THEATRICAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1640, 28 April 1883, Page 23

THEATRICAL.

Por I am nothing, if sot critical. The man that hath not music in himself, Let ao such man be trusted. — Shakenpbaris.

NOTES BY PASQUIJJ.

• [Contributions from the Profession chronicling their movements and doings are respectfully invited.]

New Zealand. Rainer's Diorama at the Queen's Theatre closed on Wednesday last after an exceptionally successful season. The gifts, doubtless, did a great, deal for the management, with the further stimulant afforded by prize poems and prise conundrums. - > -The entertainment given by the Shakespeare Club in the Lyceum Hall on Monday last yields no signs of satisfactory progress on tne part of the members. The leading elocutionists have maintained pretty fairly their former ' average, but there was noticeable an absence " of 'tha.t vitality which should lead such an association on from good to better. The same ' faults were noticeable as in previous entertainments, and this should not be. Whether the system pursued at present by the Club is a ' judicious one or not they should be best able to judge 1 — apparently not. The pieces selected for reading were from " Honry VIII " and " Midsummer v Night's Dream," and Mibs Grant, Messrs Burton, Stone, and others acquitted themselves with a great deal of credit, although many of the parts were indifferently read, and the general tone of the latter selection was too broad. The usual vocal and in- - struinental solos served to enliven the enter* 'tainment.

- 'It ia very- probable that Mr Fred. Maccabe will find time to perform another short season in' Christchurch. He has been for some weeks past on the West Coast, but is expected to drriye in' the Cathedral city to-day (Saturday). : - It is rumoured tbatwe shall shortly have an .opportunity of hearing a lady vocalist, who is at present new both to Dunedin and to the Colony. "She, will be probably introduced to the 'public by a* gentleman well known in musical circlea here, and she is spoken of as possessing a soprano voice of great power and sweetness. Australian.

Sydney ib to have a season of Italian opera, fch/estarß probably being Miss Alice Reeß and „ Signora Graziosi. It is rumoured that Mr Carl Rosa, the wellknown operatic imju-e'ssario, will bring his ; English opera company to Australia* after their < t ortncoming Beaßon in London. If this is true, Australians have a treat in store for them, for the,. Carl; Rosa Companies are always adrair- .. able, barfing the tenors. These latter are only >as good as can .well be obtained, which nowadays is, not saying' much. The Princess Theatre, Melbourne, is at ; present closed after an operatic misadventure. ' *,The .rumour which, l mentioned some short , iime.baok as to the probability of Miss Georgia j'.'Cayvan .visiting' the Colonies now receives ;, confirmation from another quarter. Mr Alfred Hay man, formerly ' Miss Fomeroy's agent in , Australia, is said to have made the American actress ah' offer of £9000 for a nine months' , tour. . " " "f J Mdme. Fanny Siinonsen intends to close 'her' professional career and settle down in ' Australia. -'',',' Jr,'fJ^rhe;\!ColonießJ r ,'f J^rhe;\ ! ColonieB are 'promised the advent of ; another' noted vocalist', in' the person of Miss '' Emma Th'ureby, a soprano, who has taken the 1 Old Country by storm. Mr Maurice Swakosch is to'introduce Tier, "together with a number of '; lesser/lightß, and the party are to be for con- ' oeri'pwrpoßeß only. (1( 1 Mr ( v Wybert Keeve has gathered a strong ■company' for His forthcoming comedy season 1 'at the Bijou', 1 Melbourne. The following names '&% 'Billed besides his own:— Messrs H. N.

