PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 28

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

f The actors are coma hither, my lord, ■ ' Buz, Buz!" r- - —Hamlet. ~ NOTES BY “ LORGNETTE. 5 ’ Among the novelties in Fitzgerald 'os/ Circus; at present showing with eiat success at Dunedin, may be men►ned the trio (from Bamum’s orldLs Greatest Show), Mdlle Rhodesia, e astonishing lady society juggler—- © only rival to Paul Cinquevalli; the ndaschevsky Family : clowns, pantomists, dancers, comedians, equesennes, etc., from the Grand Cirque, isse; La Belle Rose, tbg* swirl danc- , on the rolling globe : Madame Adel© Antonio, direct from .the London (parium —the greatest aerialist the ►rid has even seen; Mdlle Katie, the arming lady rider; Mdlle: Millie igmar, the faumous f ‘Haute Ecole” uestrienne; the brothers Karl, the ►rld-famed horizontal bar artists; dlle. Margaretta, the daring hurdle ler, direct from Cirque Raney, Bourne, France ; Guilliume and Aougust, e French clowns, in their great sketch, l he Toreadors”—the whole forming a. st array of the greatest arenic talent .. the face of the earth. Wallace King, the favourite tenor, !l shortly leave for New Zealand ider engagement to Mr P. R. Dix. Miss Irene Franklin, a clever variety tiste, is also expected to join Mr Dix’s >mpany in a. month or two. Mr Charles Arnold is considered in E>w Zealand the hotel-keepers’ mastte. Wherever he goes with his cornjay (writes a correspondent) the hotels © crowded with country people, who >me -in from miles around to see Vhat Happened to Jones” and “Why nith Left Home.” I understand that Madame Carlton, iss Violet Mount, Miss Ethel Maginty, and ,-Miss Vartha, Messrs E. J. ill and Pape have been engaged for t© St. Patrick’s Day concert. Herr Max Hoppe will, it is stated, in 1 probability accept the conduct orship : the Ladies’ Musical Society, from hich position Mrs Alfred Levi lately ‘signed. Little Irene Morris, ou eight-year-old oliniste, who is described as a wonder, ill play at Miss Hollander’s return conart on the 11th inst.

The improvement in the tastes of le frequenters of English concert halls indicated: by the enormous populary enjoyed by'suoh really first-class actj&ses as -Mrs Brown-Potter, Miss Eliott Page and others. Speaking of Mi's rown-Potter’s engagement at the Palce Theatre of Varieties an exchange *y s it has been a highly successful one l all ways, the gifted actress’s recital f T. F. Ridgwell’s poem, entiled “What iys England?’’ particularly calling for raise.. go many young New Zealanders are irecting their steps to Europe in search f musical honours that a glimpse beind that far-away curtain will be of nterest to many of my readers. The ollowing gratifying criticism appeared a a Liege newspaper—• “La Meuse” : Miss Nora McKay, a young Australian, urpassed all others. She is quite a oung pupil of M. Musin’s, who prophesies for her a bright future. She iipwed great ability and knowledge of ligh-class music in her rendering of La Folia’ (Corelli), with a cadenza by jeonard,'. and Ernst’s Fantasia and darch on ‘Otello’ —full of the greatest technical difficulties. The enraptured! mdience ..demanded a third appearance »f this talented virtuoso, and Miss Mc£ay then surpassed l herself, playing the Jpahish airs of Sarasate, in which there & plenty of scope for true elegance of >hrasing and complete mechanism of he violin.” This promising debutante, who, we are told, succeeded in carrying off at the annual examination in

July last, the first prize with distinction, after two years study (a success that had not previously been, achieved for 25 years), is under engagement for several concerts in Paris and London. She will, in all probability, arrive in Melbourne on her way to Queensland early in .April, and purposes giving one or two recitals here.

