DRAMATIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7928, 3 August 1886, Page 3

DRAMATIC .

OUE MELBOURNE DRAMATIC LETTER. (from ONE OWN CORRESPONDENT.) “Nemo me impune lacessit.” Melbourne, July 20. Saturday evening last witnessed the first production in Australia of Messrs Robert Plauquette and H. B. Famie’s comic opera in three acts entitled Nell Qwynne. Messrs Eignold and Allison, having secured the right to play it in the Colonies, presented it at <the Opera House, Melbourne, with the following powerful musical and dramatic cast:— Charles 11., Mr George Doan; Buckingham, Signor G. Verdi; Rochester, Mir Armes Beaumont; Falcon, Mr K. Allen; Weasel, Mr John Forde j The Beadle, Hz Edward Kell;; Hedge, Mr W. Johnston; Podge, Mr F. England: Peregrine, Miss Jnlia Pearce; Nell Gwynne, Lady Falbala, Joan, Zaphet, Miss Emilie Melville; Jessamine, Miss Fannie 1 iddiard; Clare, Miss Ethel Haroonrt; Talbot, Miss Austin Eliot; Marjorie, Miss Aggie Kelton; Prne, Miss Bella <■ tuart; bar. Miss Amy Atkinson. The scenery by Messrs Grist, Little, and Mathews, was entirely new and elicited great commendation from the audience, which it was stated was the largest that ever attended in the building. The choruses are the principal features of the opera, and were all excellently rendered, though the vocal gem of the piece was the song of the clock, “ Tic-Tac,” in the second act. Miss Melville looked charming, and as Nell Gwynne she was simply bewitching. Signor Verdi was in excellent voice. His powerful baritone was heard to great advantage in his song, “Once Upon a Time.” It is singular that no solo music is allotted to the tenor part of Rochester, but Mr Armes Beaumont introduced the song “ Love is gone a Maying,” with excellent effect. Messrs John Forde and E. Kelly were in splendid form as Weasel and The Beadle, and well sustained the comic portions of the opera. Mr George Dean is well deserving a word of praise for the manner in which he, as stage manager, has placed the work on the stage. If long and hearty applause is any criterion of success, then I prognosticate a long run for the new opera. Mr W. H. Harrison, the popular conductor, had the band well in hand all through the evening. His Natural Life, at the Theatre Eoyal, has been doing excellent business during the past week. The last performance of the adapted play will be given on Friday evening next. The Company will then immediately leave for Sydney, the running here being taken up by a revival of The Silver . King, in which several members of the original cast . will will appear. Mr Gamer will re-appear as The Spider, Mr Titheradge as the Silver King, and most likely Mr Phil Day as Jaikes.

Marie Antoinette, at the Bijou Theatre, with Signora Majeroni as the ill-fated Queen, has not drawn the attendances that such a great historical drama, superbly produced and splendidly acted, really merited. It will be withdrawn after Friday night, and on the following evening will be succeeded by a new comedy by Mr A, W. Pinero, entitled The Rocket, in which Messrs Wybert Reeve and Brian Barley will re-appear. The Nugget Theatre was re-opened on Saturday last under the management of Mr C. Francisco. The Company, which is styled the “ Anglo Statue Minstrels,” includes Messrs Bertie Daly, Gus Benson, Mr P; G. Laughlan, Mr Percy Brown, Paddy Maher, Willie Shannon, Miss A. Be Basse, Miss Ada Maitland, and Miss Lydia Osborne, Mr H. Rowley, Mr W. Grou% Walter Curtiss, Mies May Garton, Miss Talbot, Mr P. Brown, Mr Ashton, Mr Charles Silvester( Champion Silver Roller Skater), Professor Stodare (magician). Misses Ethel mid Mabel Onslow, Miss Ryan, Miss Campion, Miss Williams, Miss Stewart, Miss Lee, Miss Be Boose, Miss Florence, Miss Hartwell, and Miss Browning. The performance, which was a novelty, seemed to give universal satisfaction. The tide of success has certainly con tinued at the Victoria Hall, which is every night crowded to excess to witness the performances of Mr Frank M. Clark’s “ Silk Stockings and Swinging Beauties,” which are now in the tenth week of their singularly successful season. St George’s Hall is closed, and at present with no prospect of it re-opening. At the People’s Concert at the Temperance Hall eteninf 'last, ,Mr' and Mris J. M'Fadjiean Carry Nelson, appeared in a sparkling comedietta entitled The Soldiers Daughter, and met with a good reception. During, the. progress of the play, the lady sangtbe song, ” Steer My Barque,”—composed some years ago by her father, the late Sydney : Nelson. During the evening. Misses

