STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 69

STAGE GOSSIP.

illiami Anderson has engaged that steractox, Roy Redgrave, for another long Hie Chaaitecler," with the present ich company, is to appear at Drury e an June. arry Quealy aaid his wife have returned Australia from' India They will proy be seen again in vaudeville, adame Melba, after singing in Florence -Paris, will make hex reappearance in lon in July as Desdemona in " Othello." C. Williamson's Grand Opera Company ng its tour of the Dominion will travel 100 people, including an ocbestra of » ) principal sensation in " The Wedding »' which is to be staged shortly by Marlctw Company, is a realistic railway sh. ith - &*> production of " Count Hannibal" the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, Oscar le and Lily Brayton bring their season to lose. C. Williamson has acquired the rights Ihe Balkan Princess," by Paul Rubens, L libretto by Predk. Lonsdale, of " King --adonia " fame. ie latest to join the vaudeville stage tone. Plla Russell, the famous operatic ia donna, who has been appearing at London Coliseum. iunt Sergei Tolstoi, a son of the famous' 12j' as WOTI a P 1126 0I 50 ° roubles ?ed for the best song submitted to a cow committee of composers. j>bert Imman, one of the most popular of tralian actors, has rejoined William arson's company. He is with the special rnce and the Beggar Maid" Company, iss Aimee Champion, of St. Clair (Dun0. has been awaided a scholarship for io playing, entitling her to two years' nation in the Royal Academy at LonT ( Henry Hay ward has taken a seven « lease of His Majesty's Theatre, istchurch, including the Alexander Hall Victoria Hall, which form part of the e building. * Albert Styan, late of the Bland Holt ipany, has been engaged to support Mr heson Lang, the English actor, who is ag imported by Messrs Clarke, Mey- , and Gunn. be Paris, police have issued edicts forhng anybody to -wear a celluloid colter cuffs behind the scenes of a Paris litre. The reason for this peculiar order ■he danger of fire. r O. P. Heggie, the talented' Australian >r, is highly praised by the Home ics for his playing of the Clerk in Ber--1 Shaw's ,play, •-" Mesalliance," at the ertoxy Theatre, London, tie next musical comedy to go to London l Vienna is "The Count of Luxemburg," oh _ secured 46 calls at its first performs in the Austrian capital. It follows ax's " The Waltz Dream." national testimonial fund is being inurated with the object of securing a cien* sum to place Haydn Beck, the :hful Wanganu . violinist, under some of leading musters in Europe. 'illiam Anderson's new production at the g'a v Theatre .(" From Shop-girl to chess'") is from the pen of Charfles Tell, a dramatic author who has written ly successful sensational dramas. is said that Kato Ungada, of Tokio, a anese theatrical manager, is negotiating i numerous Japanese merchants of lth in the United States With the inion of establishing a Japanese theatre e. iss Olga Grey (who appeared with .some Ir Williamson's companies) and the TrapSisters, who toured New Zealand with Harry Riskards's last vaudeville ccmy, are now appearing. at the Melbourne ra House. iss Katherine Grey, in speaking ' of natic authors, expresses the opinion that young man is -joining to the front, an instance, she dingles out Sheldon, the lor of " Salvation Nell," who is only rears of age. loiher new drama to be presented shortly William Anderson will be !'The . Sailor's Iding." In literary merit it is a play d to " The Prince and the Beggar d." The setting is at Naples and the es most picturesque. a September 30, 1837, the late Joseph arson (of " Rip Van Winkle" fame) made first appearance on the stage at the ional Theatre, New York, at the age of t, in a isword combat with Master Titus, impersonated a pirate. • - ir Matheson Lang and his wife. Miss tan, will only take a flying trip through tralia. Their season will be limited to t weeks in Melbourne and Sydney rectively, with brief visits to Adelaide Perth on the way back to England. The Sins of Society," William Anderson's st purchase, is cine of the most notable of forthcoming Australian productions, stioally the whole of William Anderson's ,ic and mechanical staffs are concentratall their energies on this great producie opera in Paris is subventioned by French Government to the extent of XX); the opera at Berlin receives £25,000; sden gives £24,000 to its opera; WiesMi, £12,500; Munich, £12,500; Prague, 000; Darmstadt, £12,500;. and Vienna, 300. number of officers and middies from this mesa warships saw " The Arcadians" night recently. At the end of the ormance they presented Miss Male Sy<iwith a bouquet of roses, tied with red, «, aaid blue ribbons, with the Japanese attached 1 . be of the plays which Mr Matheson Lang produce in Australia is Jerome K. me's " The Passing of the Third Floor ,k." Mr Forbes B'Cbertson recently t to New York, to play it fox a six cs' season, and had to extend the run jix months. L®9 Army Castles, who is appearing with Grand Opera Company in Sydney, has asked by cable message from London wscept an engagement to sing at the t Eanpire concert to be given in the rt Hall on June 23. Miss Castles was celled to decline the offer. r Clyde Meynell, of the Clarke and nell theatrical combination, is making ngements for bringing out a number of jrtant attractions to Australia, and will tly leave for England, the Continent, America, to complete negotiations. The enterprise includes three complete new ' the ' Sydney Theatre Royal " La Bo's " will succeed " Madam Butterfly. Bart of Mimi will be taken by Signorina, £ari who has not so far appeared with. company. She > described as being tfceptionally temperamental actress, and' uite young The tenor's part (Rudolf) iw *nfe«n bv Signer Verg*. £t party, comprising Signor Gallien Gasf ftenoT)" and Jacqu.es Pintel fPnrjsian L w ho are under engftseawnt to IB Tait. During the voyage Madame

