NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1951, 11 April 1889, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

We have few amusements now, and the long waits make us crusty. That is one way of explaining the fearful strife that rages whenever a projected entertainment is on the tapis. But it does not explain it altogether. The truth must be that in matters musical and matters medical some fatal influence larks intoxicating with envy, hatred, and malice all who approach. Two events only in the musical line are before us now — the Smith-Densem benefit and' the appointment of an exhibition conductor. Over both these affairs most of the parties concerned have been reaching around, clawing, scratching, and snarling for some weeks past. Everybody has been calling somebody else "out of his name," and the columns of the daily papers are strewn with wrecked reputations. The first discussion at least might very well go hang, so far as sensible men are concerned. What does it all amount to ? Tweedledum and Tweedledee agree to have a battle, Well, not quite that. But Messrs Smith and Densem, who in vocal excellence are as Tweedledum and Tweedledee agreed to have a benefit. They V»ere well contented, and hoped the thing would " gee." The amateur company who supported them in " Les Cloches de Oorneville," and are going to support them again, were well contented, too. Why, then, any necessity for girding and grinding of teeth on the part of the public? If the public did not like it they could stay away. Their remedy was delightfully simple. However, the brotherly love that pervades musical circles, and saturates everyone, from the leading soprano to the beater of the big drum, burst its floodgates. One gentleman wanted to know what, in the name of pounds shillings and pence, Messrs Smith and Densem had ever done to deserve a benefit. He denied in strong language that the blessed spirit of charity had eve&f ound sanctuary in their breasts. They had piped only to the jingling of gold, and had never been known to appear under two or three guineas, with such extras as the hospitality of the manager might lead him to provide in an ante-room. More correspondence to the same effect followed, during all of which Messrs Smith and Densem preserved a masterly silence. At last one morning the fire burned, then spake they with their tongues. They spoke at least through the chairman of their committee, Mr J, A. X. Reidle. That gentleman published a formidable list of the entertainments at which Messrs Smith and Densem had assisted respectively without pay or reward, moved solely by a desire to do somebody a good turn, and shed a little melody upon the' evening air. Since then the cavillers have to some extent curled themselves up, and wind and weather permitting we may expect to see a good house at the Princess on Wednesday, when the first of the two performances of "Les Cloches" is to be given. Any remarks upon the production I am compelled to postpone till next week. As regards the appointment of Mr A. J. Towsey as musical conductor for our exhibition, the least said soonest mended. There is a howl of course, and not unnaturally so. for our own musicians we have always with us, and we should like to have had at exhibition time a brand new man, with a brand new orchestra, brand new music, and brand new methods. But it is purely a matter of money. How much were the commissioners prepared to spend upon music ? Hazon they could have got for a few thousands; a local man for a few hundreds. They went for economy, wisely or not the event must prove. If a local man had to be chosen, Mr Towsey is as good a selection as any other. The Vivian Company will fiaish their Auckland season on Wednesday of this week. It has been a more than average success. Their latest productions were that " great moral and emotional drama " " The Woman of the People," which has sent over 50,000 drunkards to the penitents' form, "Neck for Neck," "East Lynne," and "Lady Audley's Secret." The Hugo Buffalo Ministrels are, I see, delighting the simple souls of Grafton, New South Wales. Charles Hugo is reported as funny as ever, and with Miss Priscilla Verne, bears all the heat and burden of the day. A " Knight- Aston Opera Company" is now appearing in Brisbane, including many names well-known in New Zealand. Besides the tenor himself there are Miss Jvanova, Miss Aggie Kelton,, Miss Bella Stewart (formerly of Pollard's Lilliputians), Messrs John Forde, and George Coney, with Mr W. H. Harrison as conductor. A company consisting of Charles Harding, Gracie Plaisted, and Barry O'Neill are giving operatic concerts to the Dutchmen of Batavia. ■Our old friend Mr Harry Power has just been given a benefit at the Brisbane Opera House. Whether an artist can be compelled, by fining or otherwise, to give an encore demanded