DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5952, 24 March 1880, Page 6

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

; 1 "*fri ’V' "• '* Tiio Pirates, of Penzance ; is, doing ,an irq-[ mense business in New York, scats being on - , gaged fourteen days in'advance.:,, .., , , Mr Dion Boucicault haa been asked to. write an Irish, play without a soldier, a grasping l»pd|ord, or a, process •server, and which shall be-without a .prison scene. ’ Miss, Amy, Sherwiii (says •.a, ” York paper) who hiia for some weeks been residing in this- vicinity, and whose' soprano voice was heard at. the last concert of the Brooklyn , Philharmonic Society, has been engaged' for |a series of Sunday night concerts to be given at Booth’s Theatre, under the management of Henry E. Abbey. ’ Ourselves is [the name of a .hew comedy written by Mir Burnand for the Vaudeville Theatre, London, i

Benjamin Leete, professionally known as: Harry Rickards, a well-known, comic vocalist, has become bankrupt, in London. Hia debts amounted to #IS,(KM .and his assets, to £15.. One of the principal items in the list of debts.' was; a solicitor’s bill of £l2O being the, cpsts in. a divorce suit between the bankrupt: and his, wife. Rickards offered a composition pf one. shilling in the,£, which was ,, i Val Voso, ventriloquist, and Ira Brown, • banjoist, were playing in Yokohama, Japan, Jab. 2;[ after having successfully performed through India, Siam, and China.

Barnum’s tattooed Qreek sailor is on exhibition in Albany, and the advertisement, says “He has upon his body 7,000,000 punctures, and it was • all done by a female savage. The poor man lost a drop of blood and shed a tear for every puncture, and was the only one of twenty-four who survived the operation. The woman who ■ did the tattoo-; ing worked six Hours a day for ninety days* before'the task was completed.’’ ‘A maths? matician of the Albany “ Express” figures as follows The woman must have given him 3J punctures a'second. Then, if he: lost one drop of ‘ blood with every puncture, he lost, estimating the usual number of drops to a pint, and taking a pint for a pound, 58331 b. Or, to put: it differently, just 889 gal [of blood, or a trifle over twenty-barrels, during ninety days/- Tears don’t weigh as- much as blood; ■so -bunching, the two together the gentleman from Albania must have lost about 5i tons of those fluids withm three months.” Barnum’s agent retorts i that, if the Greek had not been a wonderful man, Re would not have been exhibited. •

Mr W. S. Gilbert is a devoted yachtsman, and his enthusiam dates from the' success of M.M.S. Pinafore. In fact, Mr Gilbert is a little bit of everything; and when he takes up a subject he does it with dogged pertinacity. Besides being a humourist and an admirable versifier, he has made, himself by [steady application a first-class militia officer, a bit of a sculptor, a draughtsman oh -wood, a player at lawn tennis, and a navigator of the deep. It is this last , pasrioh that, he cannot resist. He is fond of ordering people about and being ,in command. He is. at home as a captain': of a crew, as a stage-manager of a refractory company, , And so, when H.M.S. Pinafore was produced ih New.l York, Mr Gilbert put on the attire of a British tar, and went amongst the chorus singers just to show them how to shiver' their Umbers and Hitchup their unmentionables. This practical good sense, of the author, delighted the New York critics immensely, and the. audience made Mr Gilbert, appear before the curtain and make a speech, which [ was a model of modesty and courtesy. This tickled:the Americana.. ,

Herr Richard Wagner has obligingly sketched put for the information of : his friends hie intended, proceedings for the next ten years. It is true that those intentions depend, upon the .fulfilment of one trifling, condition: that the faithful shall “by large subscriptions during the year 1880” raise the modest guarantee of £20,000. But this necessity fulfilled, the production at Bayreuth in the year 1881 will be limited to Parsifal, which will be given four times. In 1882-8 .we shall be compelled; to grppe about in darkness, but in 1884 the faithful are to 'knye Tristan und-Isolde and DieHeistersingerthreetimes each? . 1885-6 are again to be years of dark*, ness, but; in 1887 wo are; promised Her JPUgende Hollander, v Tannhduser and j Lohengrin three times each. Last of all cpnjes the year 1890, when each section of! the, Nibetungen Ring will he performed thrice. Nor'is this all.: “In addition to-tbese wiil be given, as the master sees fit - and according to the state of the treasury, either in the ihter* venittg years or during/.the festivals then*selves, rehearsals arid performances of eym* . phoniesi With gratuitous admission to subscribers.” There is only .one thing necessary to complete the bliss of Wagner’s patrons, and that is to see'the “ treasury’’.full. At present, stive for £SOO collected/ after great efforts by'Herr SohOn in Germany, it is pot

Preparations (says the Era), are already being made* for holding; on April next,; a eraha series of Shakespearian performances in' the Memorial j Buildings,' Stratford-on-Avon. The performances will probably exr tend over three weeks; and many of the principal art&ies of> the t day < will take part in them'. Mr Barry, Sullivan arid Mr, Samuel Brandram have already proinbed to assist, arid have declined to receive any remuneration. Since April last (he erection of the library and picture gallery has been actively proceeded with; and in the course of a few months this portion of the Memorial Buildirigs will be covered in; The elaborate marble and stone staircase, a design of which was exhibited by the architects (Messrs Dodgshun and TJnsworth, Westminster), in: last yeiir’s Boyal Academy, is finished, andij considered a magnificent /work of art. i