MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8162, 25 January 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

The season of Warner's Dramatic Company in Auckland closed on Monday evening, when Mr. Warner took occasion, in a good speech, bo thank the public for their ready support, and the gentlemen of the Press for the kindness they had shown. He stated that he bad netted thousands by his New Zealand visit. It is said that the profits of the tour amount to £3000. If this is the case, it is certainly a successful record. Much of the credit of this result is due to the manager, Mr. Hughes. The company left Auckland for Sydnoy by the steamer Te Anau on Tuesday. The pamphlet to which I referred in these columns a few weeks ago has just been issued by "Trovatore." The title of tho book, "Notes from My Singing Lessons," well represents the scope of the brochure, it being a reproduction of much of the matter presented by an operatic artiste (a pupil of tho great Lamperti) in giving lessons, written in such a manner as to be of use even to a tyro. Musicians are unanimous in their praise of these lectures, and the book is already being circulated in the South Island. It is dedicated to Lady Onslow, and is, I boliovo, the first occasion on which a ISew Zealander has published tho result of her phonacestic training received away from home. The play selected for Mrs. Brown-Potter's Australian dibtU is "Camille," and her repertory also includes the English version of "LaTosca," a powerful tragic play by Victorien Sardou. Mrs. Brown-Potter is young, refined, and ladylike in the extreme ; she has beauty of feature and expression, and her musical voice is not marred by those extravagances of intonation which are so frequently found in American players. These qualities are valuable, but they are entranced by a fine intelligence and the ability to pourtray passion in all its varying shades. Such, at least, was tho impression which she gave three and a-half years ago, when she appeared in London at the Haymarkot and Gaiety Theatres. She has been playing in America almost continuously since her first visit, professionally, to England. Unfortunately for her art, she started at the top of the dramatic tree, and the want of experience told sadly against her at the commencement of her career. This lack of knowledge of the details of stage-business may, however, have been overcome to a certain extent by practice. In Paris, Madame Melba is said to have been carrying everything before her, and the success of her impersonation of Juliette is described as unprecedented. She has recently appeared with equal success as tho heroine in Donnizetti's "Lucia di Lamtnermoor." The Indian press speak in high terms of the performances of the Majeronis, who are travelling in the direction of the Cape. While Fanny Davenport was playing an engagement in Pittsburg recently a young man who was a clerk at the Union Depot Hotel, after a rather lively priming with the boys, went to the t »pera House. He was a good-looking fellow with a black moustache, and the figure he cut that night was given colour by his now light overcoat and high silk hat. By the time he reached the theatre it was pretty full ;so was he. But he bought a ticket for a parquet seat right down in front, and with tolerably steady steps he made his way to it. It was in the middle of a scene. As ho reached the seat and was divesting himself of his loud overcoat, Fanny Davenport came down the stage to the footlights and said to the villain of the play, who was courting her, but with her eyes to tho audience, "1 can never love thee 1" She said it with great emphasis, and the handsome hotel clerk rose from his seat, took up his hat and overcoat, and saying in a loud voice, " Well, that settles it !" retraced his steps up the aisle, while the audience burst into a roar of laughter and applause. The Christchurch Amateur Opera Society intend to produce " Les Cloches de Corneville." -

Miss Alice Rees (Mine. Max Vogrich)did so well as Miss Camille D'Arville's understudy in " Paul Jones" that since that artist's translation to the London Theatre the Australian singer has succeoded to the place of prima donna, and is now touring the provinces as Yvonne with much success. As usual, there was a keen com|>etition among concert agents to secure the services of Madame I'atti for some appearances previous to her next departure for America, and Mr. Kuhe was eventually the conqueror, though he had to write a little cheque in favour of Mr. Ambrose Austin,who put in a prior claim. Mr. Kuhe pays the diva the neat little sum of £750 a night for three concerts at the Albert Hall, and she has been abused in many quarters for asking terms which seem prohibitive. It will be generally agreed that an article is worth what it will fetch, and concert-givers would not try all sorts of stratagems to secure Patti if there was any probability of a loss. The additional cost of first-rate artists to support her orchestra, hire of hall, advertisements, kc, brings up the total expense to about £1200, and the Albert Hall, when full, holds about £-2000. Result : a profit of at least £000 a concert to the fortunate speculator. There is not therefore, a safer investment on the globe than the engagement of Patti for concerts, providing, of course, that your hall is big enough to hold the money. The revival by Henry Irving of " The Dead Heart" has revived a bit of slang, which is now being heard all over London. When the play was brought out originally, where one of the characters says, " My heart is dead, dead, dead !" a voice from the gallery nearly broke up tho drama with " How are your poor feet 1" The phrase lived, died, and lives again in Piccadilly. In regard to the performance of the pantomime "Cinderella" at the Theatro Royal, Melbourne, tho Leader has the following : — " We should like to see the infants eliminated from the ballroom scene. Their place is not on tho stage before the glare of tho footlights, but in their little beds dreaming of rather than acting the story of the pretty Cinderella, who from a kitchenmaid was by a kind fairy made to adorn the purple. It is positively saddening to behold the poor wee creatures straining their voices and jumping like plucked chickens on a hot griddle under the delusion that they are dancing. The occasional employment of children on the stage is, perhaps, essential to the fall development of the drama, but the wholesale use of youngsters for no particular purpose except to draw juveniles of their own age is not to bo tolerated." In the new opera " The Gondoliers," Gilbert satirises the modern commercial craze by taming a penniless duke, A'ith a powerful social influence to dispose of, into a limited liability company. The duke himself follows the usual course. He is in demand by American breweries, and joins a board of directors. After his allotment the duke is applied for over and over again and lioated at a premium. Gilbert also gives a dig at sentimental socialism by making all the people equal under his Gondolieri King. Musical people who have returned from Paris this season speak very highly of tho new American prima donna, Miss Eames, who took Madame Patti's place at the Grand Opera House, on Madame Patti's pretended indisposition, because the tenor received more applause than she did, and packed hor trunks and left for England. Miss Eames, who was Madame Patfci's under-study, was requested to take her superior's place, and her success has been so great that she will finish the engagement. The Parisian public have grown rapturous over her voice, and critics say that she is the coining vocalist of the world.

Another new-comer in colonial musical circles is Miss M. Pettifer, a violinist who is well spoken of, and an associate-pianist and silver medallist of Trinity College, London. Miss Pettifer has lately arrivedin Sydney, where she proposes to pursue her profession. A London paper has the following :—Miss Frances Saville, discovered by Mr. Santley in Australia, is said to be a wonderful vocalist. Her father is a well-known violinist, and her mother was at one time the chief colonial favourite in English opera. The young vocalist intends sooner or later to try her fortune before a I .ondon audience. Her voice is a pure soprano of great range and flexibility, and, if accounts be true, it will speedily give her a position on the operatic stage. A now child actress is about to be introduced to the English stage. She is known theatrically as Miss Gracie Leigh. Actually, she is the daughter of Edwin Ellis, of the Royal Society of British Artists. Mosico-Dbamatious.