Douglas, Frank Catea, George Forbes, G. A. Obleraan." Edwin Palmer, J. W. Foley, E. Gladetoiif/ Frank Gerald, and Misses Flora „ Anßtefid. '.Jenny; Watt-Tanner, #Taggie Knight, Cora Gwynne, and Mrs '■"Marcus Clarke. The piece's' produced will be an adaptation of Yon Moßer and Schoenheim's German comedy entitled " The Pausing Regi ment," Mr Andrew Halliday'e comedy "For ■Lovd'or Money," Mr Pinero'a "Imprudence," ' and "The" Squire," Mr Merritt's "Fairy Fingers," and an English' 'adaptation of Emile -■'AngierV comedy " Les -Fourchanbault." Mr -,-WybertV'Reeve' will also probably fall back upon hia old props " Diplomacy," and " The • Woman in White/ 1 '/'-Messrs' 1 Knight Aston' and Jno. Wallace, 'Who recently seceded from the Dunning- Wallace 1 opera troupe, ; have commenced an inland tour • ii^Vibtoria with an 'entertainment supported by, themselves alone. It is entitled " Mixed Pickles;" and -the libretto has-been furnished ■ by-'a^pronnuent literateur. ' Mr F. Hiscocks. having completed his tour ■with; Maccabe, will shortly open the Victoria "" Hall, Melbourne, with a star company. This will 'include several American artists. '"'"Mr 1 A;'T. Dunning, with his company, has ' -orJened at the Sydney Opera House in"Boc- • «&ccio.. 'lt is' amusing to read other impres- :! Bioha of our ovminterpreneur, whose smallness of 'stature is training him some little ' ridicule. ; The Bulletin has the following :—" Such a '•'fire-eater did we imagine A. T. to be that we ' figured 'to' ourselves, when 'thinking of him, a ' fierce, blackwhiskered, wax-moustachioed im- ' Joreaßario, whose teeth had the Cagli grind, and ■•'Syery-' flash of whose eyeß 'emitted sparks of passion. 'Well, we have' seen Mr Dunning, >'and we have been pleasantly disillusioned. •fAs'-we were going into the Opera House on '.•(Monday night, some one said to vs — 'Allow ime to introduce you to Mr Dunning.' We looked about for some moments, and at length discovered a very diminutive little gentleman. '•witbnthitae' Liliputian diamond studs, and the i smallest' legs we have seen since we took a touching farewell of Japanese Tommy. Some one suggested refreshment, and we, of course, r acceded; but we missed Mr Dunning three • - times on our journey to the bar-room. When erwehad imbibed,' the treasurer told us that, after being lost three times on the Adelaide -• steamer, the captain 1 considered it his duty, as ;the guardian of the passengers, to hang the --iimpreasario on his watch chain. We have an idea that this gentleman embellished a bit: -but all, wet know is that, at the conclusion of the-performance, we were unable to discover Mr punning, anywhere, notwithstanding that we carefully searched all our ulster pockets " -"The Romany Rye" is still running in Sydney. ■ '- . '-' Miss Emma Wangenheim, with the remains . of Souths opera troupe, is starring in the New South Wales provinces. Messrs Vernon, Reid. and Arthur Rigby support her. At the Gaiety Theatre, Sydney, Mr W. E Sheridan- haß at last had his Bterling merit ' recognised. He is now concluding the first •■ financially. successful season which he haß ' played, in Australia. He leaves shortly for America. ' ' Miss Maggie Knight had a slight mishap •-. -recently on the stage of the Melbourne Theatre ' fteyal. In "Mankind" she enters on a ..■*mk*y, aqd unfotfqnately both for h«mlf

and the perplexed animal, she fell off near the wings. The audience was amused, and no damage was done. A well known-remark among professionals is '' You can't beat tho tent," meaning that in the country a dramatic company stands not the least show against a circus. The tables, however, were turned in Gundagai (N.S.W.) recently, when two of the shows named were playing in opposition. At 8.30 p.m. nobody had .turned up to see the spangle and sawdust artists, and the crowd in a body paid a visit to the home of the drama.