Bertha Jjurton, and Annie Lewis, and Messrs John Pope, Johnny Gardner, Alfred Edwards, George Bernese, and J. Wheeler appeared. At the Empire Music Hall (late Apollo), the Sunflower Serenaders appeared on Saturday, headed by Miss Grace Follande and Messrs George Williamson and George Hector. The Fisk Jubilee singers bad a very large and enthusiastic audience at their concert at the Town Hall on • Saturday evening. This evening they will give a concert in aid of the Melbourne charities, to which they will devote the entire gross receipts. Their success in this city has been simply wonderful. They will now in turn visit Williamstown, Brunswick—where they will give two concerts at the Wesleyan Chapel —St Hilda, Kew, and Hawthorn. .They will then start on an extended provincial tour. Mr Inigo T. rrel, with his company, is now performing at the Princess Theatre, Sandhurst, in his adaptation of the late Mr Marcus Clarke’s novel," His Natural Life.” Messrs George B. Ireland as Bufus Dawes, and Oily Deering as the Bey Mr North, are greatly praised by the local Press for their performances. I regret to state that Messrs William Hoskins and J. H. Deorwyn, father of Miss Alice Deorwyn (Mrs Charles Holloway) and Miss Constance Deorwyn, are both dangerously ill, and but very little hopes are entertained of - the recovery of either* Mr W. Byan, Mr " Teddy ” Byan, and a small Company have been giving the people of Lillydall a touch of their quality in the drama. The Convict’s Revenge. On Saturday next the Japanese Village will open in Melbourne. It is a costly and unique entertainment, and will, I doubt not, achieve deserved success. It is to be kept open about four months. W.H.W. POEEIGN GOSSIP. Mr Frederick Hanlon, one of the celebrated Hanlon brothers, died in May. Only four of the Hanlon brothers are now living. Indiana, by Audran, will be the autumnal novelty at the Avenue Theatre, London, where it will be produced early in September. / , Madame Patti appeared in a concert on Wednesday, June 22, at the Albert Hall, London, for the first time since her marriage, and was warmly received. A comic opera season will be commenced at the Prince’s Theatre by Mr Edgar Bruce at the termination of Mrs Langtry’s season. Miss Florence St John has been engaged for the principal parts. My Stepmother is the name of the new comedy in which Miss Minnie Palmer was to appear on the withdrawal of My Sweetheart.' Mdme. Marie Boze has been presented by the Dublin University students with a brooch in 20-carat gold, with the initials “ M. 8.” in red and blue enamel, together with a college cap fringed with gold, being a similar one to that worn by the Princess of Wales. Mr Paul von Janko has, it is said, invented in Vienna a new piano with a novel keyboard. The keys are narrower thanusual, so that the hand can span two octaves. But an ordinary pianist would surely find it almost impossible to play upon such a piano. M. Massenet is said to be engaged upon a new opera entitled Pertinax. The subject is peculiar. A young hero loves and afterwards abandons a virgin. She is an enchantress, and by way of punishment she renders herself for ever invisible, but exacts from him eternal fidelity. Each time he makes a conquest of the heart she interposes between him and the object of his love. Mr Charles Dickens has achieved a brilliant triumph as a public reader. His recent reading of “Little Dombey” and “ Bob Sawyer’s Party” at the Athemmxm, Camden Boad, London, evoked the enthusiastic applause of a large audience. On that occasion he was assisted by Mrs Dutton Cook at the piano, but henceforward he will continue the series alone. The fame of his success has already crossed the Atlantic, and he has had two offers from America. Mr Clement Scott’s patriotic choral ode Our Empire, which was sung at the Albert Palace, Battersea, on Thursday evening, is (says the Era of June 5), a good example of what an accomplished writer of verse can make of an inspiring theme. Commencing with a chorus of welcome by Britannia; and several sub-choruses introducing the nations of Great Britain, it swells out into a really thrilling invocation of the patriotic sympathies that never slumber iu the breasts of Englishmen. Adelina Patti, who has for some years been living at, her castle near Swansea, in South Wales, has at length. thought it desirable to go through the form of marriage with Nicolini. On June 9 t|£ civil contract was performed at the French Consulate at Swansea, and on the following day they were married at the parish church of Ystradgynlais! The choir sang "The Voice that breathed o’er Eden.” The good people of the parish made a great fuss, and decorated handsomely, and the prima donna, reciprocating the attention, enter tained all and sundry in right royai fashion. The latest musical novelty in Paris is the Russian Choir, organised and trained by a nobleman belonging to one of the oldest families in Moscow, who has adopted the name of Slaviansky. He is a musical enthusiast, who renounced a military career in order to gratify his passion for the divine art, and aided by his wife, who is also an excellent