THEATRICAL ft MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 42

THEATRICAL ft MUSICAL NOTES.

Contribution! from the Profusion chronlallnf their movement* (nil doings are innted. All communications to be sildrcnaoil o "Puquln," O»ro tt"ltnoj» O3iu3. THEATRICAL DATES. Trixcess Theatre. "* November 18-30.— Brough-Boncicault Co. December 4.-- -St. Joseph's School. December 2H-January s.— Burlesque Co. January 11-17.— Greenwood Family. February 18 28 —Bland Holt's Dramatic Co. City Hall. November 26-December I.— Newbury-Spada Concert Co. December 2, 3, 4. — Lectures, Rev. Haakett Smith. December 6. — Industrial School Kinderspiel Con.« I cert. Tuesday, November 26. ' . ' Tbe Newbury-Spada Musical Festival Company opened their farewell season is Dnn« edin at the City Hall on Tuesday evening, v Among other items Madame Spada sang " The jewel song " frqm " Faust," Mr Newbory «' The Holy City" and "My queen," Miss K. Grindlay " Oat on the rocks," »nd Mr, Hobbs " Hjhriaß the Cretan." Madame Herbert contributed two pianoforte solos. • . " •• Charley's Aunt " has reached its 1000 th performance in London, and as an indication that the popularity of Mr Brandon Thomas's play is not on tbe decline it may be mentioned that five companies are running it in America, aud that thote directed br Mr Fenley in Bog*

land are already booked well into the middle of 1897. On the Continent the farce is immensely successful.

• . Tha South African papers give pathetic details of the suicide cf Miss Daisy Melville, a member of the " Gaiety Girl " Company, afc Johannesburg, to which I hare previously referred. Miss Melville, it seems, became dec-ply attached to a stockbroker, and had promised to become his wife. Then it was discovered that he w&s already married, and the poor girl killed herself with laudanum.

• . • The autumn melodrama at Drnry Lane is by Sir Augustus Harris and Cecil Raleigh, wad is named after Henry Rufssll's well-known Bong, " Cheer, Boys, Cheer." The chief sensation scenes are in Matabeleland during the recent campaign. Writing in reference to the fiwt night of i* Cheer, B >ys, Cheer," a correspondent in a Home psiper saya : — " One of the most humorous incidents of the evening occurred in the veryflrst scene. Fitzdavis, the archplotter, in order to impress a somewhat unsuspicious Jew, invents mjs'erious conversations through an unconnected ttlephone. Needless to s&y that the Rothschilds figure in these. To the great amusement of the brothers, who were present, they were treated iv the moat offhanded manner — told to wait until Mr Fitzdavig was disengaged or else take their business somewhere else. Even the mild leply that Mr Rothschild would do himself the honour of caliiog round was. treated most condescendingly. The Broth-ra Rothschild quite cried with laughter at tbis burlesque." • . • Soon after Mr Brandon Thomas went iipon the stage he was playing under the management of Messrs Hare and Kendal, and was one n*ght taking things easily when someone rushed op to him and told him'tbe stage was waiting for him. " I didn't stand on the order of ray going," says Mr Tbomts, "but went at once. I couldn't find a door, and as it seemed no time for ceremony, I dashed through an opening of some sort. It turned out to be a big fireplace. The audience ro*red at my Blephisfcopbe'iau entrance. BuS ido you suppose it was fun for me ? Quite the ■contraty, I aißure you ! "

* . • A scheme is on foob for entertaining the people of tbe small towns on the banks of the Volga by means of a theatrical stearnto&t. The eteamtr is to carry two distinct companies, one for Russian drama and the other for French opera, and the audience will be accommodated 'in a saloon large enough to seat 1000 person*.

• . • Sir HeDry Irving tells of the following in--idont : — "A great many funny tbiugs have happened to me on the stage. They do to everybody, though they don't always seem very funny at the time, unfortunately. But I cannot at the moment recall anything either funny or exciting connected with a lore scaao. The Dearest thing to that, perhaps, was rather a serious accident; which occurred to me during the firsb run o! ' Hamlet.' In the scene between myself aud Laertes his sword suddenly slipped, he could nob at once recover control of bis hand, and I was severely cat near the eye. The place began bkeding profusely ; the audience saw that an accident had happened, and, luckily for me, a friend cf mine, who was & celebrated doctor, rashed round from the ' front,' where he had been watching the play, and took instant mean 6to check the Weeding. If there had been' any delay I might have suffered a good deal. As it was ib took about 12 hours' application of ice to stop the flow of blood. But that did not prevent » realistic lepreseuta_tipn oi. (he scene on the night following." When he was a jouth in the city Sir Henry tells how " one day I had the dramatic frenzy upon me, to which I yielded whenever the manager's back was turned in my direction, nod vrhen my dinner time arrived I rau off and hid myself with my beloved book in an enormous packiog-cas?. Then I forgot tverybhing oufcßido. Tho moments and hours slipped away unheeded, and it was everting before I was discovered by my irate superior 1 , still curled in my box." * . ' Tho love of modern Italian compose™ for scenes of horror and vice reaches ita climax. in •• Mwruzza," produce Jat Turin Ths composer i* his own librettist, and makes Maruzza, his heroine, set fire to her room, and apparently burn he<self and her lover alive. This is realism with a vengeance. " . * Mkdame C»lve's professional income averages £330 a night duiing the season. Her travelling expenses are paid, but she has to provide her own board and lodgiDg * - ' A Hetton man olaims that he ii in possession of the violin with which Paganini gave his last . performance. He states that "the fiddle was stolen from tho north of Italy -by a brigand chief, aud taken by him to South Africa. There the brigand died, and the fiddle was sold in Kimberley for 60,*8. '.• Isabella Urquhart (Mrs Herbert Gay Standing), who visited Australia in 1893 with Mrs Bernard Beere's company, with which sho . played leading part 3, is the subject of a fullp»ge portrait in a wceat Ntw York Dramatic Mirror. She is justly described as having the finest figure of any woman on the modern «t*ge. Boih she and her husband — who is also the subject of an interview in the same psper ' — appear to te doing well in the States. — ' Madam Modjeska, the Polish stir, has re- . turned to New York, and is appearing at the Garriek in *• Measure for Measure. 1 ' Her husband, Courit Bosjenta, is nearly recovered from his recent severs accident.— Lydia Thompson is playing •in "An Artist's Model " at the London Lyric. — Hall Came, many of whose book* have of late been successfully dramatised, i» now on a visit to Canada as a repreteotitive of the Society of British Authors. — Max O'Rell has written a play, " The Catspw," with ■which Sim Edwards is to tour the Slates. — Beertohm Tree will re-tour America next year. — Both Mabel Love and Alice Bsrnet are members of George Edwardes's Ametican " His Excellency" Comp*ny. — O!ga Nethersole opened her American tour on October 21 at Albany — W. A. Brady is thinking of taking "Trilby" to Australia next year. — Last Call.