NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Mr Liddy writes £rom Auckland to the effect that the stay of the Majeronis in New Zealand will be short — only nine weeks. They open in Dunedin on October 5 for a season of eight nights. The company is a good one, and their repertoire includes "Jealously," ft Fedora," "A Kiss," "The Masked Ball," " A Living Statue," " Camilie," " Wanda," " Marie Antoinette," &c.

Miss Carrie Swan will make her appearance shortly in New Zealand.

The Mammoth Minstrels have just closed a successful season in Wellington, and are pursuing their way northwards.

Nearly every tolerable seat for the first night of " lolanthe " by amateurs next week was taken on the day the box plan was thrown open. The Princess Theatre will probably hold as big a dress circle audience as it has ever done.

During the performance of the Mammoth Minstrels at the Wellington Opera House on Saturday night a gentleman's coat hanging in the dressing room was found on. fire. The garment was completely destroyed, and the wall near the coat on which it was hanging was charred. The fire originated from a pipe in the coat pocket. Mr John Solomon, lessee of the Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne, is one of the happiest men in Australia at the present time. He was brought before the bench the other day and fined half a sovereign for having his house overcrowded.

Minnie Palmer fixes a year as the time within which she will trip across to New Zealand.

Little Elsie Hall, the latest Victorian musical prodigy, is to be taken in hand by the artistic public and sent to foreign parts to pursue her pianoforte studies. A dramatic and musical entertainment is to be given in aid of the object, and Mrs L. L. Lewis, who, a quarter of a century ago, was, as Miss Rosa Dunn, a popular actress, is to reappear in public on the occasion as Nan the Good-for-Nothing.

The Sydney Secularists are about to build a hall. At the first call one enthusiast planked down £1000, two others subscribed £500 each, and not a few followed with modest fifties.

It is related that when Monsieur Poussard, the violinist, was asked what he thought of a certain rather clever amateur violinist, he replied :—": — " Ah ! yen c eez at 'o-ome, een 'eez o-own 'ouz, 'cc eez ve-ra nice, ve-ra nice ; but on ze pub-leek plat-form— a-ah, veil, 'cc eez not at 'o-mne !

Simonsen's Opera Company are playing Italian opera in Adelaide.

Mr David James, the original butterman in " Our Boys," is just recovering from a severe sunstroke.

" A Woman's Truth," one of Mr Walter Reynolds' plays, has f|been running at the Standard Theatre, London.

Clement Scott, who has supplanted the great Sala as critic for the Illustrated London News, has, for the time at least, given up play-writing. The partnership arrangement between him and Mr S. French is therefore at an end.

Dr Filippi, the celebrated Milanese critic, died recently at the early age of 54, of apoplexy. He studied music at Vienna and Venice, and was at one time editor of the Milan Gazzetta Musicale, was founder of II Mondo Artistico, and has since 1859 been musical critic of the Perseveranza. Filippi had a perfect craze for attending first representations of operas, and for that purpose he frequently visited London, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, and other cities. He was an early champion of Beethoven, and on attending at Bayreuth for the production of the " Nibelung's Ring " he was converted to Wagnerism. He leaves a widow, the opera singer Madame Paolina Vaneri, and a daughter of 16.

Mr Beerbohm Tree, now recognised as the best character actor on the London stage, is to assume the management of the Haymarket Theatre. His next play will either be a new piece by Robert Buchanan, or a Shakespearean revival.

Here is a sound bit of criticism on a critic which may be commended to the attention of a good many writers on theatrical matters. The New York World says : — " There is no necessity at this late date to speak of Bernhardt's rendition in detail. Is is neither necessary nor grammatical to speak of her 'rendition' at any time. Eendition means the act of returning ; a surrender ; a translation. To use it as meaning a dramatic or musical performance is an error," Truly in Nuttall " rendering " is one of the meanings of "rendition," but this "rendering" does not signify representation. " Rendition "is a vile word.

A new play of some interest is promised at the Vaudeville Theatre. It is an adaptation from Rider Haggard, and bears the ugly name of "Devil Caresfoot." Miss Janet Achurch, Miss F. Brough, Mr Dacre, and Mr Fuller Mellish are included in the cast.

A singularly romantic story surrounds the widowhood of Mdme. Nordica, the popular 2>rima do?ina, Mdme. Nordica, nee Lilian Norton, was married to Mr Gower, the joint inventor of the Gower-Bell telephone. That patent alone he sold to the British Government for £90,000, and besides this he left an enormous fortune, partly in France, partly in the United States. Some years since Mr Gower was experimenting with balloon engineering for our Government, when the balloon sailed away, and has never since been heard of. There is not the smallest doubt that Mr Gower was killed, but in accordance with the French law, unless the body be discovered the widow can neither assume her pecuniary fortune nor marry again until a certain number of years are expired. The legal period is now at an end, and Mdme. Nordica will start almost directly for the United States to administer her husband's property, which amounts to something like £150,000, but which, "of course, she must share with the rest of his next of kin. \

The popularfl yrima donna Miss Clara Louise Kellogg has often been asked why she never married, and she has always replied that she could not afford to maintain a hus-

band. If the news quoted by the New York Courier be correct, the lady has altered her mind. She recently tumbled into a lake, and was rescued by young Carl Strakosoh, a nephew of Mr Maurice Strakosch. Miss Kellogg is, it is said, now about to select a wedding ring, and young Carl Strakosch (who has for some time past been the advance agent of her concert tourd) will, it is stated, be the happy man. < Mr Augustus Harris, who is just now essaying Italian opera management in London, finds it scarcely an enterprise to be rashly undertaken. In the palmy days of opera the winter was occupied by managers in scouring the world for vocalists and in making elaborate preparations for the spring and summer. But Mr Harris, unluckily for himself, has taken, his artists on hearsay. Mdlle Borelli was engaged at £80 per night, J and her name was placed at the head of the prospectus. But it is said that Mr Harris never heard her until she rehearsed at Drury Lane> Madame Kupfer-Berger is understood to receive £120 and Mdlle Toresella £80 per night. Yet all these artists are more or less severely afflicted with the vibrato, a defect which is shared by Mdlle Fabbri and Mr de> Lucia, but which British audiences never have tolerated. It seems that Madame Sarah Bernhardt's pet tiger got into trouble at Chicago. The Times of that city says, under date June 11 : — " Sarah Bernhardt and her pet tiger cub Minette had a royal time on Thursday afternoon at the hotel, though it -was not; so pleasant for the other parties concerned. Madame Bernhardt ordered a special dish cooked for the cub. When it was brought in by the waiter the hungry young tiger made a spring and fastened his teeth in the arm of the terrified attendant, which caused him to utter a howl of agony and hastily deposit his assailant's dinner on the richly-carpeted floor. The waiter retired, and soon after found if necessary to call a physician to dress' the wound. His {injuries are said to be quite serious, and blood poisoning is feared. The cub also attempted to bite the head waiter, but the latter was too alert." Frau Charlotte Wolter, the German tragedy artist, has just celebrated the 25th anniversary of her engagement at the Hofburg Theatre, Vienna. She is 56 years of age, but is still young looking, and continues to be received with enthusiasm.