musician, be formed this choir on bis own estate, mainly for the purpose of interpreting the national melodies of Bussia, which he has collected from all sources. The vocalists, 25 in number, are splendidly robed in the ancient costumes of their country, and sing so perfectly in time and tune as to require no conductor, M. Slaviansky, who faces the audience, indicating merely by a motion of his fingers when they are to commence a number; and their voices are sustained by a harmonium. The "San Francisco News” says:— “The American stage is littered with vulgar and trashy combinations of circus clowning and variety idiocy masquerading under the name of comedies. Comedy means something light, witty, humourous, bright and sparkling. Such are not thq qualities of the so-called plays with which the tmfortunate critic is at short intervals called upon to struggle. Horseplay, vulgarity, feeble humour, coarse chaff; muscular fun, slang and gags, are the component parts of these concoctions; which amuse a certain part of the public and enrich the particular individual who figures most prominently iu the farrago of the staff. In Sau Francisco we receive our full share of . this lowest sort of stage matter, and we get our dose invariably after a spell of enjoyment of what is best and most refined in musical and dramatic art. It is the bitter medicine after the sumptuous feast.” Speaking of Mr Dixey’s performance in Adonis the " Figaro ” says There is one item in Mr Dixey’s performance which demands particular mention.. I mean his imitation of Mr Henry Irving. Seeing bow repeatedly Mr Irving has been mimicked by both professionals and amatenrs since he made himself a dramatic reputation, a new imitation of his well-known, manner must have some special feature to recommend it if is to gain any measure of public approval. This special feature Mr Dixey’s imitation assuredly possesses. He is . not content with a mere broadly-marked caricature; he reproduces the very man before us; the voice, the manner; the gait, the gesture, the very smile, and expression of the face being all presented with really startling truth and fidelity. Granted that such imitations are desirable at all, it is hard to see how mimicry can be carried to greater -perfection thanin this instance. In Turkey .the idea to employ ths stage

inthef service of pauperism is jn st host gaining grounds It.is intended at Constantinople to Temove the begging nuisance by means of art. A short time ago the. General Inspector of Theatres, a Mr Hilmi, banded a new plan to the Minister of, Police, ly " which it is proposed to raise the necessary funds for the regulation of the poor laws in Constantinople. Mr Hilmi advocates a plan to compel the Directors of theatres to arrange each two theatrical performances» year for the benefit of the poor, and to add to the price of each ticket—the whole year round—a small amount in favour of the poor fund. Hilmi Effendi further calculates that this tax would result in an income of £20,000, Turkish gold, provided, that it is applied to all theatres of tlie empire. Many public organs are advene to this measure, and believe that the comparative small number of theatres m .Turkey will never be able to provide suck a large aggregate sum by means of an Increase in the price of admission, particularly as higher prices are likely to lead to » serious diminution of the already nmintiafactory number of theatre-goers. A recent number of the Birmingham “ Daily Mail” contained an interview with Miss 1/ingard, from which we take the following: much nicer to play to than London ones; they are much more sympathetic. I don't know what English Provincial audiences do when they are not pleased, they are wonderfully attentive when they are. Xu Sister Maty there is one scene in which Mir Boyne and I go through a very idyllic lowpassage. I was noticing only the other night at > Sheffield, the audience were so much impressed by the scene that you might have heard a pin drop.. lam sure we could have spoken in whispers and beem heard all oyer the house." In the. ooone of further chat about the piece, Mm Lingard said that, in order to make the nurses’ dresses in the last act as accurate and realistic as possible, she paid a visit to the Coldstream Guards’ Hospital; aiti borrowed a dress from, one of the siaten; which she had copied. One of the doctors suggested that, as so many ladies have learned the art of nursing, it would he. well for the nurses on the stage to understand their mimetic duties as well •• possible, and so she learned from him howto fold the triangular bandages which are used for wounds, and other little details which, if performed clumsily, would lead to adverse criticism. The doctor gave her a number of bandages which have printed upon them instructions for use, and these are used on the stage. The