An interesting discussion has been going on in % London paper lately on

the subject of pianoforte playing and its rivals. An interview was sought with Dr Cummings, the principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and the questions were put : “Are women forsaking the pianoforte, and, if they are, to what other musical work do they give most attention ?” Said Dr Cummings at once in reply : ”1 do not think there are fewer women than formerly studying the pianoforte. On the contrary, I thirds there has been an increase of late; but it is certain that the number of women violinists has increased to a remarkable degree ; there are probably ten times more than there were ten years ago. That fact, perhaps, it may be that lias caused tlie sounding of the alarmist note to which you refer as to the alleged abandoning of the pianoforte. The mandoline has made no difference in the proportion of pianoforte students, the taste for that instrument —the mandoline —being, like the weather, .somewhat fickle. Vi e have a considerable number of mandoline students, and a few who study the guitar, and personally I am sorry that thh latter instrument has been most luidui.' neglected of late years. To prove to you that the pianoforte is very far indeed from being out- in the cold, I may mention that in this building ue have no fewer than 140 pianos constantly in use.. Of lessons of all sorts we give 80 at a time, in 80 different class rooms. Noi.se? You can hear very little sound indeed, even if you stand with your ear close to the organ room. The secret is that all the rooms have double glass A Sydney paper declares that “Harry Roberts is making great progress m America, and is now fulfilling a fiistclass engagement. “These vague allegations suggest- that the young man will soon return to Australia. Roberts is a brio-lit actor who ought to make headway anywhere, but if lie has done anything important in America, why not furnish some details? . . Mr Snazelle is working industrious!} at the Melbourne Athenaeum Hall with two performances daily of “Our Navy. The pictures are so good that they may be seen several times without losing their freshness, and “Drake”s Drum,' as sung by the entertainer, is always good for an encore. “The Great Ruby” is still a muchsought jewel at the Melbourne Royal, and further consideration compels one to award the palm for sensational effect to the balloon ascent in the third act. Since the sub-marine fight- of divers, nothing so hair-raising has been presented to playgoers. Mr Baker is now several shades darker as Prince Kassim than he was on the opening night, and the altered make-up is a decided iinprovnieiit. As Lady Garnett, the wife of a “nouveau riche,” Mrs Bland Holt has made a palpable hit. She enjoys a monopoly of the comedy business, and she uses her power wisely and beneficiently.

Mr Rudyard Kipling has completed the dramatisation of “The Jungle Book,”, and it will be produced before the end of the year in London, under the title of “The Jungle Play.” The disposition shown by some musicians of Anglo-Saxon parentage to masquerade under foreign names, in order to disguise their nationality, is a matter that has often given rise to comment. Mr Foley became Signor Fcli; Signor Campobello, the husband of Madame Sinico, in reality belonged to the elan which owns the Duke of Argyll as its head. William Green was once well-known to Melbourne theatregoers —but under the style and title of Guglielmo Verdi, a literal Italian translation of his proper patronymic; and of course our own Madame Melba is another instance in point. But surely the name of John Dunn, one of the very best of modern English violinists, ought to be sufficiently familiar in America (remarks Melbourne “Age”) tos render such a process superfluous in his case. Mr Dunn, however-, evidently -•? thinks otherwise. He says that the average American prefers artists with 'foreign names. . This contention may be true or false; there is room, per- % haps, for doubt on that score. But none can conveniently arise as to the. completeness of the method Mr Dunn selected during his recent tour in the States, in order to fall in with this supposed preference. Plain John Dunn blossoms forth before an amazed transAtlantic public as Ivan Donoiewski! There is nothing like doing a thing thoroughly while you are about it. Signor Raffelewski, who recently visited Wellington, is another example. His family name, I understand, is King. Mr Harry Conor, who recently travelled through New Zealand, is supporting Miss Edna May in the new play, “The Girl from Up,” in which she is starring under Charles Frohmann’s management in New York. “Banjo”. Paterson’s Queensland .tour includes visits to all the principal coastal towns as far north as Charters Towers. ■ V' . After the termination of their season with Mr Williamson Miss Crane and Mr Ppwer intend to form a company of their own, and at present are 1 negotiating -fpr a theatre;. : . • “Here it is again! From “Cassell's”, on Melba: —“There are colonials who ignore their own colony. But Madame Melba, wise woman, is proud of hers. It is her wish, as soon as circumstances permit, to pay a visit to the .country, and to sing, first of all, at Melbourne, from which town, by the way, she took her name of Melba. The very finest

artists available she will engage to accompany her on her tour. ’Australia must have only the best,’ she declares.' This concert-party, it is understood, has booked its passage for Ist April, 1987. —(“Bulletin.”) ... , There’s on song in “Cinderella ’ the ballroom song—says the “Bulletin,” which “gives away” the cruel truth re Nellie Stewart’s voice. If she could sit in front of the house for once and hear herself sing it Nellie would either abandon the song altogether or have the music altered. All the ravages of time are recorded in Nellie’s treatment of that monotonous ditty. American actress Nance O Neill is said to be a sister to Frank Lawton, the clever ’Murkan whistler who was here with the Chinatown crowd. But the yarn doesn’t look over-probable. Lawton was mostly skin and bone.

