DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9160, 15 September 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

Mr. Smythe (may his shadow never grow less !) arrived by the Zealandia on Sunday, in order to make the necessary arrangements for the New Zealand tour of Miss Van Finklestein, " the distinguished native of Jerusalem," who is about to pay us a visit. Mr. Smythe speaks in the most enthusiastic terms of the lady's abilities as a successful lecturess, and declares that never, absolutely never, in the whole course of his extensive experience as a manager of " stars" has he ever controlled the movements of so brilliant a luminary as Miss Finklestein. Public curiosity in Auckland is running high regarding this celebrated lady, who talks as°many languages as Mezzofanti, and who has been drawing thousands to her lectures in England and\\ustralia. She will make her debut in Auckland next month. AJr. Smythe left for Wellington on Thursday, where Miss Finklestein makes her first appearance in the colony. Professor Canaris will. I hear, appear at the Opera House about the 19th inst., with his startling illusion known as Lα Cocoon." Tho Sydney Daily Telegraph in referring to his performance says :— Unlike most, illusions of the same character, " La Cocoon" offers very little room oven for speculation as to the methods whereby the result is obtained, and this mystery naturally enhances its value as a_ performance. The trick is extremely interesting in its development, and that part ol its manipulation intended for the view of the audience possesses tho merit of simplicity. The professor opens the proceedings "by sketching on a sheet of paper, stretched on a frame, within full view ot the audience, a grub or silkworm. Hβ then thrusts his fist through the paper and a cocoon instantly appears. This presently develops by an apparently inexplicable process into a living butterfly or Psyche, in the form of Mdlle. Theo. There are none of the usual implements of necromancy cumbering the stage, and "La Cocoon" remains, as we have already stated, a mystery. The remainder of the performance consisted of a number of clever sleight-of-hand tricks, which were well received." In about the middle of October Professor Carl Schmitt intends to perform for the first time his new cantata, "Art and Mien, (words by Mr. Outhwaite.) The cantata was originally composed for the opening of the Public Library. A picked chorus of about 70 voices and an excellent orchestra of 30 instrumentalists have promised their assistance for the occasion, and from the interest evinced already by the musical portion of the public, there is every probability that the cantata will be a remarkable success. So far as I know, the cantata is the first work of such pretension, vocal snd instrumental, which has been composed here in Auckland. The cantata being too short to rill the whole evening, an excellent miscellaneous selection, vocal and orchestral, has been made, including Beethoven's " Fidelis," overture, and Professor Schmitt's new " Overture Dramatique," dedicated by special permission to H.M. Kin"- Humbert of Italy. Professor Schmitt has "dedicated the cantata to Mr. F. D. Fenton. Mr. Abbott, of the Opera House, was a passenger by the Wairarapa, which left for the South on Thursday. He proceeds to Dunedin in order to meet Clark"s btar Coinbi nation Variety Company, who are to make a tour of the colony under his management. A portrait, of the " much travelled,"' Mr. R. S. Smythe. appeared in a recent issue of the Bulletin under the heading of " Things we see when we come out without pur gun." Mr. George Darrell has been specially engaged by Messrs. Williamson, Garner, and M.u?grove to create the part of Barnes, in the drama of "Mr. Barnes of New York." The play was presented for the first time in Melbourne at the Theatre ■Royal on Saturday, September 1. Locke Richardson has recently been in India, and, under the enthusiastic patronage of Lord Dufferin, has done well. Rignold and Allison'* next production is to be " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Miss Annie Schraeder (Mrs. S. Moore), a very promising young lyric actress, whose latest engagement was with the recent Amy Sherwin Opera Company, died the other day after a short illness. Mi?s Schraeder had many recommendations for the operatic stage, and her future was looked forward to with much interest. Personally she was greatly liked, and her untimely death has caused universal regret in the profession to which she belonged. Mr. Grattan Riggs is enjoying an agreeable experience at the ISew Theatre, Broken Hill. In Brisbane, at the Opera House, Mr. Bland Holt is still maintaining the success •with which he began ; at the Royal are the Jungfrau Kapeile Company. A dramatised version of Mr. Fergus Hume's novel of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" was produced at the Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne, last week. The Australasian says :—" As a story, Mr. Hume's work is readable, inasmuch as the mystery is well kept up, and anyone reading it for the tirst time cannot well help being interested in the narrative and curious enough to know the solution. But, as a play it is a failure, Whether by superior dramatisation the play might be made equal to the story is a point to be determined hereafter. In any case, the play is dull, commonplace, uninteresting, vapid, ■wearisome. It is the very old business of somebody being suspected of a murder ■which somebody else has committed. The Triumvirate have under consideration the question of building a theatre in Svdney, similar to the Princess in Melbourne, which is considered to be a model theatre. Mr. Williamson emphatically denies the rumour that the Triumvirate were going to dissolve partnership. Their leases in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide extend overmany years to come, and the firm is now in a stronger position than ever. The rumours originated in the fact of a syndicate being in 'negotiation with them to buy them out, and make a limited company of the affair in Melbourne and Sydney. The firm, however, wanted a stiff figure for their interests and negotiations fell through. Mr. Williamson expresses himself as rather sorry that this was the case, as he wants a rest from management, and he would also like to act again. "If," he said, "I was out of this I would pay a visit to America, playing in the leading cities. Then I would ■ return and make my home in Australia, playing about three months of the year and enjoying myself the other nine. I would produce new pieces, and my old pet, "Struck Oil," in Melbourne and Sydney. I guess I could make a living at it and a bit over, and am certain I should enjoy life better."

