MIMES AND MUSIC. [By Orpheus.] COMING EVENTS.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 72, 22 September 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

MIMES AND MUSIC. [By Orpheus.] COMING EVENTS.

OPERA HOUSE. Donald M'Donald (war correspondent), 24th to 29th (September. Pollard Opera Company, Ist to 26th October. M'Adoo's Jubilee Wingers, 27th Octorjer to 3rd November. Physical Training School, sth and 6th November. Wellington Orchestral Society, 12th and 13th JNovember. Trilby Company, 3rd to 22nd December. Charles Arnold Company, 26th December to 22nd January, 1901. ftauce O'Neill Company, 23rd January to 2nd February, 1901 (pencilled). Holloway Dramatic Company, four weeks' season, from 4th February, 1901. Mrs. Howie, the gifted daughter of Colonel Porter, of Wellington, has just returned to Christchurch, having completed a four-months' Australian tour with the Rev. Charles Clark. She told a Christchurch Press interviewer that she had been very fortunate in her Australian trip, as it was then the finest part of the year, and the weather altogether was delightful. Splendid audiences were obtained at all the towns visited, and the season altogether was most successful. As far as music is concerned, Mrs. Howie considers that New Zealand compares very favourably with Australia. Seeing that the Australian population is so much larger, she was surprised to find how little behind the times we are here. Mrs. Howie is anxious to go Home to set what her voice is really capable of. " Since my reception in Australia has been so good, both by the public and the press — for I ha,ve never had an adverse criticism — I feel quite justified in feeling that I could do something at Home." While on her Australian tour Mrs. Howie ■was offered engagements for America and India, but she wanted to go straight on Home, and therefore refused them. On arrival in London she intends to go to Sir Hubert Parry first of all, and to get hia advice as to what particular branch of music she should take up. She has already been studying at Melbourne, but she will continue her studies in London. Miss Fitzmaurice Gill has just concluded a three years' engagement with Mr. Bland Holt. The first production of the new opera "Florodora" by the Royal Comic Opera Company is to be given at Her Majesty's, Melbourne. Messrs. John Fuller and Sons have engaged Fisko, a- juggler, Miss Lena Young, contralto, and the- Tylers, acrobats, to tour New Zealand in connection with their bijou companies. Miss Ada. Woodhill, lately leading lady of the Bentley-Ancellon Company, leaves in about a month's time to try her luck in America. " How London Lives " has been mounted by Mr. Bland Holt in Sydney, with the "result that one critic, while admitting the "go " which the ' company manage to infuse into the piece, strongly urges Mr. Holt to vary London importations by trying a local playwright.. Mr. Bernard EspinaSse is the writer* pressed upon his attention, as one wLo has several completed, but unacted, plays, pronounced by a good judge to be " strong." Miss Lottie Collins, the famous variety artiste) who made a fortune out of the music hall song Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay sailed from London on 31st ult., under engagement to Mr. Harry Rickards, to appear at the Bijou Theatre, Melbourne, and also in Sydney. A recent San Francisco paper annouaces the niarriage of Mr. Herbert Ashton to Miss Lillian Branscombe. They are now members of the Frawley Company, playing at San Francisco. "Cupid has," the paper referred to says, J "certainly been kind to the young and happy couple, as they have been in the same dramatic companies together both in Australia and here for the past three years." They left Australia with the Maggie Moore Company. Whereabouts of well ■ known people — Miss Elizabeth Watson is playing lead with the "Hearts are Trumps" Company in the English provinces Mr. Tom Fitzgerald is at present in South Africa. . . . . Wirth's circus, after a short season in Perth, is touring the Westralian goldfields. . . . Mr. Courtice, Pounds, a one-time member of the Comic Opera Company here, was at the Coronet Theatre, London, when the mail left. . . . Paul Clinquevalli was starting at the Glasgow Empire Theatre when the mail left. Mrs. Brown-Potter is a lucky woman. I\ot only (says M.A.P.) has Lady Meux, with royal generosity, made her a present of a play by Belasco, but Belasco himself- made her a parting gift of the Australian rights of Madame Butterfly. The playwright's telegram on sailing for America last w.eek was worded as follows : — "Butterfly belongs to me. You can have it for Australia. Good-bye. God take fond care of you.— Yours always faithful. David Belasco?' The gift is very a propos, a3 Mrs. BrownPotter has received an offer from James Williamson to star in Australia in the early part of 1901. The Belasco play, written to order expressly for her, is expected to, be -ready by or before that time, and to be seen first in a London production. It will be ' a part as long and as strong as Zaza, but depicting an entirely different style of woman. Mr. Belasco believes that, with the right part, Mrs. Potter will prove the most profitable of attractions. The musicians of Melbourne are anxious to form a union to be affiliated With the Trades Hall, and have held a meeting to further that object. Here (says "Atticus" in the Melbourne Leader) are indications of a refreshing reform, and, although musicians are not notorious for maintaining, harmonious relations, with good management the members of the proposed union may be induced to reserve their discords for the paying public. This effort of the musicians opens iip a wide field of curious possibilities. Think of Melbourne during a strike of the Musicians Union or a lock-out, with every musician, from the one-leg-ged manipulator of the tin whistle to the herculean trainer of the Town Hall organ, all obstinately refusing to play a note. But musicians have often" struok in Melbourne, generally at theatres when money was not forthcoming. On one occasion the strike took the form of an inhuman plot amongst the orchestra playing for an impecunious management. It was resolved that if pay was not found for the band after the first act, the operatic pieces selected for the first interval would be superseded by the most hideous discord of which the combined musicians were capable. The pay was not produced, and for ten minutes tile theatre was filled with noises beside which the racket of Babel must have sounded like a symphony. Then the players ceased, flushed, triumphant, ' expecting to find the house empty, but to their immense disgust, the small audience was sitting tight and applauding with all its heart. A generation has passed since Mr. G. W. Moore and Mi. Burgess entered into partnership and St. James's Hall, London, became famous for its Christy Minstrel entertainments. The Moore and Programmes, cards, posters, and general show printing can be procured at Evewing Post Theatrical Printing House. {Telephone 1270.

Burgess Minstrels became a national in- ' stitution. After Mr. Burgess died, his partner turned the concern into a company, and, unrestrained by sager counsels, introduced music hall artistes', some of them ladies, to appear in the second part of the entertainment. Then the traditional policy of the troupe was altered by the establishment of a provisional ' company, which not only has never paid for itself, but also has prevented people coming to the London performance. The multiplication of other places of amusement, and the inevitable going down of the nigger minstrel " before ..he advance of civilisation," has brought disaster to the company, and now it has drifted into the bankruptcy court.