MIMES AND MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 47, 25 February 1911, Page 11

MIMES AND MUSIC.

THE SHOWS, OPERA HOUSE. • Wellington Dramatic Society, 15th and 16th iMarch. \ Dolores, 20th to 23rd March. Hugh J. Ward Company, 29th March to 12th April. J. C Williamson, 13th April to 6th May Allan Hamilton, Slh to 17th May. ,T. C. Williambon, 18th May to 7th June George Marlow, 12th June to Ist July' Claike and Mejnell, Cth to 20th July J. 0. Williamson, 17th to 26th August Clarke and Meyjiell, 15th to 30th September. J. 0. Williamson,'' sth to 25th October. Clarke and Meynell, 3rd to 16th November Max Maxwell, 2nd to iGfcfi December J. C, Williamson, Christmas season THKATRE ROYAL. Fuller s New Vaudeville Company. HIS MAJESTY'S THEAXIiE. His Majesty's Picture;,. THE KING'S THEATRE. Koyal and West's Picture*. ~> r,- * BXp '"TOBIAS"** HAM,. Star Picture Company. TOWN" HALL. Amy Castles, 4th and 6th March. The farewell season of Mies Amy Castles and her concert company opens in Wellington on Saturday, Qtti. .March. The Australian cantratrice and her party have met with warm welcomes in the South Island. Eecorde were established in the large towns. The popular eoprano.is strongly supported. Herr Camphausen is usually described as a basso-baritone. Ha originally studied in, Leipzig, and met with succees in Germany and Hungary. Herr,Louis Hattenbach, tho 'celliet, has been praised by the Southern critics as the greatest artist outside Miss Castles herselt, 'while the pianist, Mr. Conway, is a' young Victorian, who has had an excellent training al the hande of Continental roasters.. "Sweet Lavender," to be staged at the Opera House on 15th and 16th March by the Wellington Dramatic Society, in aid of the Boy Scout movement, must be regarded as one of the most successful piajs of modern times. Its presentations may be counted by the thousand, and its popularity has extended over many latitudes. The reason for this is not hard to seek, it proclaims itself in the gentle humanity and genial humour of the piece, and the lovahle creation of the golden-hearted, wea-k-natured down-at-heel Dick Phemyl. A strong cast will operate in the production. Mr. Frederick H. Hobbs, the New Zealand^ baritone who travelled with Air. Philip Newbury, and was his pupil more than ten. years ago, has gone to South Africa ac leading man in the Musical Comedy Company which is to produce "The Quaker Girl," "The Chocolate Soldier," "Tho Girl in the Train," "The Islander," and "Dear Little Denmark." Mr. Hobbe has been for years under Mr. George Edwardas' management, m London. His intention was to go in ior oratorio, but tho "inducements held )ut to him to take to musical comedy made him change his "mind. One of the features of Roy Redgrave's Tension of "The Sorrows of Satan"— to be produced at The King's Theatre, Melbourne, shortly, is an illuminated garden scene. In this scene the centre of tho sta^e is occupied by a fountain with about 50 jets of real water. The base of the fountain is of glass, and coloured limelight thrown through this on to the falling spray, combined with the hundreds of coloured lamps in amongst the foliage of the trees, should make for a gorgeous colour effect. Signor Puccini, the well-known composer of "La Bolieme," "Tcsca," and "Madame Butterfly," who went to New York to be present at the initial production of his new opera, "The Girl of the Golden West," says his new work had been received with the greatest enthusiasm, the first three performances bringing in £45,000. Caruso, he declared, was in better voice than -ever, and, like Mme. Destinn, had scored a great aitistic success in the new piece. The question so often raised in London as to why British operatic composers can so rarely secure a hearing has cropped up again (writes a Sydney critic), "and lias elicited some interesting figures concerning the cost of experimentally staging a new work at Covent Garden. The directors point out that, except in the case of a new opera by one of the great masters of the day, Puccini, Strauss, or Leoncavallo, English people in the mass can hardly be persuaded to accept even a free admission for a real _ "first night upon any stage." London 'does not poss=pss, apparently, the audience of amateur experts, connoisseurs, and musical enthusiasts, who are generally ready to support the management on such occasions in Paris, Berlin, or Vienna. On the other hand, the cost of production js greater, frequently exceeding £2000. The rental of Covent Garden is £500 a week, and £500 a\vejek is quoted as the cost of wages of the 70 stage hands employed. The orchestra . costs £300 (as there are about 80 players, the musicians earn little more than half the wages cf the mechanics), and then there are principals afc enormous salaries, pttendants, cleaners, and managers' staff, as well