NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

The record of the week's amusements (theatrical) in Dunedin may still be summed up as nil. Probably the red-shirted digger of the olden days would not have stood it so patiently as we have. He would have put on his war paint, and rung up the. curtain upon himself as Hamlet, or Othello, or Desdemona, or the, Wandering Jew, or Farthenia. There is nothing that the ancient miner, who never knew bow much he made a week, might not have done to rid himself of this deadly dullness. Critics are glad of it. It gives them less work. The public don't think they mind much, because they have got rinks to go to, and amateur concerts, and tea meetings; but how about the stage— that institution we all affect to prize' so much, and don't really prize at the value of a boot lace. To my mind, it is saddening to thing that the Dunedin theatre (our only one, mark you) can have been absolutely tenantless for several consecutive months. We like a good play well played when we get it (which is only seldom) ; but we can do without it marvellously well. For myself • I love stage play— the' honest cheating, and sigh for our only theatre to be filled with people, good or bad, as fate may send. Of coarse when they come we shall not like them, and we shall say so unreservedly (seeing that our living does not depend upon the receipts), but we shall be glad they are there all the same. However, to leave the speculation for the realities, we are actually to have something here on Wednesday night of this week, and the "something" is Mr O'Driscoll Foley in his "Festivities." I like festivities, and should, therefore, without doubt, like Foley, who lives on festivities ; therefore, I am the more sorry that bis performance comes too late for me to notice this week. The real coming attraction with us is, of course, the Brough and Boucicault Company, who are, at the time of writing, in Timaru, but will be in Dunedin before one can say Jack Robinson — or Jack Sheppard, rather. They ought to open here in •' Little Jack Sheppard," but they don't. They choose instead " The Forty Thieves," and are badly advised, inasmuch as the one would " catch on," and the other, unless I am greatly mistaken, will not. The directors of the Wellington Opera House Company have decided to immediately restore the building, and the work has been entrusted to Mr W.iC. Ohatfield, the architect of the original Opera House. The seating accommodation in both the dress and family circles is to be extended and increased. The estimated cost of the complete restoration is under £6500, and the building will, it is expected, be opened before Christmas. ' • Sir Arthur Sullivan, in the course of his successful career t -has managed to make one enemy at least, and a good one. It is a woman,' of course, and her name is Selina Dolaro, well known in theatrical and literary circles. This lady writes with charming candour about Sir Arthur in an American paper as follows: — " Sullivan is a perfect example of a snob. He has brought to a fine point that art of making himself agreeable to people of title. It is very nice to feel that he has been rewarded by the gift of that which to his heart is the greatest joy, for Arthur loves a title. I once called him the walking Blue Book, because he never could talk five minutes without bringing in " My Lady This or That," and he did it very ingeniously and gracefully, too — with just that air of deprecation necessary to convince the uninitiated that he was so accustomed to that kind of thing. Even this proves him to be what he is, quite intelligent, and possessed of a strong sense of humour, which accounts more than his musical ability for his great success with Gilbert's books. It is entirely due to his appreciation of the ludicrous that he is able to treat his subject in the style so popular. I mean the system of topsyturvydom, which is Gilbert's invention. When analysed, the principal reason of success is found in the wedding of the sublime to the ridiculous. Ido not mean any depreciation of his musical talent. Of course Arthur Sullivan was well known as a successful song writer and musician, but there is little doubt that he would be as poor to-day as he was whenlproduced the " Trial by Jury " without Gilbert's genius. This may appear a somewhat hypothetical view, or perhaps to some minds meaningless, were I not able to substantiate it by the fact that he bad composed several operettas before his association with Gilbert, with the result that I question, if any one were asked in this country io name them, an answer could be obtained. Yet there were tunes in all of them of as much value as any in the works most popularly known. There was the same patter song in all, sung by the gentleman who explains who he is, such as first lords iv " Piuafore," dragoons in '♦ Patience," judges in " Trial by Jury," majorgenerals in "Pirates," lord chancellors in *'lolanthe," to). There were the same charming if not successful ballads, but in the days before Gilbert's advent those ballads were languishing