PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1316, 20 May 1897, Page 17

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

" Tbe actors are come hither, my lord, Buz, Buz!" —Hamxbt

The theatrical editor of the New Zealand Mail will be happy to receive and print route dates and any other information concerning the movements of companies. A post card giving " route dates " for the week is recom mended. Address all communications for this column to "Lorgnette," New Zealand Mail office, Lambton quay, Wellington.

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

. Bristol's Educated Horses, now making so great a sensation in Auckland, are to appear at the Opera House, Wellington, on June Ist to sth. Aucklanders are simply raving over the wonderful feats performed by the animals. Theie is nothing, so I understand, of the ordinary circus programme about the" show, which is of a singularly novel character.

Carl Hertz, who has been making quite a triumphant progress through the South Island since he was here hi Wellington, commences a short return season at the Opera House on Friday this week. Special attractions are promised in "Vanity Fair," a new and particularly clever illusion, and an entirely new set of cinematographe pictures.

Vanity Fair, the somewhat prepossessing • title of Carl Hertz's latest and greatest illusion is to be seen in Wellington for the first time. In the South, the interest aroused by this really remarkable piece of deception was phenomenal, indeed in Christchurch so great was the enthusiasm and crush that the management had to submit to a common or garden police court fine for overcrowding the theatre.

Carl Hertz announces his performances with special holiday attractions on Her Majesty's Birthday. Included in the fresh Cinematographic attractions, is the very latest portrait of the. Queen and other members of the Boyal Family.

The Collet Dohson Company are playing the Canterbury towns. Ashburton was visited last week. Mr Petherick is still managing,

The writer of Dramatic Notes in the fiaily Mail says :—I hear, upon what I fiaye always found to be reliable authority, £hat among those named for the honoured of knighthood during the present Eecord Beignyearis Mr Barrett. I do not vouch for this statement, but it is current in circles which are usually well informed.

A knighthood is also spoken of for Mr £lea)Leiit Scott, the veteran English critic.

Jt is stated that Miss Marion Mitchell, of the Pollard Opera Company, is engaged to the son of a Auckland resident.

The D'Orsay Ogden Company were still at Dunedin last week.

According to " Pasquin," of the Olago Witnew, the Pollards have " Madame rehearsal, and will probably produce jfche ; opera during then coming Adelaide season.. Maud Beatty is cast for Clairette. One would have thought she would be better suited as Lange.

The success achieved by Heavy Braey'g <s©mi<s opera company in Melbourne will, it is to ibs hoped, put fresh heart into Mr B/, and make him hold fast to his original intention of bringing the company to New Zealand.

Other Opera House dates are: Brough's Comedy Company, 20th August to Bth September; and Bland Holt, 17th November to 15th December.

Mr Durward Lely is to visit Australia next year with " Scottish Song and Story." Mr Lely was for many years the tenor of the D'Oyley Carte Comic Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre, where he created Nanki-Poo and other roles. We fear he will find it rather difficult to make "Scottish Song and Story" catch on in the Antipodes,'but, says the Sydney Morning Herald? he might, however, try Dunedin.

The Bulletin asks: Does Manager Bland Holt have his men built to sample, or does he select men of one size and weight BO that each man can wear the other's

clothes in case of emergency ? Anyhow, there never was such uniformity hi the matter of size and weight in one co. before. Baker, Cosgrove, Norman, Corlesse, Montgomery and Kemp are all solid men of about the same ounces and inches, and, barring Corlesse, each of them could be the other fellow at a pinch. Possibly Bland's prosperity accounts for the unusual fatness of the company he I keeps.

They're improving on the other side. A Melbournian writer to an exchange : " Twenty women had their hats off in the Princess amphitheatre the other night.

According to the Bulletin, " Curly" Bellewis arranging a special version of "Joan of Arc" for Mrs Brown-Potter, with which they intend to astonish LoLdon on their return to England in June next, that is if they can get a theatre. Doubtful, very, this latter possibility hi the Becord Reign boom.

Harry Paulton, who is on his way out to Australia, under engagement to The Firm, was part author of the famous spectacular extravaganza "The Black Crook," which was so big a hit at the London Alhambra some years ago. Also he wrote the' libretlo of " Erminie," played here by the Pollards, and last, not least, did the principal work in that capital farcical comedy " Niobe," played here by the B. and B. Company. Harry must be a good deal " more than seven " in this year of grace 1897.

Jennie Lee is doing the London music halls with "dramatic sketch" —the eternal "Joe" of course.

An English exchange mentions " a remarkable feat accomplished by Madame Angelo about the year 1873, when she walked 1000 miles in 1000 hours for a wager of £2OOO at Vauxhall Gardens, Birmingham. Old Melbourne men will remember that about the year 1860 Mrs Douglass, wife of the prompter at the Princess'Theatre, performed the feat in order to raise money for her sick husband. She was small, why and elderly, and walked on a track built in the old Olympic Theatre", (the Iron Pot) Lonsdale street. She successfully accomplished the task dressed in bloomer costume.

