THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2360, 18 May 1899, Page 47

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Bt Pasqtjin.

TUESDAY, May 16. i The Waxworks still draw large crowds to the Alhambra Theatre, Messrs Fuller's liberality in catering for the public at popular prices receiving its due reward. The programme last Saturday was certainly the best of the series, the specialties of Mr Will Stevens creating great amusement, and only after he had sung five songs and given two recitations was he allowed to depart, ■while his " Consumption " in tho screaming farce " The Distinguished Visitoi " was well appreciated. Messrs Will Sylvain, Fred Bluett, Horace St. George, G. Powell, T. Curran, and Misses Jeannie Tohnstone and St. George were all most successful in their different songs and impersonations. Visitors -to town during the holidays should not fail to see Fuller's Waxworks. " [ Professor Dante has evidently struck it ' rich in Melbourne, for Manager Lohr tells us that he has had to turn money away from the St. George's Hall every night since the opening. * It is well known, says the Press, that in the theatrical profession the performers, in many cases, do not play under their real names. It appears that thir practice has now spread to the musical profession. At a recent concert given in Timaru two musicians, recently well known in Christcjrurch, appeared on the programme for a violin and cornet solo respectively with Signor Gardini and Leon Ronchetti as noms de concert. These appellations are distinctly good. No doubt, the Timaruvians were suitably impressed. ' Mr John Fuller's Myriorama Company , have just concluded their West Coast season and are now in Canterbury. They open in Ohristchurch at the Theatre Royal on the Queen's Birthday for a season of four nights. A correspondent writes to the Opunake Times that some person left a cockatoo overnight recently in the New Plymouth Theatre Royal, and when the caretaker opened the building in the morning he found that the mischievous bird had ripued and torn all the upholstering of the seats in tho stalls, making the theatre present the appearance of a secondhand rag and furniture depot. Mr Tom Fitzgerald, who shortly sails for Europe in search of new novelties, told an interviewer in Sydney that the "expenses in printing, advertising, etc., for their circus would amount to £1200 before they took a penny at the gates. f Mr Walter Bentley has changed his headquarters from Brisbane to Sydney. Mr Charles Arnold's production of " What Happened to Jones " recently celebrated its 300 th. performance at the London Strand. It is probable that after the end of the present month, when the lease of the Strand expires, it will be removed to another house. Alfred Woods^'of the Woods- Williamson Company, appeared at the Water Police Court, Sydney, the other day as a defendant in a case brought by his wife for £61 »8 maintenance. Woods said he had sent his wife some money, but Mrs Woods's lawyer denied this to be a fact. The case •was adjourned. I should think that Mi Woods's plea was quite iustifiable so far as the time he spent in New Zealand was concerned. Tho wonder is how the company avoided being stranded so long. Reuben Fax (Svengali), here with the " Trilby " Company, broke his kneecap whilst descending the stairs from his dressing room to the staeje during the performance of " That Man " at Bijou Theatre, New York. Madame Minna Fischer, well known in Australia a few years ago, and a native of South Australia, appeared at the Queen's Hall on March 13 and April 17, and was to again assist Mr Albert Fransella at hi 3 chamber concerts on May 15. Madame Fischer is programmed for three new songs by Clutsam, a name familiar to Australians, and two by Delius, also new compositions. Lord Tennyson -has three children. A recent photo showing him in the bosom of his family is the living image of popular theatrical manager Lohr. So says an Australian paper. I hope L. J. L. will take it calmly and not get excited. M. Paderewski still continues to be wonderfully successful on his tonr in Russia. After his first Moscow recital he was so many times encored that it was nearly midnight before the hall emptied and lie could get away. He started a provincial tonr at Portsmouth (England) on March 13 last. I have to thank Mr H. Rose Mackenzie, assistant-editor of the Cape Register, for a copy of his paper, containing an interview with Mr C. A. Pollard, who is at present touring South Africa with a juvenile company. The company is booked in South Africa till October, when they finish their tour at Capetown. Mis 3 May Pollard has just joined the company, and the following with reference to her cannot fail to interest the large number of her New Zealand friends and adminuau— " This young laHy"

