MUSICAL AND DRAMATC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9401, 6 January 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATC.

Ths prospects of the Brough and Boucicaulh Company, I hear, are excellent the advance booking in Dunedin being big and betokening a very successful season. A change has been made of the opening ; date in Auckland to 23rd February. The Dunedin papers speak mosii highly of the perform-

Duringthefirst forty years of its existence the Leipsic Conservatory was frequented by many foreign students, including 458 from America, ; 439 from England, 197 from Switzerland Norway, and 106 from , Gounod is said to have left a complete but hitherto unpublished opera, entitled Maitre Pierre," based on the story of Eeloise and Abelard. Ib is said to be impregnated with the mystioism of the illustrious composer, and full of lofty inspiration. The poem is by M. Louis Gallefc. Some idea of the chaotic state of the * theatrical world at present (says an American paper) may be derived from the census of the unemployed actors taken recently by a theatrical journal. , At the present moment in New York alone there are over three i thousand actors out of work. A cable message announces the death of the wrH-known dramatist, Mr. Henry i Pettitt, who has worked in collaboration with Sir Augustus Harris, Messrs. Paul Merritt, George R. Sims, and Sydney Grundy. Amongst the plays that have proved specially successful are 44 Hands Across the Sea," "A Million of Money," In the Ranks," "Harbour Lights,"and "The World." Actors and singers appear to be doing well at the hands of the Queen of late. Quite recently Her Majesty entertained at dinner Mrs. Bancroft and the principal members of her dramatic company. Now word comes that after a splendid performance of 44 Fra Diavolo" at Balmoral, Princess Beatrice, on behalf of Her Majesty, presented Mdlle. do Lussan with a handsome bracelet in diamonds, and Mr. Barton M'Guckin with a handsome scarf pin, consisting of Her Majesty's monogram, surmounted by the Imperial Crown in diamonds and rubies. Both artists were received by the Queen in the drawing-room, and personally that: Lad. "'E dunno where 'e are," Mr. Rickard's new song, is declared to be equal to the very best of the coster series. Chevalier (according to a recent London visitor) is an artist restricted by physical limitations. 41 There's all the art there, but his singing voice is no more than a man uses in speaking." The visitor evidently expected to hear a bull bellow ; as evidently he was disappointed. Chevalier is an artist every inch. Nob an inflection is lost in the largest halls in London. • try Miss Violet Varley is Red Riding Hood in the pantomime at the Melbourne Princess'. Miss Jennie Lee succeeds Miss Conyers a& Boy Blue, and Mr. Bobby Watson (who has just imported a hideous Maori god, which is held as an heirloom in the Courtneidge family) will repeat the success he made (so says the Sydney Herald) as Simple Simon. Mr. Courtneidge is the school dame, and Mr. J. R. Greville plays the bold bad Baron. Mr. Fred Terry, with his wife (Miss Julia Neilson), will probably visit Australia shortly. They are at present members of Beerbohm Tree's Company at the Loudon Haymarket. "An actor now in Australia tells a story of his experience with Mr. Wilson Barrett, to whom he had been sent by an agent with a view to engagement. 4 What can you do said Barrett to the ambitious youth. 'Well, what do you want me to do, sir V was the obvious rejoinder. ' Can you play Hamlet?' 'No.' 'Can you play Othello ?' ' No, certainly not.' ' What can you do?' 'Well, I can carry a chair on,' ' Come, now,' said Barrett, ' that's a good performance if it's done gracefully. Let's talk it over.' And he engaged him for a light comedy part." So says the Sydney Morning Herald. Has the actor in question ever met Wilson Barrett? Senor Felipe Pedsell, the author of two operas, "The Last Abencerage" and Quasimodo," and a poem, 41 Los Cantos de la Montagna," has completed a new musicdrama, which is likely to become epochmaking in the history of Spanish music, because it is an attempt to create a truly national Spanish ait work. Ib is called 41 Los Pirineoa," and deals with the legends and history of the Pyrenees. The author of the libretto is Dr. Victor Bataguer, a poet of considerable note In his own country, and, like the composer, an enthusiast: in the cause of a Spanish national art. In a pamphlet, _ Par inustra musicct, which Senor Pedsell published last year, he declared himself a staunch champion of Richard Wagner, whose " Ring of the Nibelung" has no doubt served him as a model for his triology, for such, it seems, 41 The Pyrenees" will be. By making liberal use of previous Moorish and Spanish melodies, of which he has made a special study, he hopes to impart to his music the necessary national colour. Whether these melodies can be successfully pressed into the service of a composer who will, in other respects, follow Wagner's methods as perfected in the third style, remains to be proved. So does the important question whether the Spaniards will take kindly to their new 41 National music-drama." A young Portuguese composer, Alfredo Keil, who is "chiefest among ten thousand" of his confreres in that he is a millionaire as well as a writer of operas, returned recently to his native country ladened with twentyeight laurel wreaths, fifty-one bouquets, and a number of other floral trophies. They were tokens of the admiration felt by the good folk of Turin for his genius when he dwelt amongst them to produce his opera, "Irene." The happy composer was naturally anxious to show these precious visible proofs of his Turin triumph to his Lisbon friands, and was received by them ab the railway station with all the pomp and enthusiasm usual under such circumstances, especially when the composer is a millionaire. Next day Mr. Keil appeared at the Customhouse to take his laurels home. Imagine his disgust when' the officials demanded duty * according to the new Portuguese tariff—viz.: eiekty francs in gold for each kilogramme of the "trophies," or about 2000 francs in all. The irate composermillionaire protested, bub in vain. Public .md press took his part, but the officers of he Customs refused to budge. Thus ib •tame even to pass that Mr. Keil's wreaths, jouquets, etc., had to be publicly sold to the highest bidder, and now the Portuguese exchequer is the richer by 3000 rels —say, 13s sterling. Sic tranoit etc. The Musical Courier's German correspondent writes that Richard Wagner's son " has inherited so little of his father's gifts that Anton Seidl, who at one time tried to give Seigfried some rudimentary pianoforte lessons, had to give up the task in despair, and by the advice of Wagner himself, who disgustedly told Seidl that there was no music in his son's soul. Such at least is the story I have from Seidl's own lips." The young gentleman himself tells a different tale, and', has entered upon the career of a chef d'wchesilre, hoping, in course of time, to be able to conduct all his fabher'e

