DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL. LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 4 (Supplement)

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

LITERATURE AND ART.

tt!irEjus is little to chronicle in the dramatic world so far as New Zealand is concerned. The companies which I mentioned last ■week are still pursuing t>bo even tenor of their way in the South. The only fresh Item of news there is to note is the arrival in Wellington of Frank Lincoln, the clever American humourist, who is accompanied by that princo of managers, Mr. J. J. Lohr. At the opening performance on the 15th there was a great throng, hundreds having to bo turned away, and the local press speak enthusiastically of tho entertainment. In the course of a month the Auckland public will have an opportunity of witnessing it for themselves.

Mr. George Buller, advance agent for Maccabe, the veteran entertainer, has arrived in Invercargill, and made arrangements for opening a season on the 31st insfc. Liddy writes from Brisbane: —"I have accepted the management of the Brisbane Opera House for a term, and, so far, I have just completed my six months. During that time I have kept the theatre continually open, and have every prospect of doiug so till the end of next January It is a "large place, and has seating accommodation for two thousand people. Santley, the great singer, had this day week £314 ISs in the house, and the week told over £1300." In a little piece which is being played in Loudon, called "The Little Stowaway," there is a built-up scene representing the deck, of the New Zealand Shipping Company's mail steamer Kaikoura, where its crew is introduced to the audience at cutlass drill, and afterwards in an engagement with slave dhows, presented with excellent realistic effect. By a letter received from Mr. A. L. Cunard, I learn that tho second New Zealand tour of Mr. Frank Thornton with "Tho Private Secretary" will commence at Dunedln on Boxing night for three weeks, following on at Christchureh for a three weeks' season, thence to Wellington and Auckland. The following is the programme of the music to be performed during the continuance of the New Zealand Exhibition at DnnedinNovember -6th, opening ceremony, full chorus and orchestra, Cowen's "Song of Thanksgiving," and selections; November -7th, repetition of music performed at opening ceremony ; December 4th, "Creation" (Haydn) ; December 18th, "Comala" (Gade) and "Song of thanksgiving" (Cowen): December 25th, Christmas, " Messiah" (Handel); December '26th, English glees and selections ; January Ist, Scotch glees and selections; January 2nd, (Gade) and selection?; January loth, "Elijah" (Mendelssohn); January 29 th, "Joan of Arc" (Gaul); February 12th, "Creation" (Haydn); February 26th, "Lord of the Isles" (Gadsby); March 12th, "Elijah" (Mendelssohn); March 28th, "Lord of the Isles" (Gadsby) ; April 4th (Good Friday), "Messiah" (Handel); April 9th, miscellaneous selections. A chamber concert will be given e.very Saturday afternoon, and a popular concert every Saturday evening. This is the latest of Van Bulow's sayings in America: —"I detest the Ca-sar-Mark Anthony crowning business. In Wiesbaden, after a performance, 1 was offered a crown of flowers, but I declined such salad glory, saying that I was no vegetarian. I am fond of beefsteak, and would have accepted an honorarium of that kind much quicker than flowers."

The London Echo says:—"lf Mr. Sar.tley's singing voice were to fail him, he might earn his own living by his elocutionary abilities, or by the use of the brush and mahl-sfcick, for he can paint well in either water or oil. Then he can translate a play admirably, and as to wielding the baton, he is an ideal conductor, with just enough of the fortiter in re to give his leadership decisiveness." Upon which a contemporary remarks —" We feel sure that Mr. Santley does not wish to pose as that doubtful! person, an Admirable Crichton. Enough for him that he is a great singer."

The Press Register of Newark, N.J., has made a contribution to the curiosities of criticism by speaking of Dudley Buck's "Light of Asia" thus : — It is soft, mellifluous, and dreamy. It swells and pulses in great surges of harmony so indescribably soft and delicate, and then crashes into magnificent crescendoes, through all of which the minor chords are exquisitely blended." Evidently the young gentleman who looks after the fires and coroners' inquests was "on hand" when this was written.

Sir. Robert Machardy, of Edinburgh, has composed some verses in honour of Mr. Sims Reoves, who will no doubt fully appreciate the compliment. Here is one of thew ■

Every Briton loves thy name. Is proud to speak of thy great fame. Paradise would welcome thee If thy great voice on high could be. Rapture comes in every note I'rom thy wondrous, heaven-born throat, Poor Sims Reeves !

In consequence of the great success achieved in England and throughout the Continent by Senor Sarasate, in the performance of Dr. Mackenzie's fine concerto for violin, the gifted Spanish artist has induced the composer to write another important work, which will be played for the first time at the Leeds Festival.

That the late Madame lima di Murska died in poverty and distress is now denied by Mr. Joseph Eder, of Vienna, husband of the great singer. He writes that during the summer of last year their daughter sought for her mother's address by letters, and, even with the assistance of the German Consulate, shecould not ascertain her New York address until Di Murska had landed in Europe. Mr. Eder proceeds : —" To pacify admirers of the eminent and talented Di Murska, I can inform them that she was placed by her daughter in one of the best boarding-houses in the beautiful Maximilian - street in Munich, and as the inhabitants of the boardinghouse will readily bear witness, she was cared for and tended like a princess, for the space of eight weeks, down to the end of her life, for which purpose my daughter had sufficient resources in hand."

