THEATRICAL & MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2057, 27 July 1893, Page 37

THEATRICAL & MUSICAL NOTES.

Caatrlkttftu ttt* ttt Pnfmim ohr»ilo!I»i tMr »"f*nb iM blip an lßTltad. All crautulmUni to k* rtinoM t* "ruvur otH* irituw oa#i. The initial performance of Pollard's Liliputian Company took place on Wednesday night, too late for detailed notice in this column. The pantomime of "Aladdin," with which the company opened their season, contains the latest marches, ballets, songs, dances, &c, enhanced by elaborate scenery, wardrobe, and effects, and is in every respect one of the most complete representations of modern pantomime yet given x in the colony. Originally staged at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, during the Christmas season of 1889, the pantomime in the following year "was taken to Melbourne Theatre Royal, where it ran to immense houses for 12 weeks. It cost Messrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove, the original producers, £3500 before the curtain went up on the opening night. There are 720 dresses used, the entire company changing six times. Mr W. Fred. Duval, the business manager, informs me that the dresseß, masks, wigs, properties, and effects are exactly i the same as were used in the Melbourne and Sydney productions. When it is considered that there are 138 tonß of effects used some idea of the magnitude of the undertaking can be formed. The company numbers 60 performers, and there are over 100 local people employed. This production ran for 12 nights in Auckland, 14 nights in Wellington, and 10 in Christchurch, to crowded* houses. This is a record for New Zealand, and speaks volumes as to the excellence of the entertainment provided. Since their last appearance here the Liliputian Company have visited every city and town in Australia, running seaions of seven weeks in Sydney, four weeks in Melbourne, and 14 weeks in Adelaide. During the season here the following operas will be produced :— " Aladdin," " LaMascotte," "The Mikado," "The Gondoliers," "The Little Duke," "The Pirates; 1 "Patience," "Pinafore," "The Princess of Trebizonde," "A Dress Rehearsal," and "An Adamless Eden." Mr Pollard has the reputation of being one of the best stage managers in the colonies, and in producing the gorgeous pantomime of " Aladdin' he has certainly given us something out of the common in the way of stage representations. A detailed notice of the performance will appear next week. The Holloway Company produced "The Land of the Living "to a fair house afc the Tuam street theatre, Christchurch, on Monday evening. -„,.« The Brough and Boucicault Company do South Australia and Tasmania before visiting New Zealand. They will open at Dunedin on Boxing Night. Mr Allison G. O. Pain is advance agent. An " Estudiantina" band is being formed in Chrißtchurch. The band will comprise mandolins, guitars, banjos, and violoncello. The deplorable state of the dramatic profession in Victoria and the number of actors and actresses out of employment has suggested to Mr George Coppin the idea of a co-operative management company to run the Melbourne Theatre Royal. Mrs Catherine Hugo, mother of the redoubtable Charles, William, John, and James of that ilk, died at North Fitzroy on the sth inst. Mrs Hugo was for years a well-known resident of Hobart. Mr,R. S. Smythe, who is now in Chicago, has been endeavouring to secure Mrs May Barker, a clever reciter, singer, apd imitator of birds, for a tour in Australia. This lady, says the Chicago Herald, was chosen by the Long Distance Telephone Company to give a musical

