NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1927, 26 October 1888, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Glove fights are still the most intellectual amusement provided at the Princess Theatre, but we shall have something a little more highly toned before long. The amateurs, for instance, are now hard at work preparing for their great production of •' Othello," which is positively to surpass any previous handling of Shakespeare by amateurs. Mr A. Barrett is to be the Aloor, and Mr T. Bracken lago. In Christchurch they are about to witness an amateur production of " The Mikado." Beyond that stagnation is complete. Mr F. M. Clark's " All-Star " Company have been doing even better business in Wellington than they did iv Christchurch. Their season closes on Thursday evening. Miss Mary Hume has scored a series of vocal triumphs in the North lately. At Nelson her concerts were specially successful. Mi.°s Yon Finkelstein, who is under the pilotage of Mr R. S. Smythe, gave the first of her costume and tableau lectures in Auckland on the 16th, the title being " Homes and Haunts of Jesus." "Life in Jerusalem" (of which city the lecturer is a native) was the next subject. Wagner's correspondence (admirably translated into English by Dr Hueffer) shows his character in an incredible unamiable light, even independently of the constant squeezing of money out of poor Liszt. Wagner's empressions of London, whither he camo in 1855 to conduct some Philharmonic concerts, are instructive. He writes :—": — " Blackguardism, obstinacy, and religiously nursed stupidity are here protected with iron walls ; only a blackguard or a Jew can succeed here." Then, " I live here as one of the lost souls ia hell. I never thought that I could sink so low. The misery I feel in having to live in these disgusting surroundings is beyond description, and I now realise that it was a sin, a crime, to accept this invitation to London. I need not expatiate to you upon my actual situation. Ib is the consistent outgrowth of the greatest inconsistency I ever committed. lam compelled to conduct an English concert programme right down to the end. That says everything." Wagner goes on to heap foul words on all England, upon the orchestra, the public, and— the sbing of the whole doubtleps lies in the tail—" In addition to this the ridiculous Mendelssohn worship." Big preparations are being made at Drury Lane for the production of an " Armada " drama with ambitious scenic effects. The chief scenes are a fight between the British fleet and Spanish fire ships with the rescue of the heroine from the burning, the " pressing " of sailors at old Charing Cross, the historic game at bowls, and the Spanish inquisition. It is rumoured that little Josef Hofman, who has almost recovered from his indisposition, will go back to America next year and play the piano again under the management of Mr Abbey. Boucicault, writing upon the actor's art, 8ay8 ;_» Riding can be taught only on horse- ( back; swimming can be taught only in the water ; acting must be learned on the stage." A somewhat important decision has just been delivered by a French tribunal on the subject of tights. Madame Schaeffer, an actress at Rouen, refused to wear tights, and the quarrel which ensued was finally taken to court for settlement. After a sharply-contested legal battle the judges decided that the " obligation to show one's legs was not of necessity a part of the dramatic profession," and fchab the manager must pay the actress her full salary. The new Gilbert and Sullivan opera has been read to the Savoy company, but all the artists were of course bound over to secrecy, and swore to be mum-yum-yum, while fierce patrols cleared the stage of carpenters and scene shifters. Nevertheless the Figano claims to have learned a good deal about the plob through the medium of the theatrical cab. What they publish reads esceedingly like "Maritana" redressed. The first scene, as Mr Gilbert said long ago, is laid in tho Tower of London, in the days of Henry VIII, or auy other time. Here in prison is immured a noblemen, who has committed some Gilbertian form of high treason, and who is to die in an hour. There is another reason why tbe execution is hurried. His wicked cousin is his heir, and as the prisoner is a bachelor ifc is of the utmost importance that he should die before he can marry. The prisoner is well aware of all this, and resolves to outwit his cousin if possible. He will give untold gold for a wife, and the Gilbertian fancy ia put into play to provide all sorts of unsuitable partners who reject him. These last details, however, as they somewhat resemble an analogous scene in the Cour de Miracles in Dumas' " Notre Dame," will eventually besbruck out. The lady who at last consents to wed the unknown is the sole supportof au aged mother. For the sake of the gold which will relieve her mother's distresses she marries the prisoner whose face she is not permitted to see, and the ceremony being regularly and legally performed, she is led out of the Tower. The prisoner does not die, as at the end of the first act he escapes from the Tower. All this, ib will be observed, is very like " Maritana." In the second act tho Gilbertian affection for paradox is— at any rate, according to theatrical cat— exemplified. The married lady wanders about in search of the husband she has never seen, aud a good deal is made out of a court jester, who reminds Puss of Victor Hugo and Verdi's "Rigoletto." Eventually the lady falls in love with another man, to whom she durst not disclose the secret of her unlucky wedding in the Tower. The two spoon together consumedly, and generally behave in a manner quite the thing aa between a couple of young lovers, but grossly improper when one of the parties is a married lady. At last, as they are about to elope, the heroine wisely makes a clean breast of it, and is astonished and delighted to discover that her newest sweetheart is no other than her spouse j of the Tower. The whimsical idea of a wife eloping with her own husband seems Giberfcian to a fault.