PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3439, 21 May 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

BY "LORGNETTE.” COMING EVENTS. Opera House. May IS to 25—Durward Lely, May 27 —Festival Choral Society, June 14 to 25—Wellington Amateur Operatic Society (** Dorothy July 22 to August 12-Ada Juneen Company {pencilled in). December 2n to January 21—Charles Holloway Dramatic Company. Mr Pollard has, I hear, engaged Mr Smith by arrangement with Mr Seager, electrician of Christchurch, to travel permanently with the company. Mr Pollard's country patrons will have the benefit now of seeing his productions staged in a more complete manner. Messrs E. L. Williams, scenic artist, and J. Thomas, machinist, cf the Pollard Opera Company, will arrive in Wellington in a few days io make preparations for the production of “ Fatinitza," which Mr Pollard promises will be staged on the same elaborate scale as “ Djin Djin.” As my readers will doubtless remember, “ Fatinitza ” was last played here by the Montague Turner Opera Company.

The proprietors of the Criterion Theatre, New Plymouth, contemplate lighting the theatre by electricity, and for that purpose got an estimate as to the cost of installation from Sir Smith, electrician to the Pollard Opera Company, while they were playing there last week. He also supplied estimates to two of the leading hotelkeepers in New Plymouth.

The Bulletin's lady writer thus refers to an ex-Wellington resident: —“ Maoriland is also responsible for Mr Alfred Hill, Sydney Liedertafel s new conductor. A meek, little young man, with a pale and boyish face, and locks where the hair ought to be, ho put an extraordinary amount of energy into his waves and passes at the first Liedertafel concert of the season. The dreamy members woke into new life under his baton, and, now and then, shook off for a moment the heavy suburban atmosphere, under which they usually pass their time, or have it passed to them. The audience was less successful. Suburban it came, and suburban went away. Miss Hetty Holroyd, a new soprano, roused everyone who was feeling a little sleepy with her brilliant rendering of ‘Ah Non Creda ’ and Strelczki’s ‘ Dreams.’ Her organ is dramatic, penetrating and exquisitely clear, and much developed since her first appearance in the ‘ Sign of the Cross.’ She was the lady, you remember, who twanged the lyre to Berenice. On the whole, although the part-singing was a little violent with its diminuendos, the Liedertafel seems in a fair way for a revival."

I am glad to hear that Mr Hill is doing vary well in Sydney, As we all know, he is a composer of great originality, a brilliant violinist and a most painstaking teacher. Devoted to his art, Mr Hill, who has both youth and talent on his side, ought in time to make a very fine position for himself in Sydney.

Harry Paulton, whose New Zealand tour was by no means a success, was playing Peter Amos in “Niobe" at the Metropole Theatre, Camberwell, London, when the mail left. The suburban theatres are now quite a feature of London theatrical life, and must seriously interfere with the receipts of the West End houses, which are let at prodigiously high rents.

By Glasgow papers received by the ’Frisco mail I see that Mrs Brown Potter and Mr Bellew had a moat successful season there. Later on at Newcastle, so I notice by the local paper, they were met by the American Consul, and duly lunched and w|ned. Mrs B.P. is a splendid hand at “ booming ” in her own way. A member of the company is the veteran John Billington, so many years with Johnny Toole. Mrs Potter and Mr Bellew are due at the Cape toward the end of the year.

Sir Arthur Sullivan,- who has been sojourning on the.. Bivipra, has almost completed the score of his new comic opera for the Savoy.

Signor Mascagni is not only a distinguished composer of operas, but also a remarkable man of business. A short time ago, it is stated in the Italian musical journals, a Dutch manager announced that a “Cycle Mascagni,’,, consisting of performances of “ Cavalleria," “ L’Ami Fritz,” and “ Batcliff," conducted by the composer, would be given at Kotterdam and Amsterdam. It was extensively advertised, but at the last moment Signor Mascagni sent the following telegram: — “Deposit ten thousand francs immedi. ately at my banker, or 1 shall not come.” The manager was unable to do it, and thp performances were abandoned.

Old London playgoers now resident in the colony, may be interested to learn that the good old “Grecian” and Eagle tavern in the City Hoad are about to be pulled down, in accordance with a decision of the Charity Commissioners, who have undertaken to grant building leases of the sites occupied by them and the surrounding buildings for ninety years, with possession from September 29th next. It was at the Grecian that Henry Pettit and Paul Meritt, now both dead, learned the technique of the stage under Mr George Conquest, and were started on their career as dramatists. It was at the Grecian also that Mr Conquest’s wonderful pantomime acting and Christmas productions attracted enormous audiences, in which patrons from the West-end were a largo proportion. : In 1864 the Grecian was secured by the Salvation Army, and soon it will be but a remembrance.

English opera must be a popular card to play in the East End of London for Mr W. Turner (brother to the late Charles Turner, of Montague Turner fame) recently played a seven weeks season with his English opera company at. the Standard Theatre.

