DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10308, 29 March 1894, Page 3

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

The “Era” announced that the final farewell concert of Madame Patay, whose sudden death was announced last week, was to be given in London in May. Mr Santley’s eon, Mr Michael Santley, though educated for music, has decided to go to the Bar. He is said to be an excellent comic singer, and also an export performer on the banjo. According to the Bayreuth “ TaschenKalender,” the number of performances of Wagner’s works in the German language amounted, in the year ' ending Juno last, to 1047, an increase of 237 on the previous year. It is announced in the “Queen” that Miss Amy Sherwin is going to pay a visit to . Australia, and appear in forty concerts. She will first go to Bayreuth in the 'European summer, so that apparently she maybe expected about November next. Organ-grinding ae6ma to be a lucrative employment in England. At a recant law cose in the Ramsgate county court it was stated in evidence that one of these itinerant musicians often earned £1 a day, and never less than 7a, and that two, who were in partnership, had collected £ll4 in thirty-eight weeks. Mias Lillian Russell, the American prima donna, was married at New York on Sunday, Jan. 31, to Signer Perugini otherwise Chatterton a tenor well known on the operatic stage. This is Miss Russell’s third matrimonial venture. A musical director and a well-known English composer were (successively) her former lords, sad her present partner is now playing with her in the comic opera Princess Nicotine. It is estimated that up to the end of December Mr Irving’s receipts in America totalled over £90,000 (£12,000 of which was taken from San Francisco, £29,000 from Chicago, whilst hia eight weeba’ receipts in New York came to £40,000). With the exception of the tour which Bernhardt made in 1890-91, the Lyceum season is the longest ever made by any theatrical company, in America. The tour closes on Saturday at Abbey’s Theatre in ''NewYofE-. The late. David Belasco, professionally known as David James left personalty valued at £41,594 13a Id. -He bequeathed a number of srd&ll amounts to friends and relations, and to his wife the income for her life of a sum of £30,000, which on her death is to go to such charitable institutions as the trustees may select. It was the testator’s particular desire that some of the institutions to bo benefited under this bequest should be some of those for the benefit of actors and persons connected with the theatre. The late Henry Eettitt, the dramatist, sold his first play for a £5 note. During tbo last years of his life he ia said to have enjoyed an income equal to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was the son of a civil engineer in Birmingham, and was thrown on his own resources at the age of thirteen. He was an unsuccessful actor, tried his hand at story writing, obtained a place as clerk and was dismissed for inattention, and served as assistant master in a London school, before taking up the profession of playwriting. ‘ Harry Payne, the renowned English clown, in a recant interview told the following incident:—“l remember, when playing at the Surrey Theatre once, the harlequin failed in his attempt to leap through a door-flap, one leg remaining stuok° in the aperture and visible to tho audience. To gloss over what appeared to me to be a little mishap, I took hold of the hanging leg and dangled it up and down, exclaiming as I did so, * Oh, my I here’s a funny man/ which appeared to tickle the audience immensely, for they burst into a roar of laughter. When the harlequin was drawn through by tho men behind, it was discovered that he had broken a leg in his abortive leap. To my deep regret I afterwards discovered that it ■ waa the fractured limb which I had unwittingly shaken.” . Miss Sadie Martinet, an American actress, has adopted a curious .“sliding scale” with respect to costumes and salary. She had been drawing a very large salary; and when she was asked to appear in a part Which, required a “Bloomer” costume she demanded £5 aweefc more for the necessary exposure. “ Why, my dear Mr French,” she said, to the manager, “ I have been on the stage for ahem—well, I have always been in full costume; and here I find that J. am expected to coma before the public ia the most confidential manner, the most confidential manner, sir! ” “ What ia tho matterf” “Matter, sir? I find that I mush expose my ankles. I have heretofore kont the public at a distance. I demand*£s a week increase in my salary;” Mr French surrendered; for, as he said he wanted a lady for the part. Ic is estimated that there are in America about 17.000 men and woman who make a living in the theatrical business, and of these about 2000 are now in New York looking m vain for employment. Some are living on what they have laid by, while others have sought work in hotels, mercantile houses, and street cars. A great many unemployed players are in destitute circumstances. The Actors’ fund has about 150,000d01, accumulated during the past ten years, safely invested, and paying a low rate of interest. It also receives about 12,000d0l per annum from the city as its share of the theatrical license money, and has other sources of revenue, such as benefit performances and tho ten-cent tax collected in some theatres on complimentary tickets. Nevertheless, so many and heavy ate tbs demands made upon its treasury in the present hard times, that its officers find themselves running behind every month, aud fear that it will be necessary before long either to restrict the sphere of

their charitable work or to encroach upon thoir invested funds. Dvorak has recently produced m New York his “American Symphony.” founded on themes taken from Negro melodies, this being the only form of “folk music” which springe from the American soil. According to a New York paper, the composer set to work “to saturate himself with the spirit and colour of Negro and Indian music.” He has, we are further told, •• given himself up thoroughly to: the influence of American scenery, customs,' feelings and literature.” Having thus “absorbed the spirit of the music, he set himself to invent his own themes; and the principal melodies of hia symphony are in rhythm and melodic character faithful reproductions of plantation and, prairie muoic; hat they are entirely original. With these themes Dvorak has endeavoured to build-a symphony whose musical spirit and feeling voice his conception of Americanism as revealed by the national character and literature.” Speaking of the work as a whole, the critic says that “Dr. Dvorak’s Fifth Symphony will probably he regarded as his best. The themes are exquisitely melodious, _ and the treatment is superb in its ingenuity, consistency and artistic effect.” Laura Sohirmer-Mapleson, a leading and popular American singer, died at New York on Jan. 24 of pneumonia. She made a great success some years ago in opera, and on her marriage with Arthur Byron, an English tenor, left for Europe. After successes at the great capitals the company landed in Constantinople. The Sulfian, Abdul Hamed 11, had heard of the beauty and artistic triumphs of the American singer and commanded her to appear before him to entertain his court. By his order she was compelled to sing and to dance, and finally was given a piece of music and told by the Grand Vizier to sing.it in Turkish. Fortunately she had learned sufficient of the language to enable her to undergo this ordeal, and when she had completed it the Sultan appointed her court singer to the imperial Ottoman court at a large, salary. Then came strange stories of the. singer’s life in the Sultan's court. The climax was reached when, in October, 1888, there came a story--of- euch-- atrocious: crime'-and.’ cruelty in which the prima donna figured that it read more like a romance. According to this story she and thirteen, inmates of'the Sultan's harem had been poisoned and their bodies thrown into the Bosphorus. The story created!the greatest excitement in America and led to much correspondence, both private and official, but it "was soon discovered that the report was simply a hcas. • Misa Schinner lived to organize a most successful operatic troupe in Constantinople, and it lasted until the death of Byron, when she left for Paris, where she appeared in grand opera. Colonel Henry Mapleson, son of the distinguished impresario, met her there, and falling in love -with the beautiful singer married her at the English Embassy, March 17,1890, in the presence of a most distinguished assemblage. They returned to America in the autumn of 1891, and after a couple of seasons in concert she baesmo last yew the star of “ The Fencing Master” company.