STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 292, 8 December 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

i Pollard's Opera Company had a bumper house, oh Monday night, and a great send-off. May good fortune attend their forthcoming Australian tour is the wish of their many friends on this side of the water. . The committee, of the Amateur Opera Club have issued neat little printed acknowledgments of thanks to the principals and others who assisted during the recent production of "The Yeomen of the Guard" by the. club. Mr J. C. Pain makes his reappearance with Dixs Gaiety Company at the City Hall to-night, and is sure of a very cordial reception. On Monday Miss Molly Bent ley, descriptive balladis!., and Mr Joe Cowan, comedian, make their first appearance. j | The new artist?. Sivroni and Silveni. are doing well at the Agricultural Hall, and the Bijou Minstrel Company maintains its popularity. Pennon, flyman and Lennon, the acrobatic team, and Miss Mac Marlow, serio comic, re-appear with Hie Fuller's combination this evening. Nance O'Neil's Sydney ..reason comes to a close this evening-. Musgrovc's Grand Opera. Company opened at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, last, Saturday. The latest attraction at. Richards' Tivoli Theatre, Sydney, is Miss Adit, Winstone Weir, tale prima donna, in Williamson's Comic Opera Company. "Banjo" Patterson, war correspondent and lecturer, has reached. Wellington on his way .Northwards. "His tour has so far proved very successful, in spile of strong theatrical counter ut tract ions. "Ah* Charles Arnold has had a, very big season in Tasmania, with "What Happened to Jones." His manager, Mr L. J. Lohr, says the takings have been t() per cent, better than be lias: ever known them for farcical comedy Arnold was due at Christchurch this weelc. He. reaches Auckland early in the new year. R. L. Stevenson's "Dv. Jekyll and Mr Hyde," the play in which Mr Richard Mansfield, the great American tragedian, took London by storm some years ago, was last, week presented for the first time iv Sydney. The version is by Mr Dampier. and the leading character is a. double, which requires much subtlety. Mr Dampier is said to do good work as lly^i.-, but his Jekyll is described as rather commonplace and dull, and the dramatisation does not retain the convincing intensity of the. narrative. • Mr Tommy Hudson has arranged a, lengthy tour of lhe Nance, O'Neill Company, commencing about November of next year, and extending* over twelve months. The company will visit India and the Mast, journeying thence to South Africa and afterwards through Europe lo London. Mdlle. Antoinette Trebclli lias returned to New York after a visit to France. The; popular soprano will arrive in Australia, about the middle of April next, much earlier than, she- had arranged prior to last leaving- here. She will first visit. Sydney, and will be in Melbourne at the time of the Duke of York's visit. M. Jean de Reszke the great operatic tenor has, one notes from a paragraph in the London 'Times," begun to lose his voice. The criticism is in connection with "Die Mei.stersinger." It says: "It was clear that the beautiful voice was by no means what it was, and that the ringing quality of its tones has apparently disappeared, it may be hoped only for a time." In connection with the Commonwealth celebrations there will be a magnificent spectacular production at Her Majesty's, which it is stated will easily eclipse "Djin-Djin" and Matsa." Mr Bernard Espinasse will be responsible for the book and the lyrics, while the hand of Mr Williamson soon will finally shape all. The scheme of the new production is understood to be an extremely bohl one, and will savour of the prophetic, the twentieth century naturally having a big say therein. Mr Williamson has, it, is said, commissioned Signor Hazon, of Sydney, to proceed lo Italy and procure''an Italian opera company of as good vocal quality as that' which the late Martin Simonsen imported some years ago. When Barnum took Tom Thumb to London for the first time he was lodged in the hotel where, the famous basso Lablanche was staying. A lady of quality, having heard much of the mannikin, wished for a private view, and, accordingly, called at, the hotel. By mistake, she was directed to Lablanche's room, and, on knocking at the door, was confronted by the great singer—a mountain of a man, over 6ft, and broad out of proportion. "Pardon me," said the lady, "I must have mistaken Hie room. 1 wished to see Gen. Tom Thumb." "No mistake, madam, 1 am he," repled Lablanche; "what can I do for you?" "B-b-but I expected to see someone very different," stammered the visitor. "Oh, yes, yes! On Hie stage, no doubt; but in private life I can stretch out to my usual proportion's." Ibsen's play, "Ghosts," which was to have been produced at St. George's Hall, London, re.ently, ha,_ been vetoed by the Lord Chamberlain. The representation was to have been in German, under the auspices of the German Dramatic Society. Mr Bedford'sl decision, based upon the opinion that, "Ghosts" is an immoral play, has created considerable dissatisfaction among some of the members of the German Dramatic Society. There has been a funny sequel to this matter. French Anglophobia has been excited anew by tlie belief that the Lord i Chamberlain, who has done this thing, I is really Mr Joseph Chamberlain— j who, as is explained In the Paris papers, "in addition to being Minister for tho Colonies, is also Censor of Plays.' In an article headed "Cham- ; berlain-Macbeth," the "Dix-Neuvleme Siecle" says: "Mr Chamberlain is not I fond of the living, having made s© many corpses whose bones whiten affile foot of the kopjes of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. He likes ghosts still less, and will not allow them to approach him. A luckier j iniui. than Macbeth, Mr Chamberlain I has the power to prevent the spectre 'of Banquo from seating itself at his side. Mr Chamberlalin is a happy man." The "Echo de Paris" saysi: "Chamberlain is becoming telrrjible. He is declaring a new Avar. This time against Ibsen." It is as Sydney Carton, the dissolute, degraded, besotted, brain-muddled, helpless barrister, in "The Only Way," that we see Mr Tyrone Power at his best (says the "Otago Witness"). In this character Mr Bower could give us no better proof of his sterling worth | as an actor. |