entertainment in a room in Boston for 'the amusement of the visitors at the World's Fair, 1000 miles away (about as far as from Adelaide to Sydney) . About 60 persons were present at the Chicago end, and heard the Boston singer imitate the nightingale, the bobolink, and other birds. Mrs Baker then reoited and sang " The Wind and the Moon," and when Mr Smythe declared he could hear the wind soughing through the trees, she at once recognised his voice. . . The Gourlay, Walton, and Shine Musical Comedy Company open for a fortnight season in Auokland at the end of this week. The company comprises 16 members, and Mr James Hindy is business manager. Shakespeare's genius would appear to have extended its influence even to the Oriental mind. He has been translated in Hindustani, and has been actually played In that tongue. More conscientious than the American nigger company whom Henry Russell, the composer, used to describe as representing " Richard III " —the impersonator of his Plantagenet majesty being as black as the ace of spades— the Hindoo amateurs, when performing " Macbeth," are said to have realised the characters at least to the extent of flouring their own faces. The majority of great executants were juvenile prodigies. The list includes Joachim, Lady Halle, Rubinstein, D'Albert, Marie Krebs, Arabella Goddard, Wilhelmj, and numerous others, besides an enormous number of deceased musicians from Mozart and Mendelssohn down to Liszt. The musical faculty almost invariably shows itself in childhood, and it has been proved times out of number that its early development in public is beneficial. Sir William Cusins has just resigned the post of Master of Music to the Queen, and Sir Arthur Sullivan has been appointed in his place. The principal duty of the Master is to arrange the state concerts, and there can be no doubt that Sir Arthur Sullivan, who is a born courtier, will give every satisfaction in his new office. M. Ambroise Thomas was invited the other dayjto preside at a little musical reunion at Brives-la-Gailliade, but it was understood that it was not intended that the famous composer should actually be present. The inhabitants, however, who had heard he had accepted, would not be put off, and an unfortunate stranger had to be pointed out as the composer, and submit to the most flattering attention under that guise. He was an artist at sleight-of-hand, a song-and-dance lady, she. They met at one, they loved at "two, they married at half-past three! A brief, brief dream of wedded bliss ; then she criticised his tricks. They wrangled at four, they quarrelled at five, and parted for ever at six! Lottie Collins is said to have made 20,000d0l in America by singing " Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay." The Cincinnati Inquirer politely suggests "Perhaps the public will subscribe half as much more if she will promise to stop singing it." Eleanora Duse has been compared to Sarah Berahardt— but she is more like Desclee— whom, indeed, she acknowledges as her model. When going to see Duse the first time, prepare to see a little, dark, plain-featured woman who never makes up, even on the stage! She trusts entirely to the wonderful power she has of changing the expression of her face — and of turning red or pale at will — for her effects. She is nervous and restless in her movements, but gesticulates very little. Duse is never very well dressed, and never wears real jewellerjr on the stage. She avoids tricks of every kind. In private, she is very quiet ; she lives the life of a nun off the stage. She lives entirely for her child, a girl, who is now in a convent. She hates the very name of an "interviewer." " Off the stage," Bhe says, "my life is my own, and I will not allow it to be intruded upon." In Berlin, Russia, and Vienna the people went mad about her. As an artist' she is generally preferred to Bernhardt. In America she played for 30,000d0l a night— and that without puff, beauty, make-up, dress, or jewels! As the Dominie would say, "Prodigious ! " Aristocratic pittites (says a London paper) are becoming quite a feature of the theatre-going public. T^me was when no respectable woman would have dreamt of witnessing a play from that cheap and nasty point of vantage ; but of late years many women who were too poor to indulge installs, and too obscure to receive complimentary boxes, have gowned and veiled themselves discreetly and gone in a brigade to behold both tragedy and comedy for the modest -sum of a half-acrown, carefully concealing the escapade from the world at large. Recently, however, pit-going has become quite commonplace,'and even chic, and gentlewomen rather boast of having frequented this part of the house than blush to find it known that they were there. Personally I confess I find pit-going more economical than enjoyable,. Madame Jane Hading, who comes second to Madame Bernhardt in the estimation of French playgoers, lives a quiet home life with her mother in the Boulevard dcs Batignolles, Paris. She comes of a theatrical family and has been playing, on and off, ever since she was a little child. Since Bhe made so brilliant a success in "The Ironmaster" a few years ago every young author has been sending her his neglected plays, but the actress declares that she does not read a tithe of them. Mr Jacob!, who ought to know, declares that the art of stage-dancing in England is still on the decline, though he defends the stagedancer from the aspersions generally cast at her. " Everybody," he says, " has a stone to throw at the ballet girl, but according, to my experience she is an honest, hard-workiDg, respectable creature, who is often the support of her family, and is too often under-fed and ill-clothed herself." Among the actresses who are good speechmakers is Mrs Kendal, although she is seldom heard off the stage. Mrs Bancroft is also very successful in the art of interesting the public, because she is so very natural when she talks^ Mrs Stirling in former years often gave huge delight to after-dinner assemblies on Ash Wednesday, in pleading the cause of theatrical charity. Mrs Keeley, aged though she is, may still be heard in a recitation on very rare occasions, and she is a most entertaining conversationalist. Miss Fanny", Brough and Miss Beatrice Lamb must also be classed among the actresses who can put their own thoughts into words before an audience outside of a theatre. May Robson has kicked herself curiously into celebrity in Philadelphia with her third leg. The artificial leg is Miss Robson's own invention. She was engaged to play the part of an ex-concert-hall soubrette in " The Shining Light," and in one scene, during the absence of her staid husband, she undertakes to entertain 6ome guests. A dance seemed necessary, and as Miss Robson had no ability in that line she set about devising something strange to do. The mechanical leg is the result. By means of it she does more surprising thmgs than any ■or the high-kickers has yet dreamed of, and the spectators are amazed until at length she shows three feet in a row, and the audience comprehends that it has been fooled. Figaro, in its notice of Signora Duse'fl conception of Marguerite Gautheir in " Camille, makes the following comparison o£ her impersonation with that of Sarah Bernhardt :— " Sarah Bernhardt, as everyone knows, reliea