and maudlin — sung by the Elviras and the Lucettes of deadly, dreary, stupid English libretti of the good old pattern, such as Simon- Small beer, a miser; Rosalie, his daughter, in love with Peter; Peter Perkins, a carpenter, in love with Rosalie ; Susan Dickory, a sour old maid; Lawyer Screwbrief seeking to wed Rosalie, &c. The form of these ingenuous constructions was ever and unvarying the same. Opening chorus of villagers in front of tavern — always called on these occasions the village ale-house. This chorus is always gay and merry, demonstrated incontestibly by the gentlemen of the chorus having drinking cups, and at stated intervals raising them and clinking them at the words, " We're gay, ha ! ha ! and merry, tra, la ! " This ended, Rosalie enters, sings a ballad in 6—B tempo, in which " Cupid an his darts to lovers' hearts " occurs frequently. This ended, reprise of chorous ; after which enter Peter, gaily attired, with a large hammer gracefully held on his shoulder, to give character to the role — and so on to the end, which differs little in every case. But to return to Sullivan. He contributed much pretty music to similarly stupid books, till he was fortunate enough to work with Gilbert. His labours so far had yielded him a living, with periodical eruptive crises. It was to tide himself over one of these that he succeeded by treachery in get ting me out of the Royalty Theatre, by means which it is not necessary to explain." Here it appears to the casual reader is the secret of Madame Dolaro's acerbity, carefully kept like a postscript to the end of the letter. Sir Arthur in the dim past got her out of the Royalty Theatre, and, concludes the fair writer, " he was determined I should never get into any theatre he could possibly keep me out of, yet I solemnly declare I had never done him the smallest injury. Suoh is life." Quite so, but Madame Dolaro having never done him the smallest injury so far is determined now to make up for lost time. Ths veteran singer Alboni has just celebrated

her sixty-second birthday, and has' reappeared in Paris, proving her voice, to the general surprise, to be as fresh and pure as ever. ' Alboni's last appearance ,in public was about the time of the war, when she* made a triumphal tour through France to sing the posthumous mass of her master, Rossini. ' ' At the 150feh performance of "The Winter's Tale," at the Lyceum Theatre, London, a mighty wreath was presented to Mary Anderson on behalf of the 392 members of the company and staff, whose names were emblazoned on rolls of ribbon that descended from the garland. Miss Anderson's season has been so successful that it is rumoured she wanted to renew Her lease of the Lyceum but that Mr j Irving didn't see it. The (American actor Osmond Tearle is going to make a bid for popularity as a star in England. He has. refused an engagement as leading man at Drury Lane. Irving has indubitably a neat knack of saying smooth and happy things. When called before the curtain by the cadets at West Point recently, he remarked in the course of a smart '.speech, " This is the first time the British ever 'captured West Point!" The cadet cheers of course were something deafening. Mr Irving was entertained by the Goethe Club before he left New York. Since her marriage it is asserted that Madame Nilsson no longer cares to appear on the operatic stage, on which she gained her first and her greatest triumphs. Instead, she has in the course of the forthcoming season resolved to sing at two farewell concerts under the direction of Mr Kuhe, one to be given at St. James 1 and the second and last at the Royal Albert Hall, the latter at about the date of the 21st anniversary of her debut at lier Majesty's Theatre. Whether these two concerts will actually be the great prima donna's final appearance in public time alone will show. Mrs Langtry has happily wriggled out of the suit that has been pending against her for several years for breaking her contract with, the late M«rrui Greenwall for a tour of Australia. It will be remembered that when she made her first trip through America in 1884 she contracted with Greenwall, who was then managing Baldwin's Theatre, San Francisco, fora visit to the colonies. She broke the contract, and Mr Alfred Hayman,as executor of Greenwall, who died about the same time, brought an action for 8500dol alleged to have been expended on hiring steamship staterooms, X advertising, and securing theatres in Australian cities. He added 10,000dol damages for loss through the fickleness of the fair actress. The suit has now been discontinued, the defendant being charged with costs. " The Don " is the title of a new farcical comedy, written for Mr Toole by Mr and Mrs Herman Merivale. Tho hero is a respectable middle-aged dean of chapels, who is about to espouse a widow, and is charged with eloping with a ward in Chancery, who was discovered embracing him in chambers just above his own. Of course it is the old fellow^ nephew who is the real culprit. The comic situations include — (1) Violent attacks on the Don by a massive