abashed. There, I am pleased to add, he fell to wrangling- with an inoffensive but scientific stranger, who gave him a sound thrashing.

The first production in Australia of "The Rose of Persia" took place on July 21st at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney. The new opera, the libretto of which is by Basil Hood, and the music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, was originally staged at the London Savoy last November, and is still running there to tremendous business. It is pronounced to be tile most successful opera written since "The Mikado." The plot is, perhaps, a little disjointed, but it is ingeniously worked out. The chief figure is a rich Persian, Hassan, whose hobby it is to entertain mendicants in his own house, to the great disgust of his twenty-five wives, the first and foremost of whom is Dancing Sunbeam. On one of these occasions four uninvited guests present themselves. They are the Sultana and her three favourite attendants, and they join the throng of tramps and vagabonds in the guiste of dancing girls. Their visit, if discovered, means trouble, not only to themselves, but to Hassan; And they are discovered by Abdallah, a scheming priest. The Sultan, also disguised (as a dancing dervish), appears in turn on the scene. The Sultana escapes, but it being discovered that she had been there, Hassan is informed that he will be executed. To alleviate his misery the Persian millionaire doses himself liberally with "bhang," and. ends by fancying himself the veritable Sultan. ,'The real moftirch has him humoured, and takes him to the palace. Finally the Sultan is induced to postpone the execution in order that Hassan may tell a story which has a happy ending. He narrates incidents in his own life which cannot have a happy ending if he is executed, and the Sultan, seeing the force of the logic, issues a general pardon. For the rest, affairs are largely devoted to the love affairs of Yussuf, a minstrel, and Heart's Desire, one of the Sultana's favourite slaves. The interpretation of the piece by the Royal Comic Opera, was, says the Sydney "Referee," eminently satisfactory. Mr George Lauri carried off the honours of the evening as Hassan, and good work was done by Mr Wallace Brownlow, Mr Kenningham, Miss Dorothy Vane, Mr Albert Whelan and others.