by the public is a question which will shortly be settled by an action (not a friendly one) between Mr Ben Davies and the management of the Lyric Theatre. Mdlle. Tietjens, who made her debut on the lyric stage a short time ago and who it was thought might step into the shoes of her celebrated relative, proves after all to be only a pocket edition of her aunt. The young lady's voice is sweet and sympathetic, but small at the best. They mauge things much better in Russia as regards wayward artistes who take the huff and refuse to fulfil their engagements. The other day Mdlle. Tua, a clever young Italian violinist, was justly incensed because her accompanist for some reason refused to play' for her, and she hastily left the soncert room, which was packed with people. Thereupon the Prefect of Police, as a punishment, forbade her to appear again, and at her next concert she found that all the money had been returned, and she had thereby incurred a heavy loss, Hall Came has divulged to an interviewer certain details of the new play, " The Good Old Times," which he has written with Wilson Barrett, for production at the Princess. "The Scene opens in Cumberland, and the real interest '' (according to Came) " lies in the relations of the leading mau and the leading woman, relations which are new to modern drama, though they bear an angle of resemblance to the relations in • Measure for Measure,' but without the objectionable circumstances which make that play the most odious Shakespere or anyone else ever wrote." This, it will be admitted,' is strong language. Commenting upon it one London critic remarks :— " Hoity, toity | Likewise marry come up ! And who in the name of thunder and small beer— particularly small beer— made Mr H. Came competent to sit upon William Shakespere in this fashion. If J were H. C's collaborator I would sit upon him, and right heavily, too." The librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial Library at Stratford-on-Avon has recently made an application to the Government of India asking that a copy of every edition of Shakespeare's works ancLif any publication relating to the

[Bard of Aven which has been published in India j maybe sent to the library at Stratford. The I Indian Government readily agreed to respond *to the request ; but as a matter of fact, it has been found chat no complete edition of Shakesspeare's works has ever been printed and published in any of the numerous dialects of Hindostan. Single plays or groups of plays have been published ; but educated Indians, many of whom are great admirers of Shakespeare, read his works in one of the many English editions at their disposal, so that for Shakespeare in the vernacular there is little or no demand. The lot of a musical critic is not always a happy one in Wiesbaden. The critic of one periodical — The Tagblatt — has been forbidden by the police to enter the Wiesbaden Opera House, because he did not absolutely endorse the action of the improssario appointed by the municipality. Mrs Langtry achieved a big success with her Lady Macbeth in New York, especially in the 8k ep walking scene, upon which the curtain should have finally fallen if she was to be remembered at her best. The whole scene was played in a feeble whisper until the distraught lady began to react the murder of Duncan. Then, when she thought she heard the knocking at the gate, she put out the light and made a quick exit in the ghostly grey of the moon, as if dragging off Macbeth. This was new business, but effective, and Dion Boucicault, who has seen all the great Lady Macbeths, is reported to have thrown up his hands and cried, " She is astounding." The great American actress Fanny Davenport is said to have made a " pile " by real property investments at Chicago. Madame Albani jhas been received with great enthusiasm in Canada, and her concert tour in her native land bids fair to be highly successful. In the course of this month she will probably give some concerts in New York under the direction of the Wagnerian conductor, Mr Anton Seidl, but the question whether the prima donna will appear in opera in America is not yet decided. Gilbert and Sullivan's " Mikado " has by some unexplained process been converted into an equestrian ballet, and is played in this queer form at the Royal Netherlandish Circus in Amsterdam. It must be an interesting spectacle. London audiences have been complaining because the concert managers began postponing the hour of commencement from 8 to 8.30 p.m. to suit the convenience of the " upper crust." The daughter-in-law of J. G. Blame, President Harrison's Secretary of State, is said to be preparing to go on the stage. Mrs Mary Fiske, the clever lady who under the norn de plume of "The Giddy Gusher "has for years contributed an important attraction to the New York Dramatic Mirror, has