When “ The Sign of the Cross * Company was here a lot of -nonsense was talked about the ennobling effect (upon the actors) of such a play. The following from the Bulletin, if* true, shows that the ennobling effect, etc., doesn’t always hold good:—Marcus Valerius Claudian Superbus (with his eyes upturned to Heaven): “ What is this faith ? ' Much would I give to know 1 ” A moment after, to unfortunate scene-shifter: “What the all-fired dashed sheol do you mean by shifting that set like that ? Dash me if you dashed fools don’t deliberately try to ruin every dashed scene 1 ”

Lucy Cobb, long premiire danseuse with the Royal Comics, ia off to London shortly. She is a clever girl and ought to do well in the Big Smoke.

The “ Sign of the Cross” will be revived at Her Majesty’s, Sydney, after the company has finished its present season in Melbourne.

Says the Bulletin :—The gig in which Prof. Kennedy drives around Melboumethis Journey is a weird and wonderful machine, evidently constructed for advt. purposes. Kennedy, by the way, probably needs considerable advt. just now. The Bristol horse-show, wherewith he hoped to paralyse Australia, is understood to have absorbed a good deal of the capital the Bulletin’s dear old friend had amassed by pouring kerosene into his fellow man.

“The Geisha” was recently done in Paris, and proved an utter failure. English authorities say “no wonder,” as the Japanese tea garden was turned into a Parisian maison de rendezvous , and Mimosa from a dear innocent girl into a decoy. French Censor was down on the production, too 1 The adaptors introduced an undressing scene at the end of the first act, where four Japanese girls do a dance. As they lightly whirled about, the sashes dropped from about their waists and their robes fell- away, leaving them in a state of the altogether, with only a complete set of fleshings for a covering.

Mr H. J. Emmett, the clever ventriloquist and musician, here with Miss Fanny Wentworth, gave two successful entertainments at Nelson last week. He has now gone to the Coast.

The Hatherley-Dampier Concert Company also appeared at Nelson last week.

The doors for the Nellie Farefit at Drury Lane were opened at nine o’clock in the morning. Shortly after that hour the orchestra filled, and under Ivan Caryll’s baton commenced to play some popular music; whereupon a youth in the gallery piped out plaintively, “ Oh ! chuck it, Caryll 1 we’ve had no sleep yet.” One of the most popular items on the programma was Haydn Coffin’s “Tommy

Atkins," to which the popular baritouo added an extra vm-ce with iln retrain, “ Oh, Nellie Nellie IVux.i, you're a good Tm, hear* i baini.” (r mNI that over 1000 people wine turned u.vay from the gallery alone.

It turns out that poor old Harwood's funeral was but poorly attended. The Bulletin asks. “Can it bo that the old man was nearly forgotten

Ages. Wilson Barrett, 52 ; Kyrle Bellow, 53—would you believe it, yo Wellington female admirers of his ? Albani, 40; Melba, 31. Irving is 00; Toole (semi-paralysed and weak-minded), 05; Beerbohm Tree, 52; Langtry. IS; Bernhardt, 54.

The veteran composer, Verdi, intends taking up his residence definitely in Milan, so that ha may personally superintend a long-cherished scheme ho has had, over which he has spent a great part of his fortune—namely, that of founding a hospital for old dramatic artists. For more than thirty years the aged composer has rented apartments at a. Milan hotel, and it is here, since the death of his wife, that his noice, Signora Carrara, has done her best to attend to his comfort.

Sir Arthur Sullivan when n young man composed an opera called “ The Sapphire Necklace,” but it was never produced on the stage owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the libretto. Those (says the Stage) who have hoard the tuneful overture performed at Loudon concerts will be pleased to learn that a madrigal for five voices, “ When Love and Beauty," from the M.S. opera, has just been published by the firm of Novella.

There is a timeliness of scene about the new American play “Too Much Johnson,” which was to be produced at Loudon Garrick in April, for the plot is laid in Cuba.

Touching Mary Anderson’s horror stricken declaration that “ never never again wMI she go on the stage ” (quoted in Plays and Players last week) a correspondent of the Bulletin remarks:—Haresfoot: “ Mary Anderson is genuine enough in talking of the hollowness of the stage. It is hollow to the girl of 38, but nothing can make it so to the girl of IS. The professional life of the premiere, like that of a Taglioni, or a Carbine, or a Banjitsinjhi, is brief. When Ada Eceve reaches Mary Anderson’s age, she, too, will find the stage hollow, and who can imagine our cl»ic-y Ada fearful of a descent into the Old-Woman line, which now menaces actresses at Balzac’s charming ago of 30 ? Contempt of the stage is a Thespic affection, from Maeroady downwards. Nobody ought to expect to find the drudgery of bread-and-butter business jolly. Mary Anderson as Juliet, Parthenia, or Hermione, fulfilled her function as a thing of beauty and joy for ever —in the statued temple of the mind.” i