NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1942, 7 February 1889, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Mr Darrell seems to have Bcored a real success in. Christchucch with the stage version of Fergus Hume's novel, and we shall soon have an opportunity of judging it down here. The Jungfrau Kapelle, now in Christchurch, may also shortly be looked for in Dunedin. The colonial rights of " Doctor Cupid " have been purchased by Mr Garner in London. At least so the cable in a confused endeavours to tell us. The new London journal entitled the Playgoer is, it would seem, going to boa success. The first numbers at any rate have been sprightly. The author of a capital satirical article on *' Stage Villains " recommends the villain always before he commits a murder to look round and see whether he is not observed by the comic man. And he caustically adds that if, instead of murdering the innocent old victim, he were to kill the comic man early in the piece he would ba hailed as a theatrical benefactor. Miss Fanny Robina, well-remembered here with the Brough-Boucicault Company, is now playing in the burlesque " Faust up to Date " at the Gaiety Theatre. It is a genuinely comical piece, which succeeds in extracting some more fun from a very old theme. Old Faust longing for love and youth, is waited upon as in the original by Mephistopheles, who summons a vision of Marguerite engaged as a fascinating barmaid at the Italian Exhibition at Nuremberg. Old Faust signs the necessary bond, and is transformed into a gay and handsome gallant, who is accepted by Marguerite. Her brother Valentine, to favour the addresses of Siebel, makes his sister a ward in Chancery, and the married pair dread the punishment of the Lord High Chancellor, from which punishment they eventually escape at the Olympic Gardens by a balloon ascent. Mephistopheles is outwitted by the appearance of old Faust with the grievance that the gentleman in red has not fulfilled his portion of the contract, but allowed another to enjoy himself in hia place. Valentine, though he has been carried off as killed, comes to life again, his valuable existence having been saved by Faust's sword being turned aside by Valentine's Waterbury .watch, the touching gift of his sister. Charlea Coghlan is going to play the Thane to Mrs Langfcry's Lady Macbeth in New York. The play left unfinished by the late Sir Charles Young, author of " Jim the Penman," has been completed by Mr W. J. Wells, who had to supply a last act of his own. The ballets of " The Crystal Slipper," which has just been produced at the Star Theatre, New York, are said to be bewilderingly beautiful. An animated supper service is one of the novelties. The march in the ballet begins with eight men clad in rich Moorish dresses. The headpieces are handsome ewers, and in the back of the coats of mail is the menu of the banquet. Each of the men carries a large, glittering fork, saggestive of the havoc to be wrought at the banquet. Four fruit girls follow, their heads crowned with baskets containing fruit. Plaited white satin, festooned with grapes, plums, and apricots, forms the costumes of this band. The Amazons, representing a number of articles indispensable to the festive board, next appear on the scene, headed by one clad in golden armour and carrying in her hand a massive spoon. The helmets are adorned with cut flowers, the shield is a large plate, and breastplate in the form of a soup tureen completes the costume. The weapon carried by the Amazons is a formidable fruit knife. Oysters on the half -shell are another striking feature of this ballet. The ice cream ballets comprise cherry and pistache, lemon, and chocolate, succeeded by the champagne dancers, whose headgear is of gilded champagne cork. Cafe noir and chartreuse are represented by two actresses, attired in rich and novel costumes. Certain references to current politics have been introduced into " The Yeomen of the Guard "in America, to Mr Gilbert's great indignation. Jack Point, the jester, for instance, introduces a topical song, of which the following is one of the verses : — ' As a general rule you won't find a fool In a high diplomatic position ; But one dear old chap fell into a trap That was laid by a shrewd politician. If a schoolboy should make a very bad break He knows he'll ba spanked for effrontery; But the man who will write stupid letters should bite The dust and be sent home to the country. Thia nation ia planned with a v ower to resist, And