New York correspondent of a London dramatic paper writes: —Just at present there is a great dearth of really. good voiced, good looking, and good acting light opera prima donnas. It Is almost aa bad as the scarcity of tenors. There are plenty of girls around who are ambitions to play the parts, but who have either weak voices or are as stiff as sticks. And the old favourites are all becoming pasti or are going out of the profession. Pauline Hall is perhaps the best of the lot, hot she is beginning to look rather matronly, and is by no means the Erminie that she would have been ten years ago. Lillie Past la still very beautiful, but she has Icfet her voice completely, and is absolutely song out. Marie Gunsen, who a year ago was so pretty, has been indulging too much in late suppers, and has become very robust. So has Verona Garbeau, who has got almost to the waddling state. Besides, she has a rich husband. Then "airy fairy’’ Lillian Bussell is so no longer, and her recent quarrel with "Teddy" Solomou has been patched up so effectively that she is all absorbed in the sweetest kindofasecondhoneymooa. Sadie Martinet, too, who used to sing " Isn’t he just sweets so bewitchingly, has dropped tights and. univeral admiration and gone off to Cab* with an inconsiderate husband. With nH ■ ■ this the dudes are quite disconsolate. Tbm latest deserter from the ranks of clever actresses is Marie Upton, who has just left the stage, and, if report be true, to he snapped up by a ruthless husband and smk into the oblivion of domesticity. It is really too bad, as Miss Upton is one of the most charming comic opera singers w have, a refined young lady, whose talent and modest demeanour have won her mslimited respect all over the country, KYELE BELLEW. How he Went on the Stage. "By Jove, what a weight! ” “Yes,” I said, "it’s an old Tranter, hot a very good one for all that.’’ . • " Bather out of date ? ” "Oh yes; but I keep it for association’’* sake. It was the immediate cause of my becoming an actor.” " I beg your pardon ? ” inquiringly replied my American friend, who, after toying with many curios in my room, had picked up my revolver, and seemed rather more surprised at , my assertion than by tbs proportions of my six shooter. " I am not joking—really, when I wan at work on .the gold reefs at Yngilbar Heights, Solferino, New South Wales, we used to carry those things in our belts. There was trouble sometimes.” “ I beg your pardon ; did I understand—: you working on—the ” He paused ; his look and tone expressed such incredulous surprise that I couldn't help laughing. , “ Oh, yes; you seem staggered,” I said. "My dear fellow, don’t make the mistake so many of you men make. They think because I’m an actor I’ve never done anything else. I began life as a sailor, and. got as low as grave-digging once.” " But do you mean ” " I mean, my dear fellow, that since I •; was a lad, until I went on the stage, I , earned my living by sheer, 'bard, manual work j and when I wore that pistol I was a common miner, earning wages and working my eight-hour shifts down the shafts the same as lots of other fellows in my own position were doing at Solferino. I was n younger son, and I had to work, and I did: —but we don’t swagger about these sort of thingsat home.” " But the pistol P ” " Well, just about then I’d lent it to the man who served as barman in the log shanty that did duty for our 'hotel on the reefs. One had been out of work some time, and was very hard up —I strolled in amongst the fellows, loafing about the place bn the lookout for some job or other—anything—when a deanshaved man came in and called for drinks. He was working a show—minstrels and farces—round the different diggings. I was turning out of the place, when the barman sung out, * Bellew, here’s your six-shooter/ and he handed it back to me. The cleanshaved man turned and eyed me up and down, and then said straight out,* Is your name Bellew P’ I answered him it was "Do you know the Eev J. M. Bellew,of London ? ’ he asked. * Yes,’ I replied,: ‘pretty well.’ ‘ Any relation ? ’ queried my friend. ‘Son,’ I said. ‘By jove I * exclaimed Tom Pearce, and shook me by the hand. ‘ I was an agent of your father's eleven years ago. What are you doing here?” *“ Looking for work.’ ‘‘‘HardnpP’ " * Hard up.’ ‘“Want a job?’ “‘Yes.’ " ‘ Can you act P ’ " ‘ Never tried, except as an amateur. "* Will you try P’ " ‘ Yes.’ " ‘ Come on, then.’ "‘Eight!’ and we shook on it, hadja ‘shout;’ he paid—l hadn’t any money. That night I left the reefs with mm, and • ■... few days after I made my first appear anes 'on any stage’ as Eglantine Boeeleaf in * Turn Him Out.’ We played- in a woblehed, and our proscenium was composed of blankets. That's how I went on. tbs stage.” " And all through this pistel,” said mf American friend ' “ All through that pistol,'’ replied I.