A Wagnerian Opera.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4982, 15 April 1889, Page 3

A Wagnerian Opera.

An American writer thus describes the production of Wagner’s “ Eheingeld ” at the Metropolitan Opera House, Hew York : All musical Now York has been on tip-toe for months in expectation of this wonderful production. Well, we have seen it, and now, what? Well if a man declares his honest

conviction, what does he get ? Numb-skull, brute, savage, ignoramus, barbarian, sansculotte, and every other choice name in the I vocabulary. The production of this piece has [ cost no end of trouble and money. It is a sort of mythological hodge-pode, made up of dwarfs, brownies, gnomes, mermaids, mermen, Rhein gods, and Rhein devils, and all sorts of impossible and improbable monstrosities. A more dissolute set of vagabonds than these Rhein gods it would bo impossible to conceive, and ns a matter of public safety, the very best place to keep such fellows would be in the bottom of the Rhine, albeit these jolly gods were no great lovers of cold water. The goddesses are pretty enough but are not safe persons to let run loose around o’ nights, and if they lived in New York instead of the bottom of the Rhine, the chances are ten to one that they would be picked up by the police and sent to Blackwell’s Island as disorderly persons, while the principal character would stand a good chance of going to States Prison for bigamy. j There is a dash of insanity about every- I thing that Wagner ever wrote which gives j evidence of a distempered brain. All of his , operas were produced for the delectation of I the mad King of Bavaria, who eventually I went hunting mermaids at the bottom of the I lake adjoining his palace. It may be that | Bishop Berkley was right, and that we are | all as mad as March hares j if we are not, it it would not take many doses of Yogner to j make us as crazy as loons. (If you want to I pronounce the name of the great composerlike a tip-top sawyer, call it Vagner, not | Wagner.) j In the production of the effects of the j Kheingeld, no attention appears to have been paid to the comfort of any one except the j composer himself and his royal patron. To i produce the effect of swimming on the water, : wonderful machines have been invented, 1 fifteen and sixteen feet high ; these rock I and float and dive and sink in the most j illusive manner on the waters of the Rhine, | Mounted on top of these are the Rhine 1 daughters, and the feeling that some of these 1 sprites experience is very much like being ' tossed about in a cockle shell in a high sea, ! Now a German fairy is a different thing from | an English, an Irish or a French fairy. Avery j moderate German fairy weighs anywhere from two hundred to two hundred and fifty I pounds, solid beef, and a waist band of 56 ! inches is not uncommon. It took five men to move every fairy, so that the expenses of ' the opera were enormous; but New York 1 footed the bill, the house was crowded every > night. j Is it a success ? I should say so. At the opening of the Rhine scene, the house went ! wild, men pounded on the seats, women j screamed, boys threw up their hats and girls ! danced. Washington Connor waved* his | handkerchief frantically, and another grave ; broker clapped his hands, a thing he seldom does, except when he has caught the market short on Western Union or Missouri Pacific. I came away feeling like Cleveland when he received the election news. The enthusiasm never touched me ; I know I looked like a Mugwump ; I felt guilty, but I can’t help it. You may hang me, crucify me, if you please. But I can’t and don’t like Wagner.

Mr Sabiston, caretaker of the immigration barrack?, desires to thank Mr J. D. Adam for his donation of a quantity of fish for the inmates of the institution.

Mr John Struthers, of Otipua, was unanimously elected a member of the Tiraaru Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at their annual meeting on Saturday.

The sea was very calm to-day. The small waves there were running over the surface were almost too lazy to do any dashing and splashing on the beach. They just rolled up, and trickled back again.

Some fishermen here have obtained a fine not and this morning sprats were selling at the rale of a heaped half gallon for a shilling. On Friday they wore about a shilling a pint. Kawhai, barracouta, and mackerel are also being hawked about plentifully. The sprats would make good “ sardines.” On our fourth page will be found the second instalment of the new story, in which the Mayor and the Mayoress of Puddlcton continue their heated discussion of the military question, and are interrupted by the entrance of “ the Mayor’s daughter.”

His Worship the Major has taken the trouble to reply in writing to “ A Eatepayer ” who found fault with the Borough Council’s proposals as regards street improvements for the current year, as indicated by their estimates. The Mayor’s letter will bo found on our fourth page.