works. The Times correspondent reports that M. Ibsen is in Paris, but that the fact is not generally known, for he has a horror of interviewers, and moreover he does not speak French. He was present on Friday night—but this was the secret of a very few jgersons—at a performance of bis " Enemy, of the People" given at the Bouffes du Nora," a small theatre on the outer Boulevard which bad been hired for the purpose by a company of young actors who have set themselves the task of infusing new blood from abroad into the French drama. Though the hero of it, as is well known, does not believe in democracy and universal suffrage, the piece was received with the wildest enthusiasm by the younger votaries •of dramatic regeneration who filled the upper parts of the theatre, and even with ' appreciation by the newspaper critics, as their comments testify. An introductory lecture was given by M. Laurent Tailhade, a poet of the "symbolical" school, who somewhat lost sight of his subject in digressing about the Russian fetes, which he describes as ejournees epileptiquea, and about the absurdity of universal suffrage. He succeeded, however, in rousing an audience bent on entertainment of a very different character into a state of frantic excitement. M. Ibsen was puzzled and amused to hear M. Tailhado describe him as "an apostle of beneficent anarchy," also to hear some cries of "Vive l'Anarchie !" He thinks that the French must put on his plays a construction different from his own, but j he hopes that they will come round to his ''.- ""own view. 'Meanwhile, he feels flattered by his popularity. Mgsioo-Dbahaxicus. ; ' ■■ ■ ■' -