DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8148, 20 April 1887, Page 6

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Miss Jennie Lee is to appear shortly as the principal personage o£ a new domestic drama written expressly for her by Messrs Christie Murray and H. Hermann. Mr Rae Brown has founded upon Lord Tennyson’s poem, “ Lady Clara Vere de Vere,” a drama which Mrs Conover intends to produce at a West End theatre. Messrs Sydney Grundy and Henry Pettitb have completed their new Adelphi melodrama, but there is little likelihood of the piece being produced at an early date. Harbour Lights shining, as it still does, with undiminished lustre. The death is announced, at the age of 76, of Mrs Charles E. Horn, widow of the composer of “ Cherry Ripe.” Mrs Horn was a sister of Miss Priscilla Horton (Mis German Reed), and in early life she was a popular opera singer. For more than half a century she had resided in the United States. Miss Helen Lenoir, the manager of Mr D’Oyley Carte’s operatic Companies, crossed the Atlantic (says an American paper) in charge of the Ruddigore Company, and got them settled and playing with expedition and without fuss. In theatrical matters she is the leading representative of the administrative genius of her sex. The “Era” says that one of the moat painfully realistic scenes ever witnessed oh the stage was represented recently at the Strand Theatre, during the production of Jack-in-the-Box. In it a very little boy was brought before the footlights and severely thrashed by an Italian scoundrel in the presence of the audience, brutally knocked down, and then thrust shrieking into the cellar. Anything more revolting or repulsive it would be difficult to imagine. The dramatic lion of the day in Germany is Herr von Wilderbrach, who has risen to eminence almost at a bound. Half a dozen of bis plays are being simultaneously produced in Berlin and other cities, and his indefatigable pen is pouring fourth novels, poems; epilogues, prologues, songs, ballads, and humourous stories with reckless profusion. His lost drama. The New Commandment, the hero of which is a Roman Catholic priest torn to pieces by a conflict between religious sentiments, patriotic impulses, and human affection, has created quite a furore. The monument to the late Joseph Maas was to be unveiled at the West Hampstead (England) Cemetery on Feb. 20. It consists of an allegorical figure of Music, in grief, leaning on a pedestal, upon which is carved the portrait of the late J. Maas in relievo , with a wreath of laurel in alto j-elievo, surrounded by three volumes, inscribed Arie, Oratorii, Opere, with drapery partially covering the whole. The figure of Music, which is full life-size, restingher head on her right hand, looks down towards the medallion portrait. In her left hand she holds by her side the lyre with broken strings, emblematical of the loss of the great singer. The figure stands on an oblong square base; with sunk panel, on which is recorded,, in imperishable letters of solid lead, the inscription : —“ In Memoriam. Joseph Maas, born Jan. 80, 1847 i died Jan. 16, 1886. Erected by friends and admirers to the memory of a great singer and a good man.” It is stated that Patti never takes sweets, pies, cakes, puddings, gravies, rich sauces, salads, or champagne. She is never permitted to touch anything which will interfere with her complexion, her figure, or her voice. She is bathed in distilled water .of an exact temperature every morning, and anointed all over with some sort of sublimated unguent every night. She does not speak aloud in the day, rarely sings till supper-time, and all harassing care is withheld from heifc And yet people wonder at the secret of her perpetual beauty. One who saw says that recently at the Eden Theatre in Paris a modern “ magician” performed. a trick which is more curious than any that Cagliostro the original Houdin of whom Hermann studied, or the most skilful of East- Indian fakirs ever dreamed. He took a head made out of plaster of Paris, such as you will see in a sculptor’s studio, and passed it round among his audience, made up mainly of representatives of the Press. Then we saw him place this plaster head in plain view on a table; and then, with a few words, he brought it to life. The ; white gave way to ruddy flesh colour, the eyes opened, and the lips smiled.' It” answered a question and pearly teeth were disclosed. Then, with a few words, this beautiful face of a woman was again turned into a plaster bust “ After life comes death,” said this wonderful man; and as he spoke the bust disappeared, and we saw a ghastly skull. - Presently