Democracy's hand has a very hard fist ; It can spank all the foes of our country. According to the Paris Figaro, a few weeks hgo M. Gounod was at Madame Patti's hotel in Paris, and after hearing her Steinway grand declared that if he had such a piano his youthful freshnesss of inspiration would be restored to him. Madame Patti cabled to New York, and at once received a reply from Mr Steinway asking M. Gounod to accept the piano as a present. A new tragedy on an old theme has been produced at the Theatre Royal, Hanover. It is entitled " Josef aud Suleika," and has five acts, telliug the story of Josef's adventures in the house of Potiphar. Josef, who is iv love with the daughter of Potiphar, the high priest, is sent by the lafctpr to ask ou Potiphar's behalf the hand of Suleika, whom he loves. The fair one supposes that Josef is proposing marriage on his own account, and, liking his looks, accepts. When she finds out her mistake it is too late to revoke her word. Josef remains in the house of his newly-married master. The sequel is historical. The new Shaftesbury Theatre, London, has made an unlucky beginning. On the opening night the patent iron curtain, which was to serve as a protection agaiQEt fire, absolutely refused to budge, and the waiting audience at length had to receive their money back. Mr W. S. Gilbert has made a palpable and well-defined failure with his new play " Brantinghame Hall." The author's opening scene is in the colonies, and he introduces ac heroine an Australian bush maiden, who talks in blauk verse like a shepherdess of Arcadia, and a chorus of bushmen all quite tame and hand fed. As regards the motive of the play one London paper says:—" lt is more than inadequate ; it is absolutely inconceivable. That a devoted young widow should, under any circumstances, brand herself as the mistress of her late husbaud and declare that she hnd herself forged her certificate of marriage is very difficult to believe. But that she should do this merely because a proud old peer, her late husband's father, will otherwise be turned out of his ancestral mansion, it is utterly impossible to imagine. What could have been easier than for her to herself pay off the mortgage and become the postessor of the ancestral mansion ? Ie is true the old lord had refused "to be beholden " to his son's wife for a penny piece, but he would soon ppobably have come round, and if he had not, why such an unreasonable* proud, and stiff-necked old curmudgeon deserved to lose his property. In the end, of course, the widow's sacrifice is of no effect,

for her husband, supposed to have been drowned j at sea, appears again upon the scene. What he j said to his wife when he found she had blackened her own good name and his memory j by her self-accusations the dramatist does not tell us." Needless to say the piece has been written for the purpose of bringing forward Mr Gilbert's protege Miss Julia Neilson, who,-how-ever, scarcely scores in it as he could wish. The most curious pare of the " Brantinghame Hall " business is the shockingly bad spirit in which Mr Gilbert has taken his failure. It is intolerable to him that critics should belittle his work, and in reply to an evidently conscientious and ably written though adverse criticism in the Daily Telegraph he has written actually demanding that Mr Clement Scott shall be dismissed from his post of critic of that paper. In this case Mr Gilbert will no doubt be invited to wish he may get it. The violinist Remenyi who was wrecked and drowned at Madagascar, has just written from Cape Town, ordering half a dozen new chin rests from a dealer in Philadelphia. He is only one more added to the long list of celebrities who have been able to read touching obituaries upon themselves. The late Mr Levi, who has a beautiful collection of biographies, has now sufficiently recovered to return to Munich, and has resumed duty as conductor of the Opera House there. Mr Carl Formes, who, as is generally known, died in 1868, visited England and sang in London last summer. Tamberlik has often been killed in print, and so has Chollet. Miss Emily Soldene is having a dispute with Terriss and partners over the English copyright of " Roger la Honte," and like Saul of old breathing out threatenings and slaughter if the piece is produced trithout her consent. A New York paper which has an extraordinarily exact knowledge of other people's business declares that Buffalo Bill is worth £20,000; Edwin Booth, £200,000; Jefferson, £100,000; Mary