The Towers family are doing well in Melbourne, and by latest advices had produced an adaptation of Mr Farjeon's novel " Grif." Mr Frank Towers is the avowed adapter, and the interest felt in the story is undoubtedly intensified through the locale being Victoria. " Grif " ia a kind of counterpart of Dickerm' " Jo," who has conceived a platonic affection for a young woman who is somebody else's wife. In endeavouring to serve the young woman and save her husband, who has got unpleasantly mixed up with burglars, be loses his life. The burglars are captured at the same time, and bo poetical justice is meted out ; though it certainly seems hard that the most virtuous character of the story should be assassinated. The piece has so far gone exceedingly well. The musical critic of the Melbourne Leader, whilst commending Miss Alice Rees' debut in Italian opera, takes occasion to comment most severely upon the performances as a whole. He remarks, " Such chorus singing and such orchestral playing as disgraced the two * Sonnambula' performances I certainly have never heard in any theatre. There was very little to choose between the two, but I think the band the worse, because even in the simplest form of the Bellini accompaniment discord after discord twanged out. The music must either have been crammed with wrong notes, or the players had not reached a level of proficiency which entitled them to the responsibility they assumed. At all events the ear-torturing was enough to have placed any singer hors de combat, whilßt when a chorus was progressing at the same time the confusion reached a babel climax that told effectually on the dullest of musical people in the audience." This is cheerful reading concerning the company that is shortly to tour this Colony.

Home and Foreign.

Ronconi, the tenor, has just met his death under very sad circumstances at Sinigaglia. A performance of "Faust" was to be given with Ronconi in the title role, and the curtain was raised disclosing the singer seated in hia arm chair. Loud applause greeted him, but the tenor on rising to bow his acknowledgements was suddenly seized with illness, and sank listlessly into his chair again. The orchestra continued the music, but the audience finding the singer did not go on with his part, commenced hissing. After a few minutes' delay orders were given for the curtain to be lowered, when, after examination, it was discovered that the poor fellow was suffering from effusion of blood on the brain, from which he never rallied, dying without recovering consciousness at three o'clock the following morning. The Pickwick, one of the strongest Bocial organisations of the States, has bought the French Opera House in New Orleans. Charles R. Thome, one of the best known among American actor 3, is just dead. He has been suffering for some time from a painful internal disease. The funeral service held was of' the strangest, the deceased's Freethought views being well known. One of the mourners delivered a kind of oration over the grave, summing up Mr Thome's belief in a future state as follows : " The future is a dark impenetrable curtain which no human being has ever drawn aside, and come back to tefl the tale." An extract from "The Tempest" was then read, and a telegram of condolence from Colonel Robert Ingersoll. The Kennedy Family of Scotch vocalists are on their way back to this country. ! Pretty actresses 'appear to have a lhely time of it in the States, judging by the following epistle which has been addressed to Miss Mary Anderson :—" Dear Miss Anderson, — You will not be surprised at getting this letter. You must have felt sure it would come, as you have seen I did not miss a performance. My intention is to marry you, and I want you to write me if your family is likely to oppose us. Some way I thought last night your face was sorrowful. If my sitting in the front row of the gallery so frequent makes you tremble, I'll sit further back. _ I know what family troubleis ; I've had family myself. Though you are the first girl I ever brought myself to think of marrying, having always meant to be a bacheldore ; but something prompts me to marry you, and I don't think I shall ever regret it. I'll drop all familiarity and call you dear Mary at once, and tell you what you may expect, which is this : Perfect freedom to stay on the stage, and a perfect gentleman to tend to your business, which, together with a living husband, will make you satisfied I am sure. I was in the dentist business eight months, but found it too confining, and have been canvasser for the History of the Rebellion for three months, and find it takes too much walking to make it pay. Don't put off answering my letter later than to-morrow, as I want to hear certainly about your family by Sunday, so'a to know what to do," &c, &c This letter is, however, only one of a aerie which are constantly coming to hand. During a recent performance of 'Molanthe ' ' at Richmond (U.S.) the Bcenery caught fire and a panic was only averted by the presence of mind of those upon the stage. It is related of George S. Knight, tho now celebrated American comedian, that he once enacted a small part in a piece called " Fifth Avenue," which was played in New York with George Rignold as the star. In this part Knight introduced a " fit scene," and on the second night he received five encores for his fit. Rignold stood on the wings watching the fit and the encores, and when Knight came off the stage after the final encore, good-naturedly remarked that he would do a fit himself in the last act.

