OPERA COMPANY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 122, 25 May 1893, Page 2

OPERA COMPANY.

Pollard's Lilliputian company will opon here on Monday evening next. liefering to the comic pantomime "Aladdin up to date" which will be given on the opening night, the jV-ir Zealand Herald says :—" The performance may at once he spoken of a^a most unqualified success; and the elements of this are not dillicult to discern, inasmuch as the company is a very strong one, including in its ranks st veral talented preformers who visited this city last year with Williamson's Juvenile Opera Company, while no expense has been spared in the mounting of the piece. " Aladdin up to Date" is a burlesque founded upon the romantic tale of " Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" as given in "The Arabian Nights," and the entertainment of last night possessed the charm of complete novelty, at least so far as Auckland audiences are concerned. Not so much, perhaps, does the merit of the performance consist in the mere adaptation of the tale of Aladdin as in the songs, dances, and scenes that are incidentally introduced. The scenery throughout is gorgeous, hut nothing could be more exqusitely beautiful than the representation of the " Caves of Jewels," the walls of which are made to sparkle in the lime-light with a thousand tints of amethyst and emerald, and the scene became weird in the extreme when the dragon appeared in the centre, and numerous goblins, demons, and sprites commenced to dance around him in wild fantastic measures, Aladdin meanwhile appeared hovering on a white horse between earth and heaven. Tho pavilion in the garden of the Emperor's palace was also an excellent mechanical effect. The corps of ballet dancers belonging to the company gave some really excellent displays, and the graceful fan dauce received an imperative encore.