NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 972, 5 September 1889, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

It is', I am glad to hear, intended to reopen the Queen's Theatre on the expiry of the lease of the building held at present by the Salvation Army. It is suitable for many entertainments which at present have to be content with a hall, and I trust sufficient patronage will be received to warrant its being kept to its legitimate use.

Mr Harry Rickards and a specially selected variety company will commence a two weeks, season at the Princess', Theatre at the conclusion of the Bland Holt term, the opening night being fixed for the 25th inst. Mr W, A. Jenkins, who will be favourably remembered as piloting the Swiss Singera through the colonies-acta as business manager. The Hugoß are at Wellington at present. Mr George Darrell is said to be writing a New Zealand drama with the suggestive title of'TheHalf-Caste."

Mr Frank Lincoln is. suffering from a bronchial affection, and had to prematurely close his season at Wellington in consequence, being ordered some weeks' rest. Maccabe is working his way up to Dunedin through the Southern country districts. He is accompanied by Mdlle Minnia, who poses as a " magic statue " and dances- a Highland fling and a Spanish dance. Tha Dunedin friends of Mr H. R. Jewett, who commenced his career in this city, will be pleased to hear of the progress he is making in bis profession. He is a member of Mr George Rignold's Shakespearian company, at present performing at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, and to whose opening performance of "Julius Caesar " the Sydney Morning Herald devotes two columns of small type. The Herald asserts that Mr Rignold's "interpretation and adornment of Shakespeare's tragedy in deserving to stand in the front rank, and with equal prominence, among the best, the most thoughtful, the moat luminous Shakespearian revivals the stage has ever known." Speaking of Mr Jewett the Critio says : — |C A surprisingly good Cassius ia found in Mr H. R. Jewett. He not only looks particularly well, but he speaks the text excellently, and acts with intelligence and fire. We have not seen a better Caesius. It iv a wonderful performance for a young actor. " The Echo and the Australian Star are equally complimentary, the former remarking : — "A most pleasing surprise of Saturday's production was the- Cassius of Mr H. R. Jewett, which was in every way deserving: of the highest praige, and which fully entitles Mr Jewett to take' high rank as an actor. He .spoke his lines w,ell, with proper emphasis suited the action to the word, and looked the part. From his first important spaooh (beginning, ' I know not what virtus to be in •you, Brutus' to his 'Ossßar, thou art; revenged,' he was scholarly and impressive." Our cablegrams announces the death of Mr George Fawcett Rowe, dramatist and actor. He was best known in New Zealand as George Fawcett, where as a comedian and a burlesque actor he had a great reputation. His dramatisation' of Dickens' novel "David Copporfield" proved a success both in London and New York. He was a leading man in Dunedin in the " sixties " in Clarence Holt's and other companies that performed in the old Princess. The Wagner birthday celebration drew society in overwhelming numbers, and the spectacle of St. James' Hall crowded with welldressed people, some of whom paid half ' a guinea for standing room, was exceedingly brilliant.

Madame Emma Abbott, who has for several ■years successfully arranged tours by English ..opera companies through the United States, •.and is described as the " Oarl Rosa of America," has gone to Paris in search of novelties. An idea of the immense fortune which she has made may be gained from the fact that she has ordered a monument to be erected over the remains of her late husband to coßt £17,000. I was wrong (writes a Home correspondent) in my supposition that nudity was going out of fashion. There was plenty of it on Saturday when Madame Albani made her rentree in "La Traviata." There was again an immense bouse, Mr Harris' aristocratic patrons turning -up in full force. The Canadian songstress is : still in full possession of her vocal powers, and ] has never acted more powerfully. Indeed, her i realism in the death scene was a little too ■ much for me ; it was not pure art, but Zolaiism. In 1866 Henry Irving stood on the stage of a '.theatre at Liverpool wondering what he should .do in the summer months, when the theatre •(would be closed and he would be left without .-an engagement or a shilling. A letter was •brought to him from Dion Boucicault, offer iing him a part in a new play and asking his terms, " Six pounds a week," he wrote, and added he hoped the part was a good one. The answer was characteristic '~ fi Dear Sir ; The part is a good one. The salary is more than I intended giving, but I never bargain with an artist. — Yours, Dion Boucicault." Some palpable hisßes were noticeable during a late performance of Marie Roze, about which a writer in a Home paper says*: — " I regretted to notice inroads made by time on the voice of Madame Marie Roze on Tuesday, but it was unkind and unnecessary to hiss her. Can it be true that friends of another artist who also plays 'Carmen,' assembled for the purpose? So, at any rate, it was alleged in the theatre. Madame Marie Roze retains her good looka, and perhaps after all her bad intonation was due to some temporary cause." Musical critics, like dootors, differ. Very satisfactory accounts have recently been received of tb.B performances of Mies Florence Menck-Meyer, the Victorian pianists, but the critio of the Allgemaine Musio-Zeitung, a recognised authority, writes of her as " a living example of how perniciously eulogistic praise ultimately operates in the case of those who deserve an energetic protest against their appearance in public." The critio further blames a colleague for encouraging her to give concerts, adding that true "generous benevolence " would rather have advised a course of " severe, artistic training," which might have spared her much trouble, time, money, and "woeful disappointment." M. Jules Bju-bey d'Aurevilly, who died a couple of months ago in Paris at the ago of 80, was" at one time the dramatic critio of tha Pa; a, a Bonapartist journal. He was besides a novelist and literary critio of great value, although his works have never been popular with the crowd. In early life he was a violent partisan, and when he discussed an opponent's book or play he generally said very plainly what he thought. He was a friend of Hugo, and was courageous enough to let the fact be known. In 1889, when "Luoretia Borgia" waß revived, d'AureviUy was present on the first night as oritic of the Fays. AU of Hugo'B admirers were on hand to applaud each line of the play. For some reason or other the actors did not know their roles, and the drama was terribly mutilated, Neverthe-

less, Hugo's friends applauded boisterously at every instant as though the performance were excellent in all respects.- ' This irritated d'Aurevilly, and in the middle of one of the most palpitating scenes of the piece he sent forth a long, shrill hiss.

All the spectators jumped from their seats to see who had been audacious enough to disturb! their apparent pleasure. A second hiss, more piercing than the first, resounded. " Put him out 1 " cried M. Lookroy, who has since b9en Minister of the Fine Arts. " Put him out 1 " repeated a hundred voioea in the house. In the middle of the front row of the balcony, d'Aurevilly's tall form' waa seen gesticulating and in the midst of the uproar he was replying to his insulters.

"You wish to throw me out?" he ciied. " Haven't I a right to protest and hiss M. Hugo when M. Hugo has me mameluker by all his fanatics?" And he pointed with his finger to 'Vacquene, Lookroy, Paul Maurice, and Paul Foucher.

The excitement was so great that the manager was obliged to lower the curtain. Some of d'Aurevilly's friends induced him to leave the theatre, but he walked out Blowly, with his fist upon his hip and with a most defiant air.

D'Aurevilly remained a fop of the 1830 period up to his death, and when he appeared on the street his strange costume caused all heads to turn.