MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10425, 24 April 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

Admiral Field, M.P., on February 12 (says the Home News) pot the following question in the House of Commons:—To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether be will ascertain if the Lord Chamberlain has had bis attention called to the performance of a play at the Avenue Theatre, called " Nelson's Enchantress," in which the greatest naval commander of the century, who died in the service of bis country, is held up to public derision; whether the Lord Chamberlain will call upon the manager of the said theatre to withdraw the play in question' under a distinct notice that otherwise the license to perform stage-plays will be suspended or withdrawn; and whether, seeing that a former Lord Chamberlain prohibited a certain performance in a London theatre, which lampooned members of the Govern, merit of that day (1870-74), similar protection will be afforded to the memory of the honoured dead.ln his reply Sir M. »; . Ridley said the play contained nothing in the Lord Chamberlain's judgment to justify a refusal of the license. The Greenwoods' had a very successful season at the City Hail. They propose, before going on tour through the goldnelds, giving an entertainment in aid of the Napier Floods Relief Fund. Ferrari tells in his memoirs of how he once found a man standing on a balcony on a severely cold Saturday night, all but naked. Asking for an explanation of the apparent act of lunacy, Ferrari learned that the man was trying to catch cold to enable him to " sing bass in the church choir tomorrow." It seems that the Japanese singers have a similar method of acquiring a special kind of voice. The process is thus described by a recent authority " During the winter, the girl in training clothes herself comfortably, takes a samisen (a banjo with square body, played with a plectrum of ivory), and ascends every cold night the scaffold erected on the roof of the house for drying purposes. There she sits for hours, singing and banging away, until she can endure it no longer. Upon coming down she is so hoarse as to be unable to utter a word. This training is persisted in till her natural voice has left her and a new clear voice has been acquired, which 'Can be heard in a storm." Why anybody should acquire a voice specially for storms is not very apparent. But perhaps the Japanese girls are much employed, like Glendower, in calling spirits from the vasty deep. Somebody has been advertising in an Italian paper for fifty ladies to form an orchestra for a tour in South America. The best terms are to be given to lady wind players, and a " very elegant dress" is promised each of the instrumentalists. We should think the lady wind players deserve the best terms, but we are disturbed about the question of good looks. How can a good-looking girl be expected to make her visage ridiculous by a struggle with a bassoon, or pinch her pretty lips on the unsympathetic mouthpiece of an oboe ? Alcibiades threw away his flute, because the playing of it discomposed his features. The good-laoking girls, remembering this, should, like strait-laced damsels, stick by the airings. In commemoration of the sixty years of Her Majesty's reign the Crystal Palace company will inaugurate an exhibition in May next. There will be musical instruments and appliances, historic manuscripts and scores, pictures, engravings, and drawings of musical subjects, portraits and autographs of great musicians, etc. The concerts and choral celebrations will include the triennial Handel festival in June, festivals of choral societies, etc. Dr. Bridge is to lecture on Sixty years of music on April 28th, under the chairmanship of Sir George Grove, C.B. The Musical Courier tells the world that it keeps a deaf and dumb boy, " who is at times sent to concerts the critics cannot listen to without the risk of incipient insanity." Happy boy ! Happy critics to have such a considerate oditor. The Royal Theatre, Wiesbaden, which is under the same management as the Berlin Opera, is to have two permanent conductors in future. Herr Max Schilling's " Tugeveld" has j;st been presented, and Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" has of course been mounted. Miss Marion Weed, a young American soprano, pupil of Frau Lehmann-Kalish, made her debut recently at the Stadt Theatre, Cologne, as Donna Anna in " Don Giovanni," with brilliant success. Dan Leno, next to Chevalier probably the best music-hall performer in London, has been engaged for an American tour at £300 a week. Jose Ecbegaray, Spain's great playwright, is sixty-four years old. He is an ongineer and a mathematician, and he was once a Minister of State. He has written fifty-two plays. Tho next Gaiety Company which visits Australia will play "The Geisha," "The Circus Girl," and "My Girl," the only musical comedies which have at all" caught on" in London of late. No definite dates, however, have been arranged. 1 Mr. and Mrs. M'Donald, the parents of Sadie M'Donald, the young actress of the "Chinatown" Company, who died in Sydney on November 29 last, have written from Brooklyn, New York, to express their gratitude to the many friends of their daughter in Australia for the kindness bestowed on her, and the sincere sympathy manifested at her sad death. The following items are from the Bulletin Miss Eileen O'Mooro, known to Australians as Bessie Doyle, is professionally prospering in London, and lives in great style—lovely gowns, plenty of diamonds, and a well-appointed carriage.—A clergyman brought under Irving's notice the fact that Sheridan Knowles abandoned the stage

for the pulpit. Irving: " But he went on taking the royalties for his plays."—At a musical matinee given in honour of Massenet at) the Ecole Marchesi, the most promi-nently-placed artiste was Cicely Staunton (Goldenstedt), of Sydney, who sang an Ave Maria and other items. Miss Staunton got some of her Australasian musical training . in her native Maoriland, and subsequently gained much benefit from the tuition of Annis Montague, of whose company she was for some time a member.—The rivalry between Melba and Nordica daily grows more pronounced, especially over the rendering of Wagnerian roles. Melba, writing to a New York journal, states that she does not intend representing Brunhilde for years to come for fear of injuring her voice. Nordica, wlio subsequently appeared as Brunhilde, wrote to the same journal as a parting dig: " Wagner's music never injured anyone who could sing it, and who knew how." Mr. John Coleman writes from the Grand Theatre, Islington "As you are doubtless aware, during my recent management of Drury Lane Theatre I produced my play, ' The Duchess of Coolgardie,' there. I have disposed of the Australian rights to Mr. Bland Holt, who for some years has produced the Drury Lane dramas in Australia. Up to this moment this gentleman has not received the M.S., although it is now on its way out, but by the last mail he has sent mo a Bathurst paper in which a nameless thief announces the play for representation there." He complains of a play with a similar title produced some time ago, and says, "By this mail I forward power of attorney to Mr. Holt." A Melbourne journal states that Little i Rose Jlusgrova will make her dibvi in May next at the Melbourne Princess'. The little lady is the second daughter of George Musgrove of "the Firm," and is an accomplished dancer, with a charming voice. She is booked for the soubrette part in Alfred Moulton and Edward Krusard's new French comic opera " Lelamine." Sydney (says the Referee, March 31) is undergoing a most painful calm after the proverbial squall, and when the Palace pots up its shutters on Saturday night it will be the third house to do so in a week. This state of affairs is very much to be regretted, ' for the artists from present appearances are in for a very bad time of it. In the same r issue appears the following' There is not i/i not a single show advertised on the Bydnev :• % hoardings at the present time. This is the Is first time on record. Mcsico-Deamatmjds, ''-AAV>}• +:~ ■ ;