Calve appeared in a concert in aid of charities, and delighted the passengers. The American Actresses' Assistance Association is a new society formed by Irene Franklin, Marie Stuart, Nella. Bergen, Annette Kellermann, and other vaudeville players for the purpose of assisting their less fortunate sisters in the profession. They propose to give away gowns for stage purposes to those who cannot afford them. In Kalgoollie recently William Anderson's " Babes in the Wood" Pantomime Company turned itself into a vaudeville ootm>pany for the last night of the season. It proved itself a splendid vaudeville combination. Messrs Nat Clifford, Foreman, and Famman, and Miss Lillian Lea are certainly four of the best "specialty artists Australia has ever seen. The grand opera season at the Sydney Theatre Rqyal has lowered all previous records. So great is the continued demand for seats that the J. C. Williamson management ran " Madame Butterfly " until April 22, making in all an unbroken month for Pi.ecini's Japanese tragedy. Never previously has a grand opera held the public so long in any Australian city. The death was announced in Sydney last week of Signora Leonora Fabris. The deI ceased lady, who died at her home in Woollahra, was 70 years of age, and came to Australia in 1876 with Lyster's Grand Opera Company, playing principal contralto parts in "II Trovatore " and " Lohengrin." She was well known in Sydney, and was one of the leading teachers of singing there. Richard Strauss, having been asked whether women should be encouraged to conduct orchestras, replied: " All good conductors are under the direction of women, so why not the rest of the orchestra? A well-known inhabitant of Munich was once asked if he was musical. His answer was: ' Musical I am not; but I can conduct.' That's the point; it all depends what one understands by condxicting." The Royal Comic Opera Company have just given the residents of Perth a treat by taking part in a grand theatrical carnival, which was organised in aid of the third class passengers and crew of the Pericles, the Children's Hospital, and the Waifs' Home. Every member of the popular organisation did his or her share towards the suc:ess of the entertainment, and the result was a great success. The special company William Anderson has engaged to interpret " The •Prince and the Beggar Maid" in Adelaide, commencing on Saturday next, is an extremely powerful one. The princes will be undertaken by . Messrs Roy Redgrave, Robert Inman, and Walter Dalgleish. As the Princess Monica Miss Harrie Ireland should he excellent. The company's second production in Adelaide will be "A Thief in the Night." J. M. Barrie began his career after leaving his university as a newspaper man in London. He wanted to delve into literature, and wrote one or two stories of Scotch life. His first big success (says the Boston Globe) was " The Professor's Love-story,' acted by E. S. Willard. Mr Frohman had to coax and encourage Barrie to dramatise "The Little Minister" long before the novel began to take hold of the reading public. In an interview Mr Julius Knight ex- | pressed the opinion that he has fairly lived v.down Marcus Superbus, and justly claims that in " The Lion and the Mouse" and " Arms and the Man " he has proved himself capable of parts that are not merely pictorial. Mr Knight says that he is fairly I in love with Bernard's . Shaw's comedies, I and also looks :"arwaid with pleasurable ekI pectation to the production of " Henri of Navarre." The whole of the cast in " Count Hannibal," at Sydney Criterion, is exactly the same as .in the original production inEngland. Stanley Weyman, the author of the novel, from which the play has been adapted, has forwarded a synopsis of the motif of the play, specially written by himself, for the Australian production; . and signed by him. This is to be published in the programme. There are no fewer than i 10 acts in " Count Hannibal." The London Stage, in summing up the sucoesses .and failures of 1909, finds that musical comedy and farce have had an unusual popularity over serious drama. I " Our Miss Gibbs" and " The Brass j Bottle" have triumphed over such earnest ! works as Pinerci's " Mid-channel" and i Bieux's " False Gods." It is also pointed ■ out that the English ■ dramatists have shown I a marked falling off of output, distinguished I plays of .native authorship being comparatively few. ■ ■ " The Dollar Princess" was produced for i the first' time in Australia by Mr William- | son's New Comic Opera Company at Her : Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, lately with j the following cast: —Mr Bert Gilbert as j Harry Q. Conder, Mr H. Clayton as Fairi fax, Mr F. Greene as John, Earl of Quorn, Mr W. S. Percy as "Mr Bulger, Mr P. Bathurs't as Sir Jame 3 M'Gregor, Mr V. Prince as the circus proprietor, Miss Dorothy Court as Alice, Miss Lottie Sargent as Daisy, and Miss Olive Godwin as Olga, the lion-tamer. Mr Matheson Lang, who will make his first appearanoe in Australia in Hall Caine's play, " Pete," has sailed for Australia, accompanied bv his wife, Miss Hutin Britten. Mr Lang, who recently completed a " starring " engagement at the New (Millionaiies') Theatre, New York, at a salary said to have exceeded £350 per week, is an M.A. of St. Andrew's University, and a most intellectual actor. Mr Lang has delivered lectures upon Shakespearean subjects and : educational phases of the stage before the : University of Oxford. The Russian stage has lost its leading i lady actress by the death of Madame Kommisarzhevsk3ya, who died at Tashkent while on tour with her company. Death was due to blocd-p.oiscming supervening --on smallpox. Madame Vera Fedorovna Kommisarzhevskaya was the daughter of a famous Russian singer, and was born in 1862. She was an accomplished actress, and was credited with a remarkable gift for portraying the subtleties of human psychology. She chiefly distinguished herself in the plays of Ostrofsky and Sudermann. Two brilliant artists are Jacques Pintel and Galileo Gasparri, who have been engaged to support Madame Emma Calve durj ing her forthcoming tour of Australasia. j Pmtel is a Russian pianist of distinction. .He had played with success in London, ,| Paris, and other Continental oapitals, and first attracted the attention .of the musical : world when he won the much-coveted Prej mier Prix in the Paris Conservatoire. Gasi parri has been a tenor in La Scala, Milan, nnd has appeared throughout Italy in such operas as " Cavalleria Rustioana," "La Tosca," and " La Boheme." " I have almost decided that I shall act in conjunction with Mr Williamson in producing grand opera when I return in 18 months' time," said Mdame Melba to an interviewer at Freman'tle. " I shall j only play in Adelaide, Mtelbouine, and | Sydney. I won't come to the West. I shall make my debut as Desdemona in ' O'tello.' Other pieces in my repertoire are i "Rigoletto,' ' Faust,' • La Traviata,' ' Madame j Butterfly,' 'and 'La BohenW I will give j iny final answer to Mr Williamison," Madame