The Queen has taken a most extraordinary step in publicly proclaiming her dislike to places of amusement. Sir John Cowell, Master of the Queen's Household, has issued a notice at Windsor Castle to the effect that all members of the household on duty at the Castle are to remain there, and together with those who reside at their own homes, are ordered not to visit theatres, music halls, or any_ public places of amusement. This is bo diametrically opposed to the attitude of the Prince and Princess of Wales and others of the Royal Family upon such matters as to excite a great' deal of remark. Mr Percy Blandford, the popular English tenor, has been singing in Italy with great success.

Amongst all her multifarious occupations Mdme. Sarah Bernhardt appeara to have found time to write her memoirs. The book is to be in one volume with illustrations by M. Roybet and Mdlle. Abberna. The edition, which, as usual in France, will number 1001 copies, will be published in three different styles, 250 bound in a very choice manner, 600 on China paper, with the name of the purchaser printed thereon, and an autograph of Sw&h Bernhardt ; aud the

remaining portion in a simpler fashion. Eaoh volume will, in addition, contain an engraving of the authoress, taken from a portrait executed by Mdlle. Abbema. M. Louis Derenbourg, Madame's editor, offered her. £4000, but the terms were not accepted, the arrangement being that the profits shall be divided. The incident of Mdlle. Marie Roze and the dog haa been almost repeated at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, the difference being^ that the interloper on the latter occasion was a small black kitten. The little animal ran on the stage during an operatio performance, surveyed the audience with an unflinching eye, and settled down comfortably on tho O.P. aide to watch the proceedings. Attempts were made to dislodge it both by the singers and musicians, but without avail, and, to tbe intense amusement of tho audience, the cat retained her place calm and collected to the last.

