Dramatic And Musical

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 79, 4 January 1902, Page 17

Dramatic And Musical

By Footlight.

FLORODORA," at the Opera House, is the best thing Pollards have given to a Wellington audience for a long time. This airy, charming musical comedy is a picturesque and delightful one from start to finish. The company's towei of strength in 'Florodora" is unquestionably Mr. W. Percy, as Tweedlepunch, the eccentric professor of phrenology and visitor to the balmy isle of Florodora. Without the exaggeration that at one time occasionally marred his performances, Percy manages the exceedingly heavy part with a zest and fimsr that make his ludicrous appearance the occasion for cries of welcome and shrieks of mirth ' Florodora" has a thin plot, for which everybody is thankful, for no one wants, to bother about the affairs of people who can sing and dance delightfully, who say witty and pointed things with finished jrrace. who make local allusions which fit in somehow, and cause laughter for the simple and only reason that they are local Miss Alice Edgai is an acquisition the Pollards may well compliment themselves on. A smart actress of more than ordinanlv pleasing appearance, she "gets you" at once and stays there. She has a small, but excellent, singing voice, and knows exactly what use to make of the part of Lady Holyrood, the bright society dame, with a stock of sardonic witticisms that are quite the best part of ' Florodora" from a literary point of view. * * * Miss Lulu Evans, as Dolores has some sweet songs to sing. Her voice is not powerful, but very sweet Miss Evans can dance. Paired with Mr. Percy, in a burlesque of the celebrated Dartos. she accomplished everything that little, agile French lady did, while of Mr Perc-v it need only bo said that if he leaves opera he can outDarto Darto on the vaudeville stage. Mr. D. O'Connor's fine baritone voice is both mellow and resonant and his "0 My Dolores" is splendid « • • The finest thing in Florodora" is the concerted item, ' The Clerks' Chorus," in which half-a-dozen grey-clothed clerks ask love questions vocally of six charming damsels in black and white. It is a feast of dainty dancing and tuneful music. The training of the choruses is, as always 1 with this troupe, admirable, and the scenery gorgeous. Enormous houses are seeing ''Florodora" nightly, and it will be difficult to find a bill that will give such satisfaction as the one non under notice. Dixs Gaiety is attracting Large crowds of country cousins to sample its holiday fare, and very good fare it is, too Austin Rudd, the original songster, who manufactures his own business, and who has rather a better notion of the really comic side of things generally than most artists, "bumps up and down" to the hu^e dehejht of the people. He has brought back with him some excellent songs and capers as grotesquely as ever • • • Charlie Failing fat and happy aftei along absence, is with us again Charlie's perennial fun-spring has not dried up in his absence and he has a quaint patter about our revered Premier which catches on tremendously As a corner man, Fanung takes a good deal of beating, and it is impossible foi the finest chorus extant to drown hi<> mellifluous tones • * Mis 9 Georgie De\oe, it not a particularly pleasing singei, is good to look on, and, as a sketch artiste assisted b\ Funny Fanang, she manages to help the show along. Mr. Ernest Bnnkman's a^-earance elicited from a lady who sat some little distance from me the exclamation, "Oh, ain't he pretty," which certainly he is. He has a knack of smiling pleasantly during the nro<rress of his songs the art of which he has evidently taken some pains to learn. So many singers look as if their smiles hurt them that the Brinkman ripple is a novelty, and assists a tolerably stood baritone voice • • * The Lmgard Sisters introduced a now "turn" in the shape of the "manual" exercise One voting lady not having the necessary array "arm " uses her lower limb for an alleged rifle and doc*;