died very suddenly of pneumonia. Her funeral was attended by a large gathering of the profession. The critic William Winter was one of the pallbearers, and Colonel Ingersoll read one of his splendid funeral orations over the grave. General Sherman is as good a theatre-goer as he once was a waltzer. His face is nightly seen at the play, and between the acts people crane their necks to catch a glimpse of the old warrior, the only one left of the great triumvirate. Lady Monckton, it is reported, intends to retire from the stage. Wilson Barrett is held to have committed a grave error in reappearing in London, whence he has been so long shut out, in " Hamlet." It is a particularly critical moment of his career ; as he must now regain his metropolitan prestige or forever after revolve in the Dan tean circle of provincialfame. Says one critic: "It is unfortunately as Hamlet thai Wilson Barrett fancies himself. It was Hamlet, to his pockets despite, he insisted on playing on his luckless Irving-apeing American tour. It is Hamlet who has accompanied him 2500 miles, he tells us, and on Hamlet, as he boasted (in amusing rivalry of the 500 columns of the dailies devoted to the Lyceum Macbeth), that a mile of criticism has been written." Surely never was there so hardly stricken a comedian as poor J. L. Toole. While the world is 'admiring the fortitude with which he bears the loss of his daughter, who was as the very apple of his eye, and in whose society most of the sunshine of his life was found, death summons his wife too. The actor is now absolutely alone in his old age save for the friendship of a faithful public. Great stir, and not a little indignation, has bqen roused jn JParis society by the proposal to decorate Patci with the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur f J * Patti,'' says one^ oritjc, " has never done anything fpr French art, and has never created any part in any French opera. I She has always put the money question before art in the whole of her artistic career." This is a little strong (says an English writer), but it is true. Patfci's god has been, and is, money, and no singer of modern or any tim,e ever gaye the benefit of her voiqe and talen| less to serve the poor than she. No artist ever helped popr artists less than she. No rich woman was ever less generous. She does not deserve any houorary reward, She may not even care for one. Nearly all the scenes of Hall Oaine's new drama (to be produced by Wilson Barrett in London) are laid in Tasmania in the old convict days, and the ground covered is that already trodden by Marcus Clarke in "His Natural Life." "The Good Old Times" -is the title. Augustus Harris, manager of Drury Lane, has been returned for the Strand division of the new London County Council, and is preparing to run for alderman In that body. In England the system of levying btackmajl on popular actresses by gallery roughs hissing and: otherwise disturbing performances has grown to be an intolerable offence. In Birmingham this ruffianism has become so flagrant that the police have been called upon to break it up. ' When the demands of the gang for money is denied, they raise such a tumult in the theatre at night that the performance of the actors is ruined. Marie Loftus, we burlesque actress, was annoyed at a performance by some of these roughs recently, and had them all arrested. An idea of the great scale upon which Irving advertises may be gleaned by inspection of a late copy of the London Era. In this 19 pages are filled with perhaps all the notices of the production of "Macbeth" that appeared in the English papers, and the cost of the advertisement, if paid for at the regular ratps — which is questionable— reaches about £200. Most people will opine that the swingeing damages (£5000) awarded to Mr Izard in his divorce case against Mr Henry Leslie were not a whit too much. Marie Tempest, the pretty prima donna who fascinated all London as Dorothy, was an affectionate wife to Izard until she met Leslie, manager of the P.rinoe'of Wales, Theatre, at which she' was playing j and I^ard seems to have been a judicious and loving husband. It was the old story, of course, hut a trifle more aggravated than usual, and the jury marked their sense of Leslie'^ conduct by giving the injured husband money as well as freedom. Once establish a precedent and it will die bard, Since the breach, of. promise affair be« !

tween young Garmoyle and Miss Fortescue, £10,000 has evidently become the exact sum for which the feelings of a slighted songstress may be appeased. It was for £10,000 that Lord Garmoyle compromised with the fair Fortescue, and now it is for £10,000 that Viscount Dangan has settled his little trouble with Miss Phyllis Broughton. Both were at the time they enchained their respective admirers engaged at the Savoy Theatre.