as an enormous electric light bill, and £150 a week for advertising. Under these circumstances, ifc is urged by the syndicate that to produce a new English opera is to deliberately incur a heavy loss— which has been suffered in the interests of British art quite as often as can be reasonably expected. Ihus London Academy in praise of a New Zealand composer :" At the end of his summer seoson Mr. Beecharn produced at Covent Garden an opera by Mr. G. H. Clutsam, the ex-New Zealand composer. It, would not have been guessed that this •composer was capable of v.riting a orilliant opera. Yet this is what he has aone. Ifter a single hearing, and in spite of our having had no oppoitunity of inspecting ! ts score, we began to ask "What may not a composer do who has begun like this?" Is Mr. Clutsam going to do for British opera what Elgar is doing in other fields? Here is music which is fresh, and original, and personal — operatic nrusie which shows true instinct for the stage, and is emphatically "of its time." Here is real imisic. I have just heard Sousa and his band (writes a Bulletin correspondent from London). The combination includes six hot-air blowers with glasses, seven who are wholly bald, and six who are bald in spots. Four wear beards. The bassoon is Bft long, and there is a tympanist who deserves a column to himself. He represents the dernisr cri in drum-bang-ing. He pats the tymps., scolds, caresses and whispers to them, and they whisper and (occasionally) howl back at him. 1 have walked behind Niagara, between the wall of water and the°cliff of rock; I've heard Carlton beat South; and I've looked inside a Cornish boiler under repair. , Amalgamated, these are all noises alongside Sousa's drums. The cornet player is a revelation. There has been nothing like him since Levy. And then Sousa ! He is a very wizard of music. Sousa plays with that band of his as Kubeiik used to play with his violin. He causes the volume of spund to shrink, fade, disappear, only to comj pel a monstrous body of noise to begin, f,row, creep upward and gain force with every wave. Unlike all the great conductors I have seen, Sousa conducts with his fingers, and the thousand and one movements of each separate digit is recorded on the instruments. He opens one- hand slowly, gently, and the sound from the band issues

softly, sweetly, perhaps to be crushed out of being by a sudden closing of that fist, perhaps to swell to a roar and a yell and a yelp suggestive of 14 zoos in full cry. Sousa's band opens its Australasian season at Sydney on 13th May. Paris spent over .ayo millions sterling on lier theatres iast year — to be exact, £2,072.565. Sixty years ago the total was only £320,000. There is a tax of 10 per cent, on all seats, the product of which goes to the public assistance. The amount spent on the Paris theatres has doubled since 1885. From 1895 to ISO 9 the receipts of the subsidised theatres, advanced by about £40,000, those of the independent theatres by about £200,000, but the receipts of the music-halls and cafes-concerts went up by £400,000. Circuses are less popular than in 1895, but the cinematograph shows, non-existent in 1895, accounted for £30,000 last year. Four years ago the total under this head was only £12,590. Another Harry Rickards. In future Mr. James Brennan's (Sydney) vaudeville enterprises will be known as ' 'James Brennan's Amphitheatres, Limited," the business hitherto carried on by Mr. Brennan having been formed into a company of 100,000 shares of £1 each. A feature of the flotation was the rapidity with which the shares were taken up, every share being applied for within three days of the opening of the sharelist, and the £100,000 being oversubscribed to the extent of £35,000. The intention of the company is to extend materially Mr. Brennan's vaudeville business. The National Amphitheatre as hitherto conducted in Sydney will be continued. In Melbourne a modern amphitheatre is to be erected, capable of seating 2800 people. The company has secured in Brisbane a ten years' lease of the Theatre Eoyal; and in Hobart it has taken over the Theatre Royal — a finely-appointed building just^ recently erected, equal to accommodating 1800 people. Theatres are to be erected in Adelaide and Perth, in keeping with the magnitude and completeness o£ the company's other undertakings. In Newcastle the business of tho company will be continued at the Victoria Theatre. A working agreement has been entered into for New Zealand with John Fuller and Sons. The present rates of admission at the National Amphitheatre (Sydney) will be .the rule throughout the whole of the circuit. Mr. Brennan leaves shortly for the Continent and America, in search of artists and novelties. "La Milo," the best-known Australian turn of the English music-hall stage, has lost her power to draw a full house, according