Admirers of the picturesque who looked westward early to-day must have been pleased by the appearance of the mountains. The sky was beclouded overhead, and the low country was thus placed in shade, and a haze helped to make the nearer view|ob3curo. The snowy ranges, however, wore brightly sunlit, and their summits were sharply defined against a clear sky behind them. They were extremely pretty.

At the last meeting of the Borough Council resolutions were passed in connection with the estimates that the Town Clerk shall relinquish the secretaryship to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, and that his salary be raised to £350; that the services of the assistant collector be dispensed with, and a cadet taken on in his place. Cr Bennett has given notice to more that those resolutions bo rescinded, on the ground that the stall will be impaired out of proportion to the saving effected, ifthoy are acted upon.

An “ Australian ” writing to a Christchurch paper on the tourist business and the wisdom of encouraging it in every way possible, asks the governing bodies down South (moaning particularly the Mackenzie County Council) to forswear ignorance, selfishness, caprice, and to act for the common welfare of the district and the country. Through their stupid folly, he says, many visitors who landed in Invercargill came a certain distance, viewed what they could, and returned. Having no bridge over the Ohau, they returned after seeing only a sprinkling of beauty, and said irithin themselves, as also openly, that some fools were oven to be found iu tho Colonics,

A meeting has been held at Peel Forest 1 protest against the proposed alteration of tl * railway time-table, and Mr A. W. Ens< writes to-day condemning it. We believ however, that both Mr Ensor and the Mour 1 Peel meeting only had before them a imperfect time-table. The Fairlie Creek School Committee me on Saturday evening. Present : Messi J. Milne (chairman), Allan, Morris, Pys Manaton, and Binney, The masters’ repoi showed the average attendance for the pas four weeks had been 52.4—boys 29 4, girl 23 ; roll number 74 ; highest attendance 60 The visitors reported all in good order excep the pump and one school seat. In reply ti a letter from the board the 'chairman wa requested to write that the committee wen unanimous in desiring to retain Miei Forgusson’s services. Mrs McGregor wroti asking for the use of the schoolroam for the purpose of holding a sale of work and concert! on the third and fourth of May, in aid of th ( Catholic Church funds. It was resolved that the school be granted, without charge,and that a holiday be given the children on the third. The Easter holidays were fixed from the 18th to the 24th. A receipt for 20s for hire of the room was reported. Mr Binney was appointed visitor for the next month. ! The work of sinking screw moorings in the harbour progresses surely but slowly. Two have now been put down, the second one no loss than 16ft 6in. beneath the surface. In the case of both a hole was first bored and a charge of dynamite fired in it to loosen the hard gravel and sand through which the screws have to be forced. This is not loose ■like beach shingle, but compact stuff that

: would need a good deal of picking, if it were above water, before a shovel would bo any use. In the case of the second one, Mr Marchant applied a water jot with good results, | Although the dynamite had loosened the stuff, 1 the friction of the sand, from the superin- ! cumbent weight, was very groat when some j depth had been reached, and to reduce this a pipe with nozzle was put down beside the screwing shaft until the nozzle rested on the screw plate. A stream of water from the steam force pump on the dredge]was then sent | down the pipe, with very good results. Before ! it was applied, eight men at the winches with i double purchase on could hardly get them ! round, and the rope gear gave signs of giving in. After the application of the jet four men turned the winehes at single purchase with the greatest ease. W. H. E. Pinching, who died in Waiau lock-up last week, had seen some ups and downs in North Canterbury. He was a son of Dr Pinching at one time a practitioner in Kaiapoi, who is said to have been burned to death in a fire in San Francisco. The son was a chemist and skilful as a prescriber for j children's ailments. He failed in that ' business and then started a boarding-house, gave up that and took up a carrier’s business between Christchurch and West Coast. Next he settled in Waiau as a doctor, and then j oined his father in a chemist’s shop in Kaiapoi. While in this partnership he disappeared in a a mysterious way and search parties sought for him in vain. Ho returned to the shop in a few weeks, as if he had done nothing unusual. He left Kaiapoi soon after, and settled at Waikari, but the climate was too healthy for a chemist to live, and he removed to Christchurch. There he could get no employment in his own line, and he became a newspaper runner. This ho threw up and returned to the Waiau, and took up again the practice of medicine, and found it did not pay. Ho was under arrest, when he died in the lock-up, for obtaining money by false pretences by borrowing from two parties under absolute bills of sale over the same property.