we saw this no more, but where; it was, now stood a magnificent bouquet of -flowers, which he took from the table and; showed to us all. Ho placed the flowers back, once more we saw the lovely female face, and then finally it turned into a bust again. All this we saw, and we could not discover how the transfof mations were accomplished. A correspondent of the Melbourne “Age” writes from London:—The only prominent theatrical event in the Metropolis since the prediction of the new opera at the Savoy has been a change of piece at the Court Theatre, where Bandy Did, a farce in three acts, has been presented by Mr Pinero. Following on the farcical lines which have; for so long associated this little theatre wit’i merriment and fun pure and simple, the management have wisely elected to keep the track which has carried them so safely and profitably, whilst the author’s intention, and probably his. commission, to write farce, distinct from any approach to seriousness in plot or detail, is apparent from first to last. In fact, Mr Pinero’s fun in Dandy Dick : a so obviously intentional, his character sketches so grotesque, and his plot so extravagant, that all his audiences are able or required to do is to laugh immoderately;' and that they do to a degree which must act as an almost intoxicating stimulus to those on the stage. In The Magistrate, Mr Pinero’s pleasant satire was directed Against the weakness of a good natured, Worthy magistrate ; in The Hobby Horse against the follies of misplaced philanthropy, whilst Dandy Dick has carried its author to the regions of farce that pilot a country dean through such a series .of wild adventures and troubles that it can only be urged in their daring improbability they suggest at the same time the excuse for their irreverent presentiment. An Italian paper says;—"Verdi was first induced to undertake the composition of Otello on the occasion of the performance of his Messa de Requiem at the Scala, for the benefit of the sufferers by the inundations at Ferrara. The next day he gave a dinner to the four principal solo singers, at which were present several friends, among them Signor Faecio and Signor Riccordi. The latter laid siege to the maestro, trying to persuade him to undertake a new work. For a long time Verdi resisted, and his wife declared that probably only a Shaksperian subject could induce him to take up his pen again. A few hours later Faccio and Riccordi went to BoVto, who at once agreed to make the third in the generous conspiracy, and two days after sent to Verdi a complete sketch of the plan for the opera, following strictly the Shaksperian tragedy. Verdi approved of the sketch, and from that moment it fell to the part of Giulio Riccordi to urge on the composer and the poet by constant reminders. Every Christmas he sent to Verdi’s, house an Othello formed of chocolate, which, at first very small, grew larger as the opera progressed.” MrS* .Chippendale has -succeeded Mrs Sttflftg of Dame Martha Theatre, London. Mr Fred Mervin and Mr Henry Bracy have joined Captain Bambridge’s Opera Company, and are performing in the comic

opera. The Beggar’s Student, at the Comedy Theatre, London. Mr Frederick Maccabe has at last got an entirely new entertainment, an original comedietta, invented, written and composed by Maccabe, entitled The Magic Statue, in which he will be assisted by Mdlle. Minnia. After its production in London he will make a tour through England, Scotland, and Wales. _ Mr Barry Sullivan, “ the eminent tragedian,” was continuing a glorious tour through the English provinces, under the direction of his son,T. S. Amory (Sullivan). His latest engagement was at Carlisle, for six nights, during which he appeared as Macbeth, Richard the Third, Mr Beverly (The Gamester ), The Stranger, Hamlet, and Richelieu. Mr Willie Edouin has become the lessee and manager of the Royalty Theatre. Morton Selten, well-known in Melbourne, is a member of his company. Mr Walter Reynolds, actor-author, is still on the move in the Provinces, playing his own pieces, which include Innisfail and a new domestic-sensational drama, A Woman’s Truth. At latest, he was at the Grand Theatre, Nottingham. Messrs Folloy and O’Neil, the Australian Boys, song and dance artists, were performing at the Grand Theatre, Leeds. Mr Frank Clare, who, some few months back, was lessee of the St George’s Hall, Melbourne, with the Amy Horton Comedy Company, has arrived in London, and opened a theatrical agency in Wellington street, under the title of the Anglo Australian Agency. He notifies that having had a long and varied experience in the Colonies, he can tender good advice.