was born in Launcesfcon, Tasmania, and be- I gan her professional career, at the age of : 10, at Dunedin, New Zealand, as Josephine, j in - ' H.il.S. Pinafore,' in the original Pol- j lard Opera Company, of which her brother j Charles -was then musical director. Miss i Pollard remained with^ the company for j five yearsv when she " was drafted into the only adult opera company in Australasia, belonging to what is known all over that continent as ' The Firm,' Messrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove. There Miss Pollard first of all understudied Miss Leonora Braham in ' Princess Ida ' and ' Dorothy,' and remained with the firm, playing smaller parts, until within the last five years, when she became the company's prima donna in 'Ma Mie Rosette,' ' Dorothy,' ' The Yeoman of the Guard,' and other operas. Just about this time last year, Miss Pollard went to England, and joined ' The Belle of New York ' No. I Company, under Mr George Musgrove. She took the part of Violet, the title role, and toured the provinces for seven months, until her brother came and claimed her for South Africa, to help him on with the children in the production of ' The Belle of New York,' ' The Geisha,' and ' Mademoiselle Latoucbe.' " Madame "Van der Veer Green, who a few year 3 ago toured this colony, is now- appearing at many of the best concerts in London. Her singing at Miss Edith Martin's recitals is most eulogistically referred to by the London critics. Miss Martin has been creating quite a furore in England and on the Continent by her wonderful playing on the harp. It lias often been said that stage life does not conduce to longevity.' But there are some remarkable facts to the contrary. Mrs Keeley lived to be 93, Miss Sarah Thome died recently at the age of 63, Kitty Clive lived to be 74, Mrs Siddons 76, Helen Faucitt 79, Mrs Jordan s*, and Peg WofSngton 73. But all these are put in the shade by the fact that we have still living among us to-day the oldest actor in the world, Mr James Doel, who has just celebrated his 95th birthday. Six years older than the Pope, Doel is a link with the times which have passed into the region of history. He is probably Ihe only living person who can remember, as lie does, rowing round the Bellerophon, lying in Plymouth Sound, and seeing the great Emperor Napoleon standing on her deck ere his exile to St. Helena. "When the Queen was a little child, barely a year old, Doel made his first appearance on the stage in company with Pbclps in a travelling theatre, which, by a curious coincidence, pitched its tents in the yard of tho Prince George, at Stonehouse, of which Doel is now, and has been for some years, the landlord. Olga Nethersole has produced, in America, "Camille" in a new and decidedly picturesque way. Her costumes are exact reproductions of the styles in vogue at the time Marie Duplessis, whose tragic life history Dumas tells uncler the r>ame of Camille, was the talk and admiration of the fast set of Paris. Mies Nethersole also has a theory thai colours typify the emotions, and in the diffo l rent acts she wore the shades that represented the different states of feeling. In the first act she wore a pink gown, to show that Camille is not the worst type of her class, but one who is given to the delights of the flesh. Attired in fresh-coloured garments, she tries to appeal only to the senses — nothing higher. But in the second act she has met Arniand, and she is ' learning what it is to love. ' For that- reason Miss Nefchersole wears blue, representing the birth of physical refinement, and passing from the sensual to a higher realm. " This idea that colours must suit the character of the feeling? is nothing new or strange," Mies Nethersole explained. " Nature is" the most jierfect expression of what you are pleased to call my theories. In the spring the world is green, symbolising freshness and youth. T n the first act of ' The Termagant ' I wear a green gown, because the girl is just like a tender shoot or a flowei, responsive to every passing breeze, swaying and bowing at the will of the wind. Scarlet represents the blood — the typificalion of strength, virility, utter sensuousness. Yellow is the colour of jealousy, of pain and discord in the inner nature. ■ When I first went on the stage I did not understand this law of colours. I merely bought handsome gowns and had no further responsibility in the matter. To my surprise I found that my gowns jarred upon mv emotions when I went to act my pieco. It was just like a false note in music. I could not portray successfully a sinstained, sorrowful woman in a green gown. Nature long ago proved that in the fall the dead leaves, the dull brawns, the ashengroys roused feel'iigs of melancholy. I have ! learned from Nature, the greatest of all ' teachers, that as every feeling may be expressed in a chord of music, so each emotion of the heart can be shown' by a colour." i " Last Call " sends me the following notes j from the Dramatic Mirror, N. Y. : — i Oscar Barrett's recent pantomine at London Adelphi has caused his bankruptcy. Charles Cartwright has just copyrighted a Robespierre play written for him by Arthur Shirley. '" Hoyt and M'Kee's Company, headed by Harry Connor, started from San Francisco on May 3 on a tour round the world. First stop at Honolulu May 10. where they play two weeks ; then to Apia,, Samoa, then Auckland, and are due to open in Sydney Juno 12. After a comprehensive tour of Australia, they are booked for South Africa, and then to return to the St-ites via London. Patrice, who was here with Hoyt's Trip to Chinatown Company, is now a bright star ia Vaudeville. A recent sketch of hers in Brooklyn, entitled " Edna's Ghost," had a moat favourable reception.

Nat Goodwin, and Maxine Elliot are to produce " The Cowboy a«d the Lady " in London next June at the Duke of Tork's Theatre. W. S. Penley, the original "Charley's 'Aunt," is to tour the States next season under the management of Smyth and Rice in " A Little Ray of Sunshine," a. recent London success. Sir Arthur Sullivan is at Biarritz, -busy on music for the new Savoy opera. He has been commissioned in conjunction with Owen Hall and Adrian Ross to write a musical r comedy for Augustin Daly. j