THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 47

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Bt Pasquth.

TUESDAY, September 5. | There was a large attendance at the Alhambra Theatre on Saturday night, when Fuller's Waxworks Vaudeville Company appeared in a change of programme. The friends of Mies Maud Hewson, formerly of the Pollard Opera Company, will be pleased to hear that she is achieving great buccess on the concert platform in New South Wales. Miss Hewson has been recently singing with Miss Amy Castles at Bathurst (N.S.W.), and the National Advocate, a local paper, refers to her in the following eulogistis terms: — "Bathurst people were delighted to have another chance of hearing Miss Maud Hewson. The reception accorded to the contralto was a -most gratifying one. She sang Randigger's 'Joyous Life,' and after that xippling little piece gave a most artistic interpretation of Behrend's 'Daddy.' Mifs Hewson selected for her second item Gluck's ' Chefaro,' and met artistically all the demands made by the exacting aria. Her encore number ,was 'The Children's Home' (Cowen), sung- with all the artistic effect with which Miss Hewson is able to treat ballad compositions." This- talented young lady resided in this city for some years, and received the groundwork of her musical education at the Dominican Convent, Dunedin. "What Happened to Jones" is having a successful career, in South Africa notwithstanding the disturbed state of the country. Of Mr Charles Arnold's performance the Transvaal Standard says : — " The way Mr Arnold's company co-operate and wind through the mazes and turns without so much as a slip was after the versatile Charles's Fred Leslie-like performance, and the splendid setting and "frardrobing the feature of the performance.* Mr Arnold was of course the life and soul of the entertainment. He 'scarcely left the stage and he positively romped his way through the farcical chaos with cheery good humour and bewildering agility." The oldest dramatic critic in the colonies, 33" J. E. Nield, of Melbourne, has just published a little budget of reminiscences. Born in Yorkshire seventy-five years ago, and educated at University College, London, Dr Neild has successfully combined medicine and journalism in the Victorian capital for close upon half a century. Many English actors and actresses will remember his Sunday evening receptions. Dr Neild says he has seen a ■hundred Hamlets in his time. He awards the palm to that of Walter Montgomery, who mysteriously shot himself in Bond street two days after his marriage with an American lady. The finest Othello was, the veteran thinks, G. V. Brooke, who went down in the London. v I Rome will be privileged to hear the first performance of Puccini's "La Tosca." Mdlle. jDarlee, a prima donna with a romantic his- , tory, has heen selected to take the leading part, j She is a member of a Roumanian priucely i family which was rui*ed a few years ago. On the advice of Gounod she studied in Paris, and with so much success that she made her debut at the Opera at the early age of nine- t teen. That was ten years ago, and she is nowa favourite in France, Italy, and Germany. Next season she will be heard in-London. Singers and players are not often men of business, but it seems that M. Paderewski is : a marked exception. Apropos of his mar- ! riage, the statement comes that he is a very wealthy man, being a principal shareholder in a great Parisian piano factory, part pro- ' prietor of one of the chief hotels at Warsaw, and having other very valuable investments. | Madame Patti, now Baroness Cederslrom, is said to have- made at times as much as £70,000 a year. Melba's income, when fully engaged, is £30,000 and Sarah Bernhardt has for years averaged £14-,000. Rosa Bonheur sold one year's work for £38,000. I An immense deal of nonsense is talked of and sometimes written about the inferiority, ' in certain artistic respects, of our operatic performances to those of Italy and Germany. "It may do very well in England, but they wouldn't stand it in Germany," the truthful connoisseur will sometimes exclaim;' and he will probably go on to say that if anything of the- kind was presented in Italy the indignant audience would tear up the benches or pelt the principal singers with apples and oranges. iAs a matter of fact, however, there is no i opera house in Europe where, in the course 1 of a brief season, so many fine storks are so finely executed as in London. — St. James's Gc.zeite. Madame Patti is a most lenient critic of amateur musical performances, and often asks iher intimate friends to sing or play to her. Miss Julia Neilson, who has just celebrated her birthday, owes her introduction to the Btago to the discrimination of Mr W. S. Gilbert. It was he who, greatly daring, cast her for the important part of " Cynisca in •Miss Mary Anderson's revival of "Pygmalion and Galatea," and the result justified his

selection. Miss Neilson has won her way to the front by sheer- merit and hard work, and to-day she stands within a narrow circle of leading actresses at the top of her profession. In private life she is a delightfully unconventional hostess, liking nothing better than a merry romp with her two children, the elder of whom, Miss Ellen Terry has declared, will bo the greatest actress of the great Terry family. The London opera seaeon closed with a performance of Gounod's " Romeo," which has taken such a remarkable ne\r lease of life since fresh vitality was infused into it by Melba and the two De Reszkes and Plancon. With these great singers in the cast, or with Emma Eames as the Juliet, tne work is almost sure nowadays of a favourable reception, although it was virtually a failure when such incomparable artists as Patti and Mario filled the two chief parts. These things are puzzles. Verdi's " Rigoletto," which was announced for last Saturday evening, was withdrawn at the last moment, the beautiful but hackneyed "Faust" being substituted. On the Avhole, the season has been somewhat disappointing. There has been practically no novelty but " Messaline," which cannot be declared a work of first-rate calibre. And there have been far too many changes and substitutions. However, the subscribers seem satisfied, as most of them have renewed for next year. Charles Wyndham closed his 23 years' tenancy of the Criterion Theatre recently with " Rosemary " and a speech. He is building a new theatre, which is to be finished" in October, and in which he will revive " The Tyranny of Tears," one of the chief dramatic successes of the season. The new theatre, as j-eb unnamed, is in the Charing Cross road, and looks well from the outside at anyrate. The Prince of Wales, Princess Victoria, the Duchess of York, Princess Christian, and a crowd of society people attended to assist at Mr Wyndham's farewell to the Criterion, with which he has so long been associated, and in which he was won his chief histrionic triumph. The proceeds of the final performance at the " Cri," £1474, were handed over to the Prince of Wales hospital fund. " Last Call " sends me from Sydney, the following cuttings from Dramatic Mirror N.Y., of July 15: — Kyrle Bellew and Mr« Brown Potter will play in Zangwill's " Ghetto," at the London Comedy. Mrs Potter has just condluded her engagement to Beerbohm Tree. Louis Waller and Julia Neilson are in Beerhohm Tree's cast of " King John." Sarah Bernhardt since she finished her season at London " Adelphi," has been playing at the leading suburban theatres at Croydon and Fulham, and before leaving for France to fulfil an engagement at Lyons, ran down to play "Hamlet " at the author's birth place. R. G. Knowles is now in London, but has not quite recovered from his throat trouble. Mrs Langtry is to play a season at the Haymarket, London. Nat Goodwin and Maxino Elliott have caught on in London. Ada Rehan has decided not to appear in the forthcoming Drury Lane melodrama. Emile Zola has abandoned his contemplated American tour, as he does not wish to reap pecuniary reward from his association with tho Dreyfus incident. The repertoire of the Irving-Terry American tour will include " Robespierre," " Merchant of Venice," "The Bells," "A Story of Waterloo," "The Amber Heart," and " Nance Oldfield." Emma Calve, at present resting at Aix-les-bains will return to America in September under contract to Maurice Grau. Ada Rehan is a beneficiary under the will of the late Augustin Daly.