Veteran R. S. Smyth© on spry young manager Geacli: “Ah, it is a good thing to be so young and .. to know so much. ” —*' ‘Bulletin. ’ ’

Snazelle’s remarks on Johannesburg in his new book of reminiscences, are a warning to would-be contingents—“We here struck our first illness on our tour, all the five of our party being down with fever. I managed to get up after four days in bed and, to cheer myself, walked to the cemetery to see the graves of six actor friends who had' died in the town. I met many of our good Australian mechanic friends who had sailed with us to Africa, each of them longing to get back. I invited them into our entertainment .on the first night when it was possible to give it, and showed them some of the perpetual green forest scenery of their native land, taking care to remind them that they had often grumbled at its monotony, and how much better it was than the monotony of the barren veldt —a country in which you travel for hundreds of miles without seeing a single tree. Before I had done with them I saw some of these Australians wiping away the furtive tear.”—“Bulletin.” Re ,Kelly Gang piece, produced by the Henry Company in New Zealand 1 last year, Kate Kelly (married) resides in a suburb of Perth, W.A. The original Kate Kelly of the drama (Miss Ada Grantleigh), an Adelaide girl,, is now liviiig in Wellington, New Zealand. The original Father Gibney of the drama is Mr Fred Grantleigh, now in business in Adelaide.—“ Quiz.”

Mdlle. Cleo de Merode, the dancer who leapt into fame a few years ago owing to the discussion that took place over Falguiere’s bust of her, which was exhibited in the Paris Salon, has just commenced a long tour, which is to comprise most of the leading European cities. That famous Frenchwoman introduced the style of wearing the hair brushed over the ears, and one of her numerous rivals vowed Cleo wore her hair in that fashion to conceal the loss of her ears.

Harous Plimmer, a promising Wellington amateur actor, and brother of the talented actor Henry Plimmer, of the Nance O’Neil Company, has thrown up his position on the reporting staff of the “New Zealand Times,” and joined the Nance O’Neil Company. With his own talents, and under the eye of his genial and clever brother Henry, young Harcus has every chance of some day being called l actor.—“Otago Witness.” Mr Clement Scott has an article in the latest number of the <f Free Lance”. ((London) on the speech of Mr Tree at the recent professional matinee. Mr Scott writes: “Have we arrived at this point* that an actor who is the servant and not the master of the public, or the Press, is to be permitted to tell a great newspaper that its critic is unworthy of it? If I do not necessarily agree with all that was written on the drama of the last century by the capable

writer in the ‘Daily Mail,’ I no less maintain that he has as much right to bis opinions as his brother journalists, who, swayed by a. popular and unfortunate craze of irresponsible society, think that the whole atmosphere of the stage is coleur de rose, and that all self-ad-vertising actors and actresses are miracles of art!” J. C. Bain has been well received in the Hawke’s Bay district. Crowded houses have been the rule, and “At the Seaside” and “Biscuits in the Bed” have caused much fun and plenty of laughter. The Steele-Paynes are at present touring round and about Adelaide. “Were I,” says Johnston Forbes Robertson, “asked my honest opinion as to the difference between the painter’s profession and the actor’s,” he said once, “I would say the actor can always earn a- pound or two a week, while the painter is more likely to starve. Painting is, I think, the most difficult and most expensive of all professions.”

There will be some musical celebrations in London and the provinces this year in connection with the King Alfred Millenary, and among the works promised are two light operas, “Norseman and Saxon,” by W. S. Roddie, and “Alfred the Great”; or “The Inventive King,” by Fred Edmunds and C. T. West, and a number of choruses dealing with the story of England’s deliverance from foreign oppression. There is also some talk of the production of an English version of Joachim Raff’s opera, “King Alfred.” “What Happened to Johnson” is the name of a- new farcical comedy to be produced in America. If the prefix “What Happened to” is to run the gamut of the whole directory of names, a veritable comedy of errors seems imminent

Leoncavallo’s “Zaza” is generally understood to have been a failure at Milan, although in accordance with the Italian custom he was repeatedly recalled.

Mrs O. M. McAdoo left Sydney for London eh route to Boston, the home of her people. Mrs McAdoo just before returned from New Zealand, where she severed her connection with the McAdoo Jubilee Singers’ Company, left to her by her late and much lamented husbahd. The company is now running “on its own”, in New Zealand.

Mr Harold Ashton, of Mr Williamson’s staff, is reported to have leased the Brisbane Opera House, and to be about to expend £3OOO in improving it. Miss Nance O’Neil is to open the theatre under new management on March 23. Mr Charles Lauri, sen., the famous pantomimist, and father of George Lauri, so well known on, the colonial stage, died on Thursday, May 16, 1889. He was born in 1833, and appeared in public at Sadler’s Wells in 1840; in 1851 he was engaged at Drury Lane. His last appearance was at the Grand, Glasgow, in January, 1888. Speaking of Captain Marshall’s new play, Mr Stephen Fiske in the New York “The Spirit of the Times” says: “A Royal Family” continues to crowd the Lyceum. The good that this pretty play has done is incalculable. It has demonstrated that the public do not want risky plays ; it has shown. that a oomedy may be clean and successful in this alleged dirty age.