Melba concluded, " when I reach Colombo I feci sure it -will be a fvcurable one."

"When Knighthood was in Flower," a. romantic play by Paul Hester (author of " Sweet Nell of Old Drury"), is to be produced under the Williamson management by the Ntellie Stewart Company on the termination of the run in Melbourne of " W'hait Etoery Woman Knows."' The central figure of the play is Mary Tudor, the younger 'and favourite sister of Henry VIII, and her love-story with Charles Brandon, whom she finally marries af first being obliged by Henry tot contract an alliance with Louis of France, forms the axis round which the characters and themes revolve. The drama is one that has served Miss Julia Marlowe, one of America's most popular stars, for some time past, and the leading role is one in which Miss Nellie Stewart should be seen toi advantage. Bert Gilbert tells a funny story of an episode which happened when he was a member oif a travelling company some years ago. They were in >a provincial town when one of the members of the company became ill, and was unable to fill her place in the cast. A local aspirant to stage honours had to be engaged, and the trouble was that 'although the play was decidedly Irish the fill-ths-gap was undoubtedly a- Cockney. The manager with untiring patience spent twe days and nights trying to get the newcomer to speak her solitary line with the appropriate Irish brogue, but with doubtful success:—"Be aisy, lads —be aisy! The puriy pet is worn out and tired," were the words as spoken by the manager to his pupil, but on the night of the performance they sounded something like, this: "Be heesy, lads —be heesy! The purpy pup is torn out and wired." And the audience yelled with laughter 1