MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

*£hx Court Theatre at Gotha will shortly be dosed, because the Landtag repeatedly refused to grant the 21,000 marks subvention which the Duke of Coburg-Gotha has demanded as a condition upon the fulfilment of which the future existence of the theatre was to depend. The Duke's decision has naturally caused great disappointment to the inhabitants. At Berlin Dr. Hem rich Reimann has undertaken to collect and edit the literary ■works of the late Hans von Balow. They date mostly from the earlier part of the great pianist-conductor's career, and appear in various newspapers and reviews. They are expected to fill one volume, and cannot fail to prove interesting. Madame Gounod and her son, M. Jean Gounod, are engaged on a memoir of the composer of " Faust." The deceased master was in the habit of jotting down his impressions from day to day. These notes, •and a large number of letters which have ■been placed at the disposal of Madame .Gounod by her husband's friends, will enable her to compile an interesting volume.

4 Verdi is said to have recently forwarded tho manuscript of the finale to the third -act) of his " Otello" to the director of the Grand Opera, after having completely rewritten it, with a view to the forthcoming .production at the said institution. The veteran composer lias also promised to write a grand march, which is to accompany the entry of the Doge in the same act. A firm of organ-builders recently proposed that they should supply an organ for a new church. Here follows tho reply : — Dsar Sirs, Yours of July Bat hand. I would first say we do not dosire a pipeorgan in our new church ; we have no place for one. We are not quite ready to sell our birthright to heaven yet. We are commanded to make melodies in our hearts to the Lord, not on pipe-organs, or horns, or 'fiddles. There is more glory to God in the music of a splinter on an old rail caused by 'the wind that God causes to blow than there is on ten thousand pipe-organs. God is sore displeased with manufactured wind worship. Read Amos vi., 1-6; Eph. v., 19 ; Cor. iii., 16. God bless you ! I hope you will give this matter some serious thought in the light of Jesus and the Judgment. If thou do, God will lead you out of the business. It is proposed to erect in New York a memorial to the poet Heine. The project emanates from the " Heinebund," a singing club which has been established in the American capital since 1569. The memorial Is to take the form of a fountain, surmounted by a figure and bearing on the pedestal a medallion of the poet in profile. The work was intended for Dusseldorf, where Heine was born; but the municipality having refused—on account of Heine's radical tendencies (!) and irregular life— sanction its erection there, the sculptor, Air. Ernest Hester, has offered to present it to the city of New York. Chicago, it is said, is to have a new musical organisation—the " Marine Band" —which "is to be composed of the best material obtainable. It will be an auxiliary to the First Battalion of the Illinois Naval Militia. The novelty of the idea is that the band will be quartered the entire year on the model battleship Illinois, which is to be removed to an accessible spot on tho lake front." On this vessel promenade concerts will be given and " no effort will be spared to make the band one of the most artistic organisations of the countries." Very good, so far; but the next sentence reveals the chief attraction:—Original features! are to be introduced that will spice the concerts with an alluring sensationalism. Bombs will be used of cannon for bass accompaniments, a set of twelve chimes is ranged along tho breakwater, a gatling gun will be used in military pieces, and fifty flash torches will produce the fire effect. A Gloucestershire professor of music is responsible for the following story as one of fact within his recent experience :—"A lady calls upon a teacher of the pianoforte with reference to some lessons considered desirable for her son, a boy of 15. The professor mentions his fee for twelve lessons, a sum under £2; whereupon the lady, looking much astonished, exclaims, " Ye are rather dear in these parts. I could get the lad taught in Glasgae for 7id a lesson!', No business was done ; not even a sixpence going bang. Mr. Horace Lingard, a one-time Melbourne favourite, is now at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, in "Falka," and has adopted a curious and novel form of advertisement, consisting of a procession of empty perambulators, pushed by men dressed as Brother Pelican and other wellknown characters in the opera. In some of the districts the procession was eur- ' rounded by thousands of spectators, and at intervals a complete block ensued, necessitating the services of the guardians of the peace, who had some difficulty in assisting the curious cavalcade to get along even at walking pace. The mystery of the empty perambulators was solved when, in the distance, another procession, similarly attired, was observed carrying what purported to i be " Falka's Babies."

They are producing a new racing drama in London, entitled "The Derby Winner." As usual, numerous and full-blooded British ; tastes are catered for in the Drury Lane piece—the national taste for horseflesh, the national admiration for high-spirited, freehanded young aristocrats, the national love of crowds and bustle and life at high pressure. Needless to say that the great features of the entertainment are the scenes reproducing such peculiarly British institutions as a trial of horses on the Downs, a military ball, a sale at Tattersall.'s, and the race for the Derby. • Of such scenes as these it, has been not very good-naturedly said that there is nothing an audience likes so much as paying to witness in a theatre what it can see outside for nothing. Bub this is not a sound theory of the matter. It may be said that the majority of the Drury Lane audience was simply enjoying a mimic reproduction of what was familiar to it in reality without the cost of transit or without losing wagers innumerable. The sporting Drury Lane drama may be briefly written down a success. The money paid out and taken in by managers baa so little bearing on the merits of the entertainments, and the figures are so hard to get trustworthily, that the subject hardly ever deserves a line in print ; but Henry E. Abbey gives some data that are interesting. He says that in the 28 weeks of Henry Irving's last American tour the receipts were £145,000, almost touching £800 one night, and aggregating £12,280 for 14 performances in San Francisco. He took in £8007 for two weeks of Bernhardt in the same city, and £8766 for nine of her appearances in Boston. During the six and a-half months of the spectacle "America," in Chicago, at fair time, the income was £200,000, and the outgo only a little more than £20,000. The same show failed when taken to New York. Mr. Abbey says he has paid to Patti and Bernhardt over, £200,000 each. The salary of Lillian Russell, under her present contract, Is £300 a week.

The number of young women (says a New York exchange) who are anxious to go upon the stage is almost unlimited. There is not a theatrical manager in town who is not) overrun with applications from young women who wish to emulate Mary Anderson, and win fame on the boards. And some of them are so ambitious! They will go into the ballet, the chorus, or take small parts and small salaries, just for. a beginning. Once they obtain an interview with a manager it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Probably no manager or actor in the city receives so many requests from young women who want to become stage luminaries as does William H. Crane. Every mail brings word from some young woman who has the fires of genius burning strongly within her, and who only wants an opportunity of appearing on the stage dressed as a maid, with the irrepressible duster in her hand, to paralyse the world. One letter that the actor received recently is very funny, arid is as follows 11 Dear Sir, — would like very much to become an actress, and my parents are willing to let me be one. Will you kindly let me know how I could become an actress ? I mean a good one. Not one of those museem girls, but a real actress. I am past 17 years of a©a.". Please let me know, and oblidge." Her name is Miss Caesar, and she gave her address care of Julius Casar, whonow resides on East Thirteenth-streeti. Musico-Dbamaticus.'