Anderson, £50,000; Clara Louise Kellogg, £60,000 : Mr Langtry, £110,000 ; Modjtska, £40,000; Rosina Yokes, £20,000; Ada Rehan, £30,000; and Lotta, £160,000. j The Prince of Wales has once more given j offence in London by what may be mildly termed " forgetf ulness." He had accepted an invitation to the opening soiree of the Lyric Club but the intellectual attractions of i " Nadgy " were too much for him, so he broke J his engagement in order to hear Vanoni and j Arthur Roberts sing "Tzim, tzini, zig a zig j zigs." Miss Mary Anderson's arrival on " the other side" is thus gushingly described by a New York paper, the reporter not forgetting, as j usual, to ring in the young lady's mother in order to illustrate the filial virtues of the actress: — "Leaning over the rail wall up towards the Umbria's bow was a tall, lithe figure, clad in a long, grey ulster and a black felt hat with nodding black plumes. It was Mary Anderson, who was straining her lovely eyes in the vain endeavour to annihilate space and bring her mother, whom she knew was awaiting her on the dock, into view. Miss Anderson seems to be a trifle taller than when she left here, but that was the only change visible, and she looked a picture of perfect health, her sun-burued cheeks showing that she had faced the rough ■weather of the trip on deck, and her bright laughing eyes denoting that she had not grown one whit older. Joe Anderson, her younger brother, stood beside his sister, holding a big setter dog, of which he is very fo"d. She looked as beantiful as a dr^a-u ..au:i ujingto point out their mother to him. By this time the Umbria was opposite her dock, and Miss Anderson sent her maid for a pair of glasses. When they were brought she anxiously scanned the crowd of people on the pier who were watching for returning friends. ' There's mother,' she exclaimed joyously, as she waved a dainty handkerchief at the upturned face, ' I can see her plainly. I wish I could get ashore.' When the gang plank •was down Miss Mary Anderson was the first one ashore, and in a second more she had clasped her mother in her arms, imprinting kisses on her cheeks and laughing and crying alternately." Now, i« that not very pretty indeed. ! Emilie Melville and " Gugliemo " Verdi have ! left for England. Alfred Wilkie, late tenor in the hapless Amy Sherwin Opera Company, is back in San Francisco. There is a vague rumour that Wilson Barrett and Miss Eastlake may visit Australia this year. They are at present doing a triumphal tour of the English provinces. Australians say that as Dorothy Miss Nellie Stewart has reached the topaost notch of her successful career. If the impersonation of it is better than her Mascotte it must be good indeed. Perhaps (says an American paper) the only man who has not been extensively criticised or admired from a physical standpoint is Edwin Booth, and his acting causes the auditor to almost forget the form and the make-up of the actor. Booth is not a thin man by any means. He tips the beam at 1571b, and is well-developed and muscular. His admiration for black tights has often been the cause of unjust criticism on his thin, spare limbs. And yet there are women cultured in art who go in ecstasies over Booth's legs — not so much for their exquisite form but for the manner iv which he uses them. Barton M'Guckin, the popular operatic tenor, is in possession of a diamond ring which, he says, was presented to him by a betting man named Waters on the occasion of a charity concert on board ship. Waters has gone to a better land, where betting is unknown, and his widow now wants that ring, which she values at £75, declaring that it was lent and not given. In order to get it she has brought an action, but, as M'Guckin offtrs to hand it over to her if all imputations are withdrawn, the necessity for " going to law " is not very apparent. There is a popular impression that there is not very much in a ballet costume. Many persons joke about it, and pretend that the clothes do not amount to anything. They look like a snowdrift, and funny people think they can blow them away, but a pound of feathers weighs a pouDd just as much as iron does. An American paper has persuaded a French premiere danscuse to weigh her costume, which comes out as follows: — One pair of silk tights, 6oz; five ballet skirts (including tucks), 9oz ; one pair of slippers, 4oz ; one bodice, 8oz ; total weight of ballet costume 270z. The fnnny dog who could blow this weight of costume away would be worth seemg — after he had finished.