America has taken to producing comic operas, and this is how the American Musician deals with an example called "Ardielle" :—"The book is tiresome, and there is not one scene in the entire opera which is interesting in the least; it has no amusing situations, though there are at least two comic personages who might have been used to advantage to enliven the monotony of the dialogue, and give variety and colour to the music. As it is, the librettist seems to have laboured under the impression that to render his work acceptable as a comic opera nothing more was needed than a lot of ridiculous horse play of the rough-and-tumble order. The music has no particular character of its own. In the course of a novel called " Ardath," the writer, making a fulsome eulogy of Sarasato, goes to sea in an extraordinary fashion. She says : —" You might as well shake a dry clothes prop and expect it to blossom into fruit and flower as argue with a musical critic, and expect him to be enthusiastic. The worst of it is, these men are not really musical; they perhaps know a little of the grammar and technique of the thing, but they cannot understand its full eloquence. In the presence of a genius like Pablo de Sarasate they are more or lees perplexed; it is as though you asked them to describe in set cold terms the counterpoint and thorough bass of the wind's symphony to the trees, the great ocean's sonata to the shore, or the delicate madrigals sung almost inaudibly by little bell-blossoms to the tinkling fall of April rain. [What does this mean ?] The man is too great for them ; he is a blazing star that dazzles and confounds their sight; and, after the manner of their craft, they abuse what they can't understand. Music is distinctly the language of tho emotions, and they have no emotion. They therefore generally prefer Joachim the good, stolid Joachim who so delights all the dreary old spinsters and dowagers who nod over their knittinc jjeedles at the Monday Popular Concerts, and fancy themselves lovers of the ' classical 'in music. This tirade becomes the more interesting when we recall the fact that its writer once tried her hand at ,musical criticism in a monthly journal, the .Theatre.

The favourite instrument of tho late M. Alard, a splendid Guarneriua violin of considerable value, has been presented to the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire by the Jfamily of the deceased violinist. , Musico-Dramaticos

• All communications intended for this column should be addressed " Musico-Drainaticus," Herald Office, Auckland, and should be forwarded as early .as possible. „

Messiomieks latest work is a panel about sis large as a playing-card, entitled "Tho Writer."

The next volume in the " Camelot " series will bo ' .British Political Orations," with an introduction by Mr. YV. Clarke. An exhaustive " Life of Adam Smith" is at length in preparation, and may bo expected shortly from the pen of Mr. John Eae. Mr. David Han nay has undertaken to write a "Life of Rodney" for Messrs. Macmillan and Co.'s series of "English Men of Action."

Mark Twain is, says the Freeman's Journal, writing a new " romance " which bears tho mirth-provoking title of " A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur." An unfinished libretto, "The Saracen Women," by Wagner, has just been discovered, the widow of Horr Greith, of Munich Cathedral, having now presented it to Fran Cosima Wagner. A book on " Pigsticking," elaborately illustrated,will be a book of the latter part of the season. It is to be issued by Messrs. Harrison in a few days, and is by Captain R. S. S. -Powell (13th Hussars). Two more purchases have been made by the Council of the Academy under the terms of the Chantrey bequest: " The Prodigal Son," by John M. Swan, for £700, and "All Hands to the Pumps," by 11. S. Ttiko, for £420.

Among the last of the Jubilee gift? to reach Queen Victoria is a large painting, representing the German im[>erial family as it was two years ago, by Anon von Werner. The group represents a score of figures, and was painted to the order of Germans residing in England. " The Legend of St. Patrick " is the 175 th volume of Casscll's National Library. By those who may not have read this standard and high-class work, its production in this cheap form ought to bo hailed with delight The preface in itself, which furnishes a complete sketch of early Irish civilisation, is worth all the money." Dr. Hochegger, an official of tha University Library of Innsbruck, is said to have discovered a copy of the origiual edition of Donatus. Great importance is attached by German scholars to this find, which will probably be made use of in tho controversy between Germany and Holland regarding the priority of the invention" of the art of printing. In the Egyptian Hall an exhibition has been opened of pictures of colonial subjects, views in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the South Sea islands, with incidents of life in those regions. The greater number of the works are by Mr. E. Roper; other contributors are the Messrs. A. H. and A. J. Wall, J. H. Allchin, and F. S. Richardson.

The Rev. T. E. ridge is putting finishing touches to "The True Story of the Catholic Hierarchy deposed by Queen Elisabeth," a work of research in which lie had at first the assistance of the lace Rev. T. F. Knox, of the London Orator}'. Messrs. Burns and Oates will bo the publishers. Besides using papers in the Record Otlice, Privy Council registers, and MSS. in the British Museum, tho authors have had access to a number of unpublished letters in the possession of the Marquis of Salisbury. In connection with the issue on an early day of Sir Edwin Arnold's new volume of poems, the estimate of so capable a critic as Oliver Wendel Holmes formed of Mr. Arnold's poem, " The Light of Asia," on its first appearance, exactly ten years ago, is worth recalling. Tho tone of tho poem, wrote the American poet, " Is so lofty that there is nothing with which to compare it but tins New Testament; it is full of variety —now picturesque, now pathetic, now rising into the noblest realms of thought and aspiration." Messrs. Blackwood are publishing a novel in three volumes by the author of the tale, "Aut Diabolus, aut Nihil," which, on its appearance in Blackwood's Magazine last year, caused considerable commotion in Paris. In the new story, "Little Hand and Muckle Gold," part of its plot is laid in Parisian society of the Second Empire, and many of its characters will be readily recognisable, while the scene is latterly shifted to England. The denouement is a terrible tragedy. The author believes he has struck out for himself a bolder course of treatment than contemporary English novelists usually affect. Versions of the novel in French and English are in course of being dramatised, and Madame Bernhardt proposes to sustain the chief part in the former.