The London Gaiety Company are doing , a roarinff business in Sydney. The public and the press vie in their expressions of admiration, and the management look on seemingly quite satisfied with the results of their enterprise.

Messrs. Hiscocks and Freedman's Specialty Company have taken a farewell for a time of their Sydney patrons, having obtained a lease of the Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne. Mrs Mackay, wife of the Bonanza Silver King, is reported to have paid M. Colquelin -pin and Mdlle. Reichemburg 400 guineas for their travelling expenses and appearance in a comedietta at her house In Buckingham Palace Road recently. The Gallery Club on the same evening paid Mdlle. Emma Nevada over 100 guineas for coming over and singing three songs; while "the American "star," Nikita, sang for a fabulous sum at a private house. Figaro confirms a statement that Madame Sarah Bernhardt contemplates playing Romeo to Mrs. Brown - Potter's Juliet. The performance will be in French. Mrs. Potter was partly educated in Paris, and is tt. capital linguist. Mr. Augustus Harris has present :d the whole of his collection of playbills, pamphlets, and printed matter relating to Drury Lane Theatre to the British Museum

The London Times had a pompous and highly flattering farewell to Colonel Cody (" Buffalo Bill"). It not only complimented him upon his success as a manager, a iian, and a society lion, but went on to .my : " Colonel Cody has done a great dea.' to bring America and England nearer together; the nearer they are brought together the less likely they are to quarrel. Disputes and differences there must occasionally be, but if both parties to a dispute aj e quite determined not to quarrel over it, it can never become serious. A seriojs quarrel between England and the United States would be almost worse than b evil war." Certainly Buffalo Bill is thfc most beliudcd showman of modem times.

There are four music halls in Sydney, all doing, it is said, splendid and payable work* In the matter of entertainments, the Sydneyites seem determined that the people of Melbourne shall not hevi a monopoly of the good name given them by entrepreneurs from America. There is great talk of a theatre in London a Iα Irving, without galleries or internal Stairs andVith every modern improvement- and it is said that, when Exeter plucks up courage to rebiuld her terribly often fire-levelled theatre, she will do so on Irving lines, under the guidance of a bhetfield architect. . Probably (says an American paper) the most stupendous and entertaining spectacle ever eiven in modern times is now m nrocrrese at St. George, Staten Island, und'er the direction of that master of the ballet, Imre Kiralfy. It is called "The Fall of Fome," though there is little in the performance to give an idea of how that ancient capital was devastated by war and fire. There is no falling of domes, burning of temples, tumbling of pedestals, or even a trace of war. A rubesoent shimmering of lights at either end of the immense staere, behind the scenery, near the close of the performance, is the means employed to represent the destruction of the city, and when the show is over and the characters have disappeared, Rome stands intact in all its majesty. But then the audience doesn't care whether Rome falls or not. It is there to see the gorgeous pageants, the '2000 people in glittering armour, the leviathan ballet, the- chariot, racing, the Roman wrestling, and the thousand and one concomitant stage attractions. Imagine a stage a third of a mile in width,' another stage lower by several feet, and nearly three acres in area, with a circle on the ground outside of it for chariot racing, and in the centre of all an excavation for the immense orchestra, almost hidden from view, and one has but a faint idea of the magnitude of the undertaking. The American playwright Mr. Gunter is making more out of his two first, novels than he has probably made out of all his plays put together. " I have sold already," he said to an interviewer recently, "no less than 150.000 copies of ' Mr Barnes of New York,' and 120.000 odd of ' Mr. Potter of Texas.' That is in this country alone. As for England, the sale of the last-named book is the biggest thing of the kind they ever had there. The entire edition was sold in one day. The first edition of 'Mr Potter,' by "the way, was the largest first edition of a novel ever sold in the world. It was exactly, in cloth and paper, 61.262 books, and they were all ordered before they were ready for delivery. I had orders for 100,000 co'pies of 'Mr. Potter 1 for the first week, but I couldn't get them out. , Mr. "Tony" Hart, a well-known American actor and entrepreneur, is the latent victim of the disease known as presis, which seems to be so prevalent among theatrical men. He has been consigned to an asylum, and his case is pronounced as hopeless as was that of Fred Marshall, or Bartley Campbell, or John McCullough, or any other dramatic celebrities who have collapsed in the same way. In the case of Hart, it was two years ago that the first symptoms of his dementia appeared. He was engaged to play at the Standard in a weird piece call the"'' Maid and the Moonshiner. "On the first night he was all at sea in his lines, and got through his part so badly that general astonishment prevailed among those who knew how perfectly reliable and self-possessed he had always been on similar occasions. The trouble was attributed to nervousness, but with repetition of the performance his j memory continued to break down.

Musico-Dramaticcs.

* * All communications ilitended for this column should be addressed " Musico-Pramaticus," Herald Office, Auckland, and should be forwarded as early as possible.