WELLINGTON WING WHISPERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2310, 9 June 1898, Page 39

WELLINGTON WING WHISPERS.

By P. KoyeTKa.

June 2.

Dear Pasquin, — Here we are in. the month o£ June. As the 15th approaches the bosoms of our amateur operatics palpitate, and their feet and lips move excitedly to the beat of " Dorothy." The rehearsals are proving satisfactory, and we are promised a good, enjoyable week.

Miss Dora Mostyn, who is withiD the recent memory of playgoers in our colony, has been dwelling in Wellington for a few weeks past. Prior to her departure for the other side her friends arid admirers — otherwise, I suppose, D. M. herself — are said to be getting xip a monster benefit, for whioh the Skating Rink is booked next Monday. The beneficiaire herself will sing " The street boy's life," which song was presorted to Miss Mostya by Miss Nellie Farren when she was in Australia with the London Gaiety Company. The song has a special' interest for the reason that the last' words sp.oken by Miss Farreii to the public.on the occasion of her sensational London benefit wore " Thank 'cc, sir " — the refrain of the song. Mr Hugh J. Emmett, the ventriloquist, has given his assistance for" the benefit^ arid a stranger in these parts, Maefarne Juliette Piemonte, a soprano from Covent Gardens and Crystal Palace Concert Company, will shine as a primary star on the programme. I clip this from the advertised programme: — Madame Juliette Piemonte is beyond doubt, the best singer- of the company, possessing a splendid voice — rich, melow, and sympathetic — and she uses it with excellent effect. Her songs were charmingly rendered and rapturously encored."

For his first piano recital from old masters (Bach and Handel) next Tuesday Mr Robert Parker" will have the assi.°ta3ico of Madams Carltou. Dr Kington. Fyffe, Hen' Hoppo, and Mr F. >S. Pope.

"lolanthe" will be the next opera staged by the Nelson amateurs.

By the way, speaking of Sleepy Hollow, I read that Miss Clarice Hunt, of Nelson, and Miss Flowers, of Cbristchuroh, are studying singing \inder Signor Rantiegger in London, and are associating themselves with a third pupil under the same master in trios for female voices, and are said to have attained such proficiency that Signor Randegger intends bringing them' out at some London concert before long, and will, if possible, keep them together as a ladies' trio — rather a novelty in concert programmes.

The New Plymouth Amateur Operatic Society talks of producing " The Old Guard." The trio of young Wellingtonians who inaugurated this winter's series of Wednesday pops, in the Skating Rink haye struck a Klondyke; and their enterprise is such that they deserve the packed houses they are getting. The programmes are good, and the items as good on hearing as they appear at sight*

After leaving your locality Tom. Pollard's Opera Company come up to the top of tlio SoiuMi Island. Nelson claims the company on July 11:_

Emmett, the ventriloquist, takes part in the next Wednesday's pop. Professor Emile Lazern — Moore of Norman. Moore than a mile o' Lazern, I discern — sends us over posters in which his name and Praatidigitau — oh, I give it up, that word beats mo. Anyhow, NorEmil's name is printed large, so he's all right. In CoalopoJis (N.S.W.), when last heard from, doing well. Some idea of the responsibilities of Messrs Williamson and Musgrove may be gathered from the fact that a recent "busy day" in Melbourne witnessed the arrival of "The Sign of the Cross " Company, numbering 70 persons, the despatch of the Comic Opera Company, numbering 60, to Westralia, and the departure of the " Babe 3in the Wood " Burlesque Company, totalling 170, to Adelaide. At the same time Mr Williamson — who had just returned from seeing Madamo Albani off to London — was providing dates for the Wilson Barrett Company and t'ns "Two Little Vagabonds" Company, and had completed arrangements with Mr Hariy Eickards to control Miss Pattie Browne's Australian lour, which begins on June 4 at the Melbourne Princess Theatre with tbe dramatisation of Mr Barries novel "The Little Minister." In addition, the Firm is running an American play at the London Shaftesbury. The Comio Opera Company has already been sufficiently reconstructed to start on a Westralian tour, but is to be further strengthened before it come to Sydney and Melbourne by the addition of Mr Charles Kenningham, for the last two or three years principal tenor at the London Savoy Theatre, and of a new soprano. The present company includes Mr Charles Rose, an English tenor, Messrs Leumane, Lauri,Vernon,Paull, and Bathurst, and Misses Darley and Chapman. "La Poupee" is to be the first production of the Sydney season, to be followed by "The Geisha," the Japanese opera, winch has been running .^ija