the port," ' slope," ' trail," order," and shoulder" of the drill book The pair stug somewhat, and. dress nacely. Les Wharton's re-appear an oe is not necessarily the least important item because it is mentioned last The heart of a Gaiety audience is w arm to the singer of "Sam Johnsitig was a SuitaJi," and Les is always 9ure of a big thing in applause and many recalls • * • 'Tis whispeied on the other >side," that the Italian Opera Company venture has cost Manager Williamson a pretty penny. The net loss is said to have run into about five figures Yet. the company was the very best ever heard in Australia The expenses, however, were huge. An alleged loss running into five figures requires a considerable much of salt in view of the report that Williamson is going to tr\ opera again • • * Mr Charles Arnold k> .said to havo made a fortune out of his present toui in Australia Some people sa^ £20 000 Miss Maud Hew son will shortly enter the holy estate of wedlock The fo'tunate fellow, tra-la, tra-la," as> she one p used to sing herself, is a dentist bv profession. He has just returned to New Zealand from a three-years' fitudv m America • • • M. Edouard de Reszke has discoveied a new tenor in the person of a waiter who was formerly employed at an Italian cafe m New York He is now being trained for the operatic ( stage, and will make his first public appearance undei the auspices of the brothers Jean and Edouard de Reszke • • • In the first two acts of Aladdin," Mr Geo. Musgrove's Christmas pantomime at Melbourne, Chinese characters and scenery were introduced, and the transformation scene took the audience across the Yellow Sea into Japan . For tihis scene Mr. Musgrove had expressly imported 1900 balloons of pink blossom The whole scene was a mass of pink even the wigs worn by the character* being of the predominant colour, the only contrast, being afforded bv the entry of a number of children at the close of that scene clad in white. • • There was quite an interesting party out at Hinemoa Cottage, Island Bay, the other day and Hinemoa Cottage, by the wav, was tshe place where the major part of that fine cantata "Hinemoa" w r as composed and scored But the party p — ah, yes—it comprised Alf Hill composer of "Hinemoa," Maughan Barnett, also a composer as well as performer. Herr Lemmer, principal of the Nelson College of Music, and Alf Adams the war correspondent from China. • » • Perhaps, you have not yet heard that fine settine; of "Annie Laurie" as a quartette for male voices, which Alf Hill has recently produced in Sydney. Well bide-a-wee, there's a fair chance you may hear it shortly in Wellington. '■The Me-is-ter-singers" are likeU to tako it up and srive it lip. • • • Miss Lily Stephens, well-known as an erstwhile ponular member of the Pollard Company is to be married next month to a w oil-known commercial

Mr. diaries Holloway began a new season at the Sydney Criterion on Boxlag night, with the first Australian performance of J. J. Hew son's "For the Sake of a Woman." There was a cast of thirty-two parts. • * * They say that some of those artists who do lightning black and white sketches, usually upside down, on the stas"e, work with paper on which the drawings are aJready made in very stick y gum. Then, instead of putting pencil to the paper, fchey pass over the lines a small sponge covered with powdered charcoal , which adheres to the prepared lines. In keeping with his reputation for realistic stage pictures Mr. Bland Holt has arranged to get a camel from West Australia and a team of working bullocks from GippsJand to assist in the production of the drama, "'A Span of Life " • • • Umberto Giordano's opera "Fedora" was produced in Sydney the other day for the first tune in Australia, and is a three-act musical setting of Sardou's enthralling drama. There are no less than twenty characters in the oast. The music is melodious and passionate, and contains quite a number of soli. Giordano's expression marks are said to be rather exaggerated, Pppppp frequentIv appearing * » » The Boston Concert Company, consisting of Bernard Wa.lth.er, Lilian Walther, and Cyrus Brownlee Newton, will short.lv open a New Zealand concert tour in Auckland. Bemhard Walther is a Belgian violin virtuoso, who has toured through Belgium, France, Great Britain, United States Canada, and British Columbia. Lilian Walther has a very attractive stage presence, and her voice is a cultivated mezzo soprano. Cyrus Brownlee Newton is a native of California. The company is highly spoken of bv the American papers. * * • the settlement in the Carrie MooreTyson breach of promise case gave the former a sum of £100, and she is to retain the diamonds, which cost the young man about £400. Also, he pays Miss Moore's £250 law costs, so t/hat this frivol cost his mother £800. In the evening after settling young Tyson was at "Florodora," throwing bouquets at Miss PaJotta. « • • 'San Toy," produced for the first time in Australia, is one of the holiday attractions in Melbourne. It is signalesed by the re-appearance of that wellknown colonial favourite, Florence Youn" (Madame Rivington), who takes the part of Poppy. Since Florence Youn^ went Home in 1897, she has appeared in London comic opera, been on a professional tour through South Africa and studied for ten months under Madame Marchesi. She studied chiefly for oratorio, but made her Parisian debut at tihe- Opera Comique as Nedda in ''I Pagliacci." At this stage in her history, Mr. Williamson arrived, and offered her an Australian engagement. Anxiou9 to see her parents again — her father is a jeweller in Melbourne — she abandoned oratorio for the time and is once more among her own people. {Continued on page 18.)