Everybody interested in theatrical gossip should beg, buy or borrow Emily Soldene's recently-published book, " My Theatrical and Musical Recollections." The .fair burlesquer, who first made herself in " Genevieve de Brabant," has lots of racy chat in her book, the contents of which are now being republished in a Sydney paper. I clip the following paragraph as a sample of the lady's general style:—

" The season at the Park Theatre, under the management of Parravicini and Corbyn, was a success. We woke up the Camden Town people with ' Chilperic,' and in the Pages' chorus was Miss Maud Branscombe, the most photographed young person of the rjeriod. [ Kate Paradise and her troupe danced; : Mdlle. Sara and her troupe danced. At the conclusion of the engagement I took a benefit, at- which the late Lady Gregory (Mrs Stirling) appeared. I held a great reception in the greenroom, and she regretted she had not come in contact with opera bouffe before. She had 'no idea we had such a good time.' For that night 'Trial by Jury' was sent up from the E-oyalty. Rose Stella sang the Plaintiff (originally played by Miss Nellie Bromley). Fred Sullivan ■ was the Judge, and Mr Penley the fore- < man of the Jury. Some little time after, my sister and I went to Paris to see 'an opera of Herve's, called ( Poulet et Poulette,',' in which Schneider appeared. On arriving at the theatre, the Varieties, I think, the first person we saw was a gentleman we knew, a Scotch genleman, who was then only ' a Peer,' but who is now ' a personage.' ' Plow long shall you stay 1 If ere ?' asked I. ' God knows,', said he ; . S I neve* leave home more than twentyfour hours y/ituQut getting a telegram to i come back immediately: " One of my sisters bolted." ' ' Miss Kate Ivfunroe was in a box that night, looking particularly pretty. A box in a French theatre is too awful —stuffy, hot, no room to move. Miss Munroe had the smalles?; feet (with the exception of Mrs Judge Russell's, pf; New York) I had ever seen. ' Why, Kitty,' said I, ' give the boys a treat and yourself a little comfort; hang your toes outside, of keeping them inside this 'band-bcx. ; When I rsturned to London I arranged with Mr Morton to go to the Opera Gomique, tq play 2£afdetta in ' Mine. I'Archiduc' Miss Kate Stanley was engaged for Fortunato, and though people prophesied we should not get on well together, we did excellently, sjome-

fcimes talked over the ' Bell goes a-rjngmg for Sat'sh' and ' Up the Alma's height' "days at the Oxford, Our regular clientele ' this season was much movQ aristocratic than it had ever been; the Duke of this and his Grace of that. The late Duke of Sutherland was very fond of coming, and times out of number we, from the stage, would see the audience a wee bit agitated, and his Grace disappearing in a flurry, ' fetched to a fire,' The late Duke of Newcastle occupied one particular stall every evening during the entire season. Dukes, with us, were pretty plentiful, and one of our principal ladies could not eat her dinner unless her particular duke cut it up. Dr Lennox Brown was our throat j specialist. For myself, I did not need j

professional attendance. But he made it up to me by sketching pretty pictures on the walls of my dressing-room. Mr Frederick Clay, the composer, a most J charming person, came very frequently. I He wore very fetching open-work shirtfronts, with coloured silk beneath, one night pink, another night blue. Sir I George Arrnitage, tooj dear old man; like poverty, he was always with us* ' Mme I'Archiduc' did not catch on to the amount expected. The real success of this short season was ' Trial by Jury,' in I which Miss Clara Vesey sang ' The Plaintiff' with much distinction."

Our Christchurch correspondent writes as follows under date June lOfch :—The Pollard Opera Company finished their New Zealand tour —lasting just over 16 months —last week, and sailed by the Talune for Melbourne, where it is intended to give the company a week's spell, prior to their opening in'Adelaide on the 25th hist. The tour has been a ' most successful one, and Mr Pollard is credited by a Southern journal of having cleared £ISOO over it. Tnis, I am assured, is perfectly correct, but it must be taken into consideration that Mr Pollard has produced two new operas, and re-dressed several of the old ones. The cost of the dresses for " Boccaccio " and " Falka " alone was £BOO, besides which all new scenery has to be made and painted for the productions, so that it can , be said that Mr Pollard spent quite £IOOO over these productions. I merely mention this to show that all the money taken by professional companies—the Pollards especially —is not taken out of the colony, as is generally supposed. In addition to the wardrobe and scenery, the young ladies' of the company spend a great part of their salary in dress, so that a company like this is a great benefit to the colony, and deserve the patronage bestowed upon them. The Union company and Government railways have benefitted largely by the company's lengthened stay in the coloiry, to say nothing of the publicans who have had to feed the sixty members of the company. Mr Pollard deserves every credit for the manner in which the company bave been kept together, and it is his intention to return to Wellington at Christmas with some novelties. Bracey has abandoned his New Zealand tour. George Rignold opened to a splendid house at the Christchurch Royal on Monday last, '' The Lights of London," with real water, being the opening attraction. —The D'Orsay-Ogden Company are to open for a short season at the Christchurch Royal on Queen's Birthday.—Mackenzie's popular concerts have not drawn good houses at the Opera House, Christchurch.

The French soprano, Mile. Antoinette Trebelli, has been taking San Francisco by storm. She appeared at the Californian Theatre the first week in February, assisted by Gustav Hinrich's symphony orchestra. Mile. Trebelli apened with " Bel Baggio," a judicious selection, as the great singer excels in it; and she also sang " Lo ! Here the Gentle Lark," Salome's air from " Herodiade," and the air of Solveig from Greig's setting of Ibsen's " Peer Gynt." Messrs Fernando Vert and Martin Haurwitz are conducting the season on a great scale, as the theatre costs 175 dol. a week and the orchestra 500dol. Mile. Trebelli will tour east towards New York and Canada, and will then probably rest in Paris.