FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 235, 14 March 1885, Page 12

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Miss Kate Garstone, formerly a celebrity of the London music halls, died recentlyfrom cancer.

We expect to see a fashionable audie neeat the Theatre Royal on to-morrow (Frid ay) evening, when Miss Maribel Greenwood and. Mr Eemenyi will play a sonato from Mozar t,. in B minor (violin and pianoforte).

It is reported that Lord Cairns has sent. Miss Fortescue a cheque for £1000 to c over her expenses in her suit against the recu sant Lord Grarmoyle. This amount will more than cover the fair plaintiff's costs. I {Topical Times) cannot vouch for the tr uth of the story, but if it be true, it speaks w ell for Lord Cairns' good feeling.

A Wellington correspondent kindly forwards some particulars of a concert held in the Athenseum in aid of the funds of a. Catholic Library and Be,ading-room. T heaffair appears to have been very successfulMrs Swift and Mrs Parsons were heartily encored in their songs, as were also theMisses Grigg, Smith, aud Bonner, while Mr Gardner and Mr Cecil Heyworth were in. good voice.

Mr Cram, the poor shipwrecked inarineiy who lost all his effects in the wreck of the Mary Ann Annison, at the Kaipara, has. been tendered a benefit by many of the> pros, and amateurs of Auckland, and the performance will take place about ten days nence in the Theatre Eoyal. Mr Crain'a genial and kindly disposition and his readiness to lend his assistance for any deservingobject entitle him to the sympathy and support of Auckland playgoers. We bespeak for him- a bumper house.

Charles Sullivan, the Irish comedian, tells a good story. During a recent engagement in Liverpool he took shelter from a showerin a tailor's shop. Charles got into chat with the worthy prox^rietor, who was an. Irishman, and after a while asked, — "Do> you ever go to the theatre?" "JSTo," was. the reply. "At least, very seldom. I went, to see Sullivan in the ' Shaughraun ' the other night. " ' < Well, how did you like it ?" ' ' Not much ; it might do very well for those that don't understand it ; but sure, I knew it was all lies."

Von Suppe's opera " Fatinitza " replaced! " Le Petit Due " on Saturday, and has been repeated this week. As a spectacle"Fatinitza" excels Lecocq's opera, but musically it is inferior to the sparkling French work. The principal parts of Fatinitza and the Princess Lydia Ivanovua are very well sustained by Miss May Pollard 4 and Miss Bella Stewart. The singing of . - both young ladies in the quartette of the first act and in the finale deserved far more recognition than the audience accorded it. Miss Flo de Lornae made a capital war cor- « respondent ; the very masculine representative of Izzet Pasha — masculine if we were to trust our eyes and ears, but feminineaccording to the cast — played his or hen part satisfactorily. The snow scene in theRussian camp was specially good, and the subsequent set scenes excellent. The orchestral accompaniments were too noisy.. ' ' Les Cloches de Corneville," already favourably known to Auckland audiences, was staged yesterday evening, and will be played for the rest of the week.

Eernenyi has no rules, wants none, and. needs none. His listeners knows that heholds his violin and bow. He is outside of his violin, and his violin is outside of him,, and that is the only position that Kemenyi appears to consider absolutely necessary. It is not the man that enthralls us. There is nothing unusual in his appearance, and it certainly is not a violin that mesmerises us for we have heard them by the hundred' but the man and the violin together. Ah I. there it is. Give the instrument of music a soul, and then listen. Give the soul finders, to manipulate the instrument and bate your breath. On the night we visited the Theatre Eoyal, Bellini's "II Pirata," arranged byErnst, was the opening piece selected by this great musician, and a perfect marvel of execution and power was at once displayed to an enraptured audience ; and atifcs conclusion, in complying to the inevitable encore, th-s"- -" King of Violinists" gave "The Marseillaise " When the inevitable and irrepressible encore brought him again forward, there was something never heard before, yet doubly attractive for its originality and the fascination of .its melancholy strains, and then, as though, listening to a weird ghost story of old, the straiiiS^radually assumed a familiar form and, without knowing how, the audience find these thrilling harmonies have developed T into cf Auld E&bin Gray,'' rendered with the--' soul-bared patho^ of this master music: anBut again the listeners were puzzled awakened as from an easy dream — and' found themselves in^he full swing of " The Campbells are Coirpn'." As fie strains died away into the faintest whisper, and in any part of the crowqed Theatre a pin dropping would have crejated an echo and been mentally anathematised by everyone present. Eemenyi next I came forward' with the "Cappriccio" bjT Paganini, and theremarkable powers cJf execution of this great player were j thoroughly brought into play, the audience again held in quivering" earnestness, and they greeted him with,' a deafening encore at its conclusion, -\\Hien he good-naturedly complied with a fantasia of his own on the " Carnival of Venice-," the rendering of which was simply beyond |the powers of description ; nothing but seeing and hearing could be of

any avail. Remenyi is accompanied by Mr Isidore Luckstone, a grand performer on the piano, and one who humours the playing of his distinguished chief to a nicety. Miss Hattie B. Downing gave full evidence of being the possessor of a powerful aud swee+> ; soprano voice, with wide scope and under .perfect control. Mr Rudolf Himmer is a tenor with an excellent voice, and sings with rare feeling and expression. M. Eemenyi's :stay in Auckland terminates on Monday -aaext. He appears in Cambridge on Wednesday, the 18th, and at Hamilton on the following night.