Miss Fitzmaunce Gill, la&t through this country with Bland Holt, is organising a dramatic company to tour Australasia It lmu interest the playgoer to knou that the etiquette of 'billing" artists is to place the star at the top, No. 2 at the bottom, and No. 3 in the centre of the poster The Brough Comedy Company , which storte<l ltfe New Zealand tour at Auckland on Boxmg Night, is making its " positively last appearance '" in the colony, as it finally retires from the Australasian stage at the end of tliP present tour Arnold Denham has secured judgment for £21 agamst John Fuller and Sons, of the F.mpire Theatre Sydney for infringement of acting rights in playing "The Kelly Gang." The case occupied the Court for two da"^ and a large number of witnesses were examined on the different Kelly Gang plays • • • L J. Lohi prince of theatrical agentfe, has settled down at last. Hp "has bought a hotel at Anderson s Inlet about seventy miles from Melbourne and will manage to spend life comfortably fishine, shooting, and looking afti_" his public in the same ge/nial and inimitable Tray as of yore. At last a city organist for S3 J ney has been appointed to sti oeed M. August Wiegand, who le<^ in July, 1900. There were nineteen applicants, and Mr. Arthur Mason fnsome years in the civil sei vice of Queensland, is the successful competitor The engagement is made for one year at a saJarv of £300. Mms. Jennie Lynch is the professional name of Mrs. Collins, wife of Dr Collins, who has just received the appointment of house surgeon at the Auckland Hospital. Madame Lynch appeared as a soloist at the Friedenthal and Ne«bury concerts some years ago. There are now quite a number of retired "stars" of the lyric stage living in Auckland viz.. Miss Juliet Wray (wife of Dr. Sharman I }, Miss Marion Mitchell (Mrs. Ernest Davis), Miss Oi&sy Stanford (Mr?. Chas Phillips. • * * "A Message from Mars/ which the Hawtrey Company has been playing m Dunedin, is described ias a dramatisation of Dickens's "'Christmas Carols" , in short, made for everyday use. Dickens's Scrooge is transformed into young Horace Packer, a conceited grasping, selfcentred young Londoner, who refuses to take his pretty fiancee to a dance because he doesn't want to go in the snow again. After the girl has departed chaperoned by her aunt, in the highest dudgeon, young Packer falls asleep in his easy chair, and is visited by a messenger from Mars, who puts him through such a set of paces that by the time the pretty girl comes home again he is a completely transformed character It would be spoiling a good night's fun to enter into further particulars. *•■■>■ London's latest farcical success, The Wrong Mr. Wright," with which Messrs. Geo. Wilioughby and Edw^.i Geach will open their tour at the Sydney Criterion, on March the Ist, is at present all the go at Home and in the States. The Arnold Company will letain its present personnel, and that in itself gives assurance that all the pieces will have the same thorough and clever rendering then as now. Broadhurst, the author, who is now writing the mo<-t popular comedies of the day, has arranged* with Messrs. Willotighby and Geach for the Australian production of hi 3 pieces, so there will yet be many seasons of hearty laughter in the wholesome comedy which comes from the pen of the Anglo-Amerioan dramatist. A New Zealand tour is anticipated early next winter. Mr. Fred Duval has just furnished 'Pasquin," of the "Witness," with a handbill giving the full personnel of Pollard's Liliputian Opera Company as organised in 1881. Here it is- — Miss Maud PoUard, Miss May Pollard, Miss Flo De Lorme, Miss Lena Salinger, Miss Bella Stewart, Miss Amy Brookes Miss Marion Nauman, Miss Milly Abrahams Miss Lucy Cobb, Miss Olive Pollard, Miss Ruth Wallace, Miss Blanche Ewine;, Miss Violet Varley, Miss Fmilv Wade. Miss Rachel Marks, Miss Ruby Tri^ce. Miss Minnie Reeoe, Miss Luiza Donnelly, Miss Mina Foster, Miss Eva McClements, Master H. Salinger, Master F. Ferguson. Master C. Sorrell, Master T. Stevens, Master E. Pollard, Master W. Pollard, Master T. Wallen, Master C Rodeers, Master J. Magley Master H. Cawston, Master W. Martin Master H. Stewart, Master F Smart Business manager, Mr. C. A Pollard - advance representative Mr. Fred Duval ■ sta^e manager Mr. T. Pollard musical director, Mr. J. T. Pollard, iun. leader of orchestra, Mr. C Pollard staere mechanist. Mr. T. Quealpy