widow, who whep the Don described a widow he thought of marrying, considered he referred to her, and acted accordingly ; (2) the volcanic jealousy of the Don's real widow ; (3) the terrible arrest of the Don by the minions of the law ; and (4) the Don's attempted escape ala Guy Fawkes. The comedy, however, is pronounced to be not nearly so good as " The Butler," written for Toola by the same authors. Henri Meilhac, the well-known French author and dramatist, is a candidate for the vacancy in the Academic Frangaise caused by the death of Labiche J. B. Polk has been seriously ill in the States, but is recovering. People often wonder what dramatists do when the time has come for them to be delivered of a play. Mr Fred Marsden, the American playwright, has what strikes me as a peculiarly ostentatious and American way of conducting himself during the crisis. " Stand from under," is the signal hung out when he starts to work. He stays for days afc a time in his study at bis residence, takes his meals there and retires in an adjoining room. He doesn't show himself to his family, aud of course isn't visible to anybody else. Sometimes he works all night and sleeps all day, if the mood strikes him. He smokes a meersohaum pipe incessantly and drinks nothing except cocoa wine, which he uses to stimulate the mental faculties when he :s weary. While evolving his plot he must be in perfect darkness. Curtains are tightly drawn over the windows, the dramatist throws himself on a lounge and buries his face in his haads. He finds it necessary to exclude not only light but sound. He won't have a clock in the room, and if any noise is made by the servants there is sure to be trouble. The household fully comprehends this peculiarity, and everybody goes about softly and speaks in whispers. After all this ceremony it is only necessary to add that when Mr Marsden's play is done it proves from bad to indifferent and rarely reaches middling. Mr A. C. Gunther has dramatised his clever novel, "Mr Barnes, of New York," (published in Dunedin under the title of "A Corsican Vendetta") but the production has not been yet arranged. Mr George Giddens and Mr Rutland Barrington (of the Savoy) are both about to start in theatrical management on their own account, the former at the hitherto ill-fated Novelty, the latter at the St. James', which presently passes out of the hands of Bare and Kendal. Nearly all the London managers now are players — Irving, Wilson Barrett, Tree, Thome, Wyndham, Grace Hawthorne, York Stephens, Augustus Harris, Conquest, Willard, aud several others. Another dramatic version is threatened of the Australian " shocker," as " The Mystery of a Hansom Cab " has come to be called. AMr Vardy, of Regent street, proposes to call it " The Mysterious Murder in a Hansom Cab," and produce it somewhere in the English provinces. Messrs Fergus Hume and Arthur Law, however, are likely to spoil this little project. , The Mlowing is the kind of commendation that Sardou's "La Tosca" earned from the New York press: — "Victorien Sardou must bear the sole blame of " La Tosca's " enormities ; not only the blame of the critics, but the just censure of all decent thinking and acting men and women who have seen his brutal, bestial, bawdy work. Sardou has long enjoyed supremacy among the dramatists of the present generation, because he has heretofore given to the stage a number of plays that are still admired as remarkable specimens of ingenuity, adjustment, and craft. But in "La Tosca "he falls from his high estate and, unless we greatly mistake, destroys at one stroke tbe confidence and esteem which he enjoyed. The noxious influence of Zola reeks in this hideous exposition of horror and lust. The leader of the realistio school — the man who maintains that nothing in nature is too degrading, or two disgusting, to serve the purposes of literature and the stage, that' idealism is opposed to art, and the odour of offal and the emanations of the gutter contribute to the refinement and the enjoyment of mankind — thin execrable Zola has found an ardent disciple in Sardou. Like many new converts he is a zealot ; he rushes as far as possible to the opposite extreme from his former position and out-Zola's Zola in descending to the

I lowest cesspools of vice, and' crime, and base ■ passion to obtain his 1 andean materials. i Searching for the novelties of human filth, he i selected those that were unknown to the stage 1 because no man' had had the audacious desire, or ' had dared to place them there to fill the theatre with their foal, malignant vapours. In subject andin method of treatment La Tosca is absolutely indefensible. Strictly speaking, it is not immoral; but like many unmentionable things common to human experience, it is gross and repulsive. That which is both gross and repulsive is not a fit subject for, the dramatist's pen." Since this the play has been toned down somewhat in deference to the susceptibilities of ' English speaking people. It is drawing a lot of money of course-^-all the more on account of the' onslaught of the moralists. • <