to a Home writer in the Bulle tin. 4t Leeds, showing for one week, two houses a night, she is not (11th January, 19ll) ablo to even draw a full gallery, whore admission is only a "tray." According' to the Daily Express the engagement between Aliss Marie Lohr, the young Australian actress, and Mr. Robert Loraine, the actor-aviator, has been broken off. The engagement was announced in October last. Mips Addie Hine, one of Miss Jennie Brennan's pupils, and well known as a danc-er in Australia, W6iit to London not long ago, and was immediately engaged by George* Edwardes for the trio dance in "The Quaker Girl." Miss Hine was such a success that a second dance :s being introduced for her benefit. Mr. Tom Graves, a well-known London comedian, has arrived in Melbourno to join Messrs. Clarke and Meynell 'b forces and will make his first appearance shortly. Two new dancers, Marguerite Leroy and Dutton Nicholls have arrived under engagement to the same firm. Concerning that beautiful Sydney girl, Miss Constance Simpson (Connie Corona), who lefb»here a while ago to try the London stage. She was appearing (when the mail left London), says a Sydnay paper, in the Theatre Eoyal, Hanley, as the Fairy Godmother in " Cinderella." A press notice says of her : "Miss Corona has a handsome and graceful presence and a beautiful voice, and wears a lovely costume. In this preliminary scene, she sings 'Slumber, dear children,' and at once gained the favour of the audience. Miss Corona will be an artistic favourite this pantomime season." ' Mr. Charles Frohman, the American entrepreneur, has announced that he is rehearsing Rostand's "Chantecler," with Miss Maud Adams in the title-role', and also expresses the conviction that tha American "Chantecler" will more completely emphasise the fundamental idea of Rostand's play than was the case in Paris; in other weds, that the American "Chantecler," with Miss Maud Adams, will be- "the real goods." Mr. Frohman Fays : "I thought it best to disregard Guitry and the Porte St. Martin interpretation of the play and return to Rostand's original ideas of 'Chan.tbcler' down to the- minutest details." The production in Sydney of the new Williamson play "Via Wireless" is not a light ona, and has involved visits to foundries in Sydney and wireless rooms on several steamers visiting this port. One of the scenes will show tho casting of / a big gun, and another will be the rescue by an ocean liner of castaways on a yacht. The message is received in the wireless-room of the big vessel, and afterwards the yacht will be realistically shown on the reef, where she breaks up and is engulfed in the waves. "'Via, Wireless" has had a successful run at tEe Liberty Theatre, New York. For the Sydney production a complete wireless plant ie being engaged, so that Sydney audiences will see the real thing. The members of "The Whip" Company, with the addition of Miss Emma Temple, will fill tdio cast of "Via Wireless." A sum of no less than £1100 will be expended for the installation of a complete sending and receiving "wireless" apparatus at Her Majesty's Theatre, Syd.ney, in connection with the forthcoming production of "Via Wireless." Ihe plant is being put in by Augtralasian Wireless Limited, the proprietors of the Telefunken system, with its '"singing spark." A list was made out the other day at Her Majesty's Theatre, showing the number and ages of the girls at present employed in the pantomime, and the length of time that they had been engaged in theatrical work. A round dozen of them commenced their career in the famous "Mother Goose" pantomime, and ever since have been reengaged for each succeeding Christmas production. One little party in particular made her first appearance at tho age of three in "Rumpty Dompty," and han had a solo part in nearly every one of the following attractions. When these children go on tour they seem to improve and develop wonderfully (says a Melbourne exchange), the change of scene, the good wholesome food, and the work in which they engage evidently agreeing with them. "Miss Hook, of Holland," has been revived at the Criterion for the farewell week in Australia of that popular comedian, Mr. Win. Cromwell. This will be followed by the first production here of "The Belle of Brittany" (25th February). _ This dainty little work is known as trie "daffodil" opera, as that flower figures frequently in it, and the song and chorus, " 'Tis Daffodil Time in Brittany," with the fields in blossom, and the girl gatherers in the quaint old Fiench costume still worn by the peasants of that' district, give a touch of sentiment to the entire opera.

"Fine old inn, sir," commented the host. "Everything in this house has its story." "I don't doubt it," remarked tho grouchy tourist. "And is there any legend connected with this old piece of cheese il'i 1 '