NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

New Zealand Mail, 30 December 1892, Page 26

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

The Jubilee Singers opened in the City Hall, Auckland, on Boxing Night.

The Collet Dobson Company are in Grey mouth.

The J. J. Kennedy company are touring Southland.

Wills' Surprise Party were playing during the early part of the week in Christchurch.

Bentley is in Auckland this week. After the season is over he and genial Jack Lohr will do the Hot Lakes. Bentley wants a spell badly. Six different leading parts a week is rough on the stoutest Thespian, and Bentley's physique is none of the strongest.

Heller's Odds and Ends —conjuring, thought reading &c.—are at Christchurch.

Royal Comic Opera Company have closed at Dunedin and gone to Invercargill. Biz was poor in the ten days before Xmas. I have to thank Messrs Pete Hughes and Tallis for an Xmas compliment telegram. Heaps of luck to you both.

Travers Vale, Steen-Smith's agent, has gone down the West Coast of the South Island to prepare the ground for his principals. The Steens opened in Wanganui on Boxing Night, and play down the Rangitikei and Manawatu townships before going to tho South Island.

The Steens give an excellent show but Mr Steen's foreign accent, and lack of good patter are rather a drawback. The feats Mrs Steen does are marvellous. She is far and away the best thought reader we have had round New Zealand. ,

Sydney Colville, a single handed performer, from the Crystal Palace, London, opened at Dunedin City Hall on Boxing Night in his • Album of Oddities.'

Miss Ada Fitzroy, a clever lady thought reader, and general entertainer, is at Napier. She is accompanied by Harold Ashton and Mrs Ashton (Miss Ruby Clifford.

Max O'Rell opens at Invercargill about the middle of January.

The ' Wedding Eve,' in which Mr William Elton made his reappearance having proved a failure, a revival of Dorothy has taken its place. Billy plays the Lurcher the sheriff's officer, a part in which he made such a hit in the colonies.

* King Lear' was produced by Mr Irving on the 10th November. Our London correspondent will doubtless send out a full account of the production which waa an immense success.

I notice that Mr Holloway's « Duke of Kent' is very favourably spoken of by the London papers. He got a call before the curtain. Mr W. Holloway is a brother to Mr C. Holloway, at present playing in Wellington.

The following story from the Bulletin is probably not true, but is none the less funny:—ln a Maoriland capital,_ an amateur opera co. had been organised, and * Pinafore ' was the piece. The town resounded with solos and choruses. From the counting house and the coal cellar came the piercing strains. Among those who had it badly was the choir of the chief church. One day, the minister and the choir stood by a yawning grave, prepared for the mortal clay of a much respected member of the kirk session. The minister was visibly moved, and, as a big lump rose in his throat, he said, 'We will miss our brother from his usual haunts.' ' And so will his sisters and his cousins and his aunts, his sisters and his cousins, whom he reckons up by dozens, and his aunts.' And as the choir fished up their insensible pastor from the yawning chasm, it suddenly dawned on them that they had mistaken the voice of true sorrow for a cue from that infernal nonsense, ' Pinafore.'

At the sale of Buffalo Bill's horses in London, Cody's own cob, presented to him by Rosa Bonheur, sold for £IOO. There is evidently no sentiment about the rich Mr Buffalo Bill. The team of four mules, driven hi the Deadwood coach, with their bizarre trappings, sold to Pears' soap people for JB3BO. Bill's season was an enormous financial success.

A brilliant audience assembled in the Lyceum Theatre, London, on November 10, to see the long awaited production of ' King Lear.' To name those present (says Mr Henry Lucy) would be to reel off the roll of the best known people in London. The stage box was occupied by Mr Justice Jeune and Lady Jeune, most faithful of first-nighters. In the box above Mrs Lewis (still known as Kate Terry) looked on with glistening eyes. Baron Ferdy Rothschild, not often to be brought up from Waddesden by the attractions of

the theatre, occupied a box in company with Mr Cecil Rhodes. Opposite was Mr Edmund Yates, who has grown a beard, but showed few other traces of his recent illness. He had for companion in the next box Sir Edward Lawson, perhaps the most blooming baronet in the United Kingdom. In the stalls one caught sight of Mr George Lewis, with Mr Lockwood in convenient contiguity; Mr Asquith sharing with Mr Woodall the representation of Her Majesty's Ministry: Mr Burnand, looking puzzled; Mr and Mrs Bancroft, Mr Justin McCarthy, Mr Abbey, Mr Farjeon, and scores more. Judging from the effect produced last night I doubt whether Irving will find a fair measure of reward for all the labour, care, and money invested in the new piece.. People will go to see it because it is a Shakesperian revival at the Lyceum, and for a while every one will be asked, ' Have you seen Lear ?' But there will be no steady rush as has followed on earlier adventures. Mr Irving's conception of the old king is, as might have been expected, entirely original, radically differing from that worked out by Kean or Phelps, or Booth or Salvini. The key to it was found in Lear's description of himself as a foolish, fond old man of four score years and upwards. Irving's make-up was marvellous, almost ghastly in its realisation of extreme old age—a frail body finally breaking down under the wrestling of a fiery spirit. In the mad scene, where he danced on the stage with, straws in his hair, plucking at the blades of grass he held in his hand, he came dangerously near the farcical conception of an elderly male Ophelia. An added pity of the piece is that Cordelia has so little to do with its going forward. Ellen Terry was, as usual, charming. Her too brief interpositions were the more grateful to the audience because they heard from her lips the music of Shakespere's sentences hopelessly mumbled, whether in the anger or the dotage of Mr Irving's Lear.

The Greenwood Family, who once gave a series of very unsuccessful performances at the Wellington Opera House, have recently been playing a season in Adelaide. An Adelaide paper says:—' For the third week the Greenwoods have an attraction which will probably serve to fill the dress circle. This will be the appearance of a well-known Adelaide lady, the daughter of a politician and ex Minister ot the Crown. Her debut will be made in "The Two Orphans," and will be awaited with interest.' There are four Greenwoods in the company, of which Mr Charles Brown is a member. 'My Sweetheart' is included in the repertoii e.

The English papers announce the death at South Shields on the 7th November, of Mr T. B. Appleby. Mr Appleby was the buffo artiste of the Dunning Opera Company, which toured this Colony some years ago. His Rip Van Winkle, in Planquette's opera, will long be remembered in New Zealand. At the time of his death, M r Appleby was lessee of tho South Shields theatre. His age was 47.

We take the following from the Sydney Morning Herald of the 17th instant:—Mr W. J. Wilson of this city has received from Johannesberg, South Africa, the sad news of the death of Mrs George Darrell on the 6th November, at the early age of 25. This actress, who was well-known here under her stage name of Miss Chris Peachey, imnt have been carried off very suddenly, as a fortnight earlier Mr Darrell hnd written to say that all the members of his company were in perfect health.

From a London letter received by the Oratava, dated November 11th, Mr R. S. Smythe learns that M. Paderewski was recovering f-.om his severe illness and hoped to be strong e nough to start for New York within a fortnight. Owing to all the American engagements having been postponed, the great pianist was unable to fix definitely the date of his Australian recitals..

We are sorry to learn from a private source that the well-known actor, Mr Bland. Holt, so popular not only in Australia but in this Colony, is lying dangerously ill at Melbourne. Mr Holt is, we understand, suffering from a severe attack of brain fever.