STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 172, 20 July 1907, Page 10

STAGE JOTTINGS.

FORTH COMING ENGAGEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. July 15 to 20 — Mr Fred. Shipman July 22 to August 10 — Mr Musgrove'a Grand Opera Co. August 12 to 24 — Mr J. C. Williamson August 26 to September 14 — Mr J. C, Williamson September 10 to October 5 — Mr Allan Hamilton October 7 to 26 — Messrs MacMahon'g

Dramatic Co. October 2S to Nov. 2 — St. Patrick's Operatic Society, In "II Trovatore."

OPERA HOUSE. Till further notice — FuUer's Entertainers

O'Neill's Buckjumpers have proved, a quite extraordinary araw in another kind—in fact, a complete circus could hardly have done bigger business. A'hese two attractions and the perennial Fuller's will leave room for the longexpected Grand Opera Company next week —and perhaps the success of Mr. Musgrove's organisation will be all the greater for its contrast with the foregoing entertainments. The company left Sydney on Wednesday, and should arrive at Auckland to-morrow. The season opens with "Lohengrin on Monday evening. In October the great pianist, Madame Carreno. who is due in Auckland next month, has to commence a series of 80 concerts in America, which have already been bought up by speculators, and her trip to the Antipodes is merely en route —a sort of holiday. She has only had time to make a few appearances in the principal cities of Australia. Here is a pretty Carreno story. Asked how early she began to show an aptitude for the piano, Madame Carreno replied to an interviewer as follows:— " I was discovered by my father at the instrument when only three and a-half years of age. It' all happened in this way. Some friends played through a few new Polish dances intended for my sister, who was 12 years my senior. I was in bed, and listened to them with I great delight. Next day I stood at the piano in the empty music room and bejgan to harmonise one of them f*m memory. My father, a fine player himself, heard the sounds, and looked in to ' show my elder sister (as he supposed) that two or three chords were incorrect. When he saw mc he burst into tears. Naturally I was grieved, and throwing my arms around his neck, I cried: 'Oh, papa, dear papa, I promise never to do it any more.' So, far from that, a little later he taught mc himself with the greatest ardour, and at six years and a-half I could play Thalberg's ' Fantasia' on ' Norma.' "

The huge salaries which, from all accounts, al : e being paid, or offered, to our music-nail stars in America, will (remarks a London scribe) at least confer one benefit on London audiences. Happily rid for a time of the, as a rule, very tedious "stars," who so seldom give us anything new, and with whose methods and tricks we are all so intolerably familiar, there will be room for clever people, who will at least be fresh to us—and surely that ia something to be thankful for.

The Kelly Gang pictures, which have, been such a remarkable success in Australia and New Zealand, are to be shown through the British Isles, the tour commencing in London at the beginning of r, September. ° f Lit-tle Cliff, who visited Auckland with Mr: Harry Rickards' last vaudeville come bmation, was, according to recent Lon- :- don advices, scoring a big successat Camt berwell Palace with a new song entitled, 0 "The Coon's Conscience." 1 It is said that Messi'3. Meynell and Gunn will shortly organise a musical '■■ comedy company for a tour of the Com- = monwealth and New Zealand. They have already secured several of the latest " London successes, including i'Miss Hook I of Holland." , Adjudicating, at Bala, Wales, Mr. _ Harry Evans said Welsh tenors were be--0 coming a nuisance at many eisteddfodau . through their objectionable vibrato per- . formances. Nowadays the tenor gave 3 a sort of bad bleat. t There has been more Platform than 1 Stage about the past week, and the chief - event has been the highly successful re- -, turn of Miss Jessie MacLaehlan, who has - strongly maintained her hold upon Aucks landers, both by her gifts on the musi--3 cal side and by her personality and 1 strong dramatic gifts. Mr. Gaston Mervale has terminated s his engagement with Mr. J. C. Williamson, and has accepted an engagement 3 with Messrs. Meynell and Gunn. He • will probably join the company which I is being formed to support Miss Maud Hilyard, which commenced a season in 1 Sydney on the 12th instant. In view of the success of their produc--1 tion of "Maritana" last week the St. ' Patrick's Operatic Society have decided to stage opera, "II Trovatore" at _ His Majesty's Theatre from October 2S » to November 2. , Interviewed in regard to the disputes . in the Grand Opera Company, Mr. Musf grove said: "Not only do I intend to , | carry out the present tour, but, as I an- , j nouncei from the stage on the closing ! night in Melbourne, I intend to give'a _ I grand opera season in Australia every 1 two years." 1 j Mr. J. C. Williamson cabled that he [lhad arrived safely at Marseilles last r: week, and c by this time should be settled - ;in London. One of the first matters to ; | which he will give his attention will be 5 the question of getting together and t sending forward all the material possible • for the pantomime which will be his big - Christmas attraction next December. '■ Mr. Williamson's new musical comedy ; company has been further strengthened [ by the inclusion of Mr. Alfred Stephens, ' who " grew up" as a member of Pol--1 lard's Lilliputians, and since he reached 1 .'man's estate has been leading comedian 'Iwith the Bandman musical comedy coni- ; [ pany in India and the East. Mr. Stephens will make his reappearance in Aus- ; tralia as Corporal Ham in "My Lady Madcap." "The Yankee Eustler" is the title of ■ . a march and two-step for the piano, by the Hon. Eugene E. Schmitz. ex-Mayor of San Francisco, of which Messrs. A. Eady and Co. have sent mc a copy. The composition is presumably descriptive" of the characteristics which have earned for the author an unenviable notoriety, and a decidedly unpleasant culmination of a notable career. For this reason the composition may be regarded as oi special interest.