A new classic tragedy, entitled " The Wife of Miletus," is about to be brought out by Mr J. M'Cullough in New York. It is written by a Greek, Mr T. T. Timayenia, with the collaboration of Professor H. 0. Miller, of New York. The play ia founded upon one of the Erotics of PartheniuB — a verse 22 lines in length. The chief male oharacter is Hervor, a Gaul, and chief of the Avorni, and the leading female part is Siva. M'Cullough has purchased the piece at a good round sum, it has been submitted for criticism to several well-known literary men, and a great success is anticipated. A "darkey," with the euphonius norn de theatre Paul Molyneux, is playing through the English provinces. He bills himself "The great Creole Tragedian, so justly entitled the Black Roscius." Othello is his great part, but the only discoverable qualification he possesses for the role is that his skin ia about the right colour. " The Silver King" is still running with unabated success both in London and New York. Great curiosity has been expressed as to the style of the authors, Messrs Joneß and Hermann, and I quote below a passage from the most striking part of the play. The hero, Wilfred Denver (self-supposed murderer), is describing to the faithful old servant Jaikes the horrors that assailed him in a troubled sleep;— "Denver: Stay. I fell asleep. Jaikes, you don't know what a murderer's sleep is? It is the waking time of conscience ! It is the whipping-post she ties him to while ahe lashes and stings and maddens hia poor helpless guilty soul ! Sleep ? It is a bed of spikeß and horrora ! It ia a precipice for him to roll over, sheer upon the jags and forks of memory ! It is a torchlight procession of devils, laking out every infernal sewer and cranny of his brain ! It is ten thousand mirrors dangling round him to picture and repicture to him nothing but himself ! Sleep ! O, God, there is no hell but sleep. — Jaikes : Master Will ! My poor Master Will.— Denver : That's what my sleep has been these four years past. I fell asleep, and I dreamed we were over in Nevada, and we were seated on a throne, she and I, and all the people came to offer us their homage and loving obedience. And it was in a great hall of justice ; and a man was brought before me charged with a crime, and just as I opened my mouth to pronounce sentence upon him Geoffrey Ware rose up out of his grave with his eyes staring, staring, staring, as they stared at me on that night, and as they will stare at me till my dying day ; and he said, ' Come down ! Come down, you whited sepulchre ! How dare you sit in that place to judge men ? ' And he leapt up in his grave-clothes to the throne where I was, and seized me by the throat and dragged me down, and we struggled and fought like wild beasts. We seemed to be fighting for years, and at last I mastered him, and held him down and throttled him, and rammed him tight into his grave again, and kept him there and wouldn't let him atir ; and then I saw a hand coming out 6f the sky, a long bony hand with no flesh on it, and nails like eagle's claws ; and it came slowly out of the sky, reaching for miles it seemed ; Blowly, slowly it reached down to the very place where I was, and it fastened in my heart, and it took me and set me in the justice hall in tbe prisoner's dock, and when I looked at my judge it was Geoffrey Ware! And I cried out 'for mercy, but there was none ! And the band gripped me again as a hawk grips a wren, and set me on the gallowB ; and I felt the plank fall from under my feet, and I dropped, dropped, dropped— and I awoke !" Bartley Campbell's new play " Siberia" has been produced at Wallack's Theatre, New York, with immense success. It is sensational in the extreme, but the Press are loud in its praise. One paper says that, with the exception of " The Ticket-of-Leare Man" and " The Silver King," no modern British melodrama will bear comparison with " Siberia." Osmond Tearle says that he has had 487 requests for autographs since he landed in America a few months ago. Most of them, he adds, are from women.

Mr Salmi Morpe and his Passion Play have now been fairly extinguished in New York. A license still being refused, and the Shrine being ready, Mr Morse decided to give a full rehearsal, issuing invitation tickets. The house was packed, but tho police interfered, notwithstanding that no money had been taken at the doors. The play was fairly commenced, and the curtain had risen upon the first scene, the temple. About 100 persons, dressed in apcient robes, were on the stage. In the centre was the high priest, behind him two assistants, and ranged around were the multitude. Mr Morse was then and there arrested by the captain of police and marched off to gaol, tearfully averring that no other play should ever be performed within those walls.

Mdlle. Van Zandt has been winning fresh laurels at Monte Carlo. Her last success was as Dinorah in " Le Pardon de Ploermel."

The much-talked-of opera " Henry VIII " is about to be produced at the Grand Opera House, Paris. As the utmost attention is to be paid to historic detail, special messengers were sent to England to study the portraits by Holbein and pictures of Henry VIII's time which are hanging in Windsor Castle.

Very simple causes will occasionally produce a panic in a theatre, and one was nearly occasioned in an American theatre recently by the footlights being suddenly turned up, and by mistake a large chandelier as well. The combined flash produced the effeot of a fire up aloft. The curtain was hastily rung down, a young lady was very nearly jumping from a box, and it was some time before an explanation from the stage manager quelled the alarm. Paris is just 'now looking forward to a visit from Carlotta Patti and her husband, Ernest de Munck, the great violincello player. They have lately been sojourning in Russia, and have abandoned a projected journey to Siberia on account of the extreme cold.

Oscar Wilde has once more announced his intention of going on the stage. He is to make his debut as Romeo.

We shall soon have quite a list of plays with duplicate titles. There are two " lolantbes," two " All for Hera," and now we learn that Dion Boucicault's new piece " Tho " baa a namesake, which was copyrighted and sold to an American manager some time ago. Coquelin has returned to Paris after a European kwr, durlnj; which hq netted in two months 120,000 francs.