chiefly on her gifts of passion for her effects. The spectator is often caught up in a whirlwind of emotion in the first scene of the play and never finds himself on firm ground again until the curtain falls. It is magnificent—but it is not nature. There are none of these tornadoes in Signora D use's acting. The performance runs calmly and smoothly along, with only bursts of passion here and there, like flashes of lightning across a summer sunset. The audience know and feel that the smouldering passion is there, that the atmosphere », overcharged with electricity, but they know it because of the flames which leap up intermittently, and not because it is impressed on them by a continual display of fireworks. Here then, at least, it is that the art of Signora Duse comes nearer to nature than that of Sarah Bernhardt. „-,■*. " There are two scenes in 'La uame^ aux Camelias' which emphasise this point which I wish specially to make. The one is the passage batween Marguerite and the father of her lover, when the old man implores Marguerite to relinquish her hold on his son for the sake of his family. Those who have seen both performances must have been very much struck by the different methods of the rival aotresseß in this painful scene. With th&. divine Sarah it is a time of surging passion and violently conflicting emotions. Signora Duse, however, with a set determined face, comparable only to that of one of the inexorable fates, merely repeats, •Impossible! Impossible!' in a calm, hard monotone. The other scene to which I refer is the writing by Marguerite of the letter of renunciation to her lover. Many will remember the fearful writhings of anguish in which Bernhardt indulges here. The Italian, however, bears herself witn the calmness of despair. There is no sign of the mental struggle except the drawn, weird look of her face. Can anyone doubt that the Signora's interpretation is the right one ? Surely this is no time for violeni passion. The resolution has been taken. She has determined to make the great sacrifice; the agony is past; nothing remains but the writing of the letter. Her hand is set to the plough, and there is no turning back. " But it was in the last scene, of course, that the Signora gave - evidence of her highest powers. Armand's father, recognising the goodness and the self-abnegation of Marguerite, has relented, and writes to her that hisf son is returning to her. It is too late, however. Consumption has already laid hold of the unhappy girl, and she is on her death-bed when Armand arrives. The pleasure and excitement of the re-union rally her for a moment, but the inevitable reaction follows. Armand is seated on the edge of the bed with Marguerite in his arms. Her wistful, piteous reiteration of her lover's name in the intervals when she rouses herself will stick long in the memory of those who heard it. Suddenly she rests her head on Armand's shoulder, there are a few convulsive movements, her hand slips softly from his neck, and the end has corns. There have been more terrible death-scenes, enacted on the English stage, but none so moving, so calm, so beautifully pathetic as this. i " It is futile to attempt to describe Signora Duse's marvellous powers of facial expression. Every fleeting phase of passion, every thought almost is mirrored in her face. Such beauty as she possesses is not beauty of feature, but rather of intellectual expression, yet there are moments when Cleopatra herself could not have been more bewitching. I doubt whether there is another actress of any nationality who has a smile at once so womanly, winning, wheedling, and coquettish—a smile to be replaced the next instant, perhaps, by a look of terror or agony to be matched only in some ancient tragic mask. But whether it be smiles, rage, tears, or pain, there is always the same artistic restraint which shrinks from exceeding the modesty of nature —never a jarring note from the rise of the curtain to its fall."

July 22.