! . Giving his _.°pj_.ions °A- -the German theatre, Mr. Tree observed there was.one j thing he had noticed, and that was the | great importance the- theatre "took in the national life of Germany. He did not think that as yet we in England approached the theatre in the same spirit of seriousness which obtained in Germany, where every little town had -its state or municipal theatre—a dignified building, and in which the masterpieces not only of the German, but of the English, the French, and other languages were constantly played. A change appeared to have come over the German spirit, which used to be a somewhat idealistic and sentimental one. Miss Lenore Pulsford, the well-known. Wellington contralto, is making excellent progress in her musical studies at the Melbourne Conservatorium. under. Prof. Petersen and Madame Juiispl* (well-known in grand , opera circles). During her recent visit to Memui'uj, Madame Albani, the famous prima donna, visited the conservatorium, ard singled out Miss Pulsford for special attention at the concert given in honour of the distinguished visitor. Madame Albani highly praised Miss Pulsford's fine voice, and said it would bo a great mistake if she did not go to the Old World to finish her training. Last week the Wellington oontralto sang at an At Home given by Lady Madden, wife of the Lieutenant-Governor. People who, after a visit to the theatre, complain that they have not been ■ entertained have probably paid too much for their seats. Half a guinea and walk straight in is not the way to get enjoyment. Pay half a crown and wait; or, rather, wait and then pay half a crown.-^-"Evening Standard" (London). Mr. Cyril Keightley, who will be well .remembered in New Zealand as a young 'Shakespearean actor of great promise, is playing the part of "the villain," ■ Harry Dallas, in Mr. Bourehier's revrcal 'of Sutro's sentimental drama, "The Walls of Jericho," at the Garrick Theatre. It is hardly the sort of part that appeals to Mr. Keightley, and apparently his acting makes this plain. The •' Times " critic is prompted by his performance to throw off the * following jocular remarks:—"Mr. Cyril Keightlev succeeds Mr. Nye Chart as the philandering Harry Dallas, the snake in the grass. Mr. Keightley, we believe, is by birth an Australian, and, as a worthy son of that virtuous land, must necessarily be out of sympathy with the wicked 'set' of which Dallas is the blackest sheep. It was a mistake to ask him. to sink his praiseworthy, his noble prejudices in favour of virtue—as great a mistake as it was to waste so good a romantic Shakespearean actor on such a ' clockwork rabbit' part as this."

A fire occurred at Wirth Bros.' circus and menagerie a few days ago at Ro'ckhampton (Q.), burning a new canvas tent worth £400, which was uninsured. The fire happened at 7 o'clock in the mornin, and, lucky for Wirth Bros., the local fire brigade was soon on the scene, and saved the adjoining tents and cages of wild animals, although giving the animals the washing of their lives. The elephants caused .great excitement, as they became exceedingly frightened, and it was extremely dangerous for the keepers to go near them to undo their leg-chains so that they could be removed to a place of safety. Toby, the largest of the herd, threw her keeper several yards away, fracturing some of his ribs and cutting him severely about | the head, necessitating his removal to the hospital. Baby Jumbo, when released, cleared, running over everything, in his way, and trampled upon a guanaco or llama, breaking two of its legs, so that it had to be shot afterwards. THE DEADHEAD. I