MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5127, 8 December 1894, Page 2

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES.

AUSTRALIA.

Mr George Darrell haa taken a lease of tho Alexandra Theatre, Melbourne.

After her present Melbourne season Misf Maggie Moore will tour the United States.

Mr R. S. Smythe has announced hifl intention of retiring from management aft sixty.

Mr Titheradge, of the Brough and Boucicault company, is the father of oeverf daughters. It is reported that the famous Italian^ tragedienne, Eleanora Duse, has in view at tour in Australia.

Miss Maggie Knight waa lately married to Mr H. Anderson, a Sydney commercial man, who hails from Auckland.

Well-known and capable aotora are doing the Melbourne suburbs in standard dramas at no fixed prices of admission, a silver coin only being expected. The New Boy at the Sydney Lyceum will be followed by the farcical comedy The Foundling, recently produced at Terry's Theatre, London, by Mr W. J. Holloway. Mies Maggie Moore has long been a, confirmed advocate of dress jeforno. Ifc is said that at rehearsals she always discards the cumbrous/ ekirb for the free-and-easy breeches.

London "Figaro" states that "'Dot* Boucicault, upon his arrival in London from Australia, will be married to Misa Pattie Browne, the clever little Drury Lane soubrette." .

The B. and B. partnership will probably be dissolved on Boucicault'a return from England. Should Mr and Mrs Brought succeed in getting a footing in London the colonies may know them no more.

Our old friend Harold Ash ton, in con* juction with Mr Alfred Woods, has taken the Theatre Royal, Sydney, for a term. The first production was Hands Across tht Sea which has been very well received. Tlifl Company is rehearsing a dram* new to colonise. The latest addition to Harry Bickorde' Tivoli Company is Mr J. W. Winton, ail English ventriloquist of high repute. Hid special line of business is in the manipulation of puppets who appear to sing and whistle, and he is aho noted for his mimicry of animals, birds, and various musical instruments.

Williamson and Musgrove (says Sydney " Truth ") have spoiled the public taste by importing too many novelties and pro* ffssionala with big metropolitan reputations from England. The Btone strike^ the thrower in the rebound. The publid won't tolerate an Australian show at the Lyceum, nor a second-rate English one. -' Tho death is recorded of Mr Edward] King, Victoria's oldest musician. The veteran violinist was, at tho time of his decease, in hie 81st year, having been bom at Bristol in March, 1814. In Eugknd he played under Balfe, John Loder Cramer, and other distinguished cond actors, and in 1851 he emigrated to Victoria. For thirty years he was leader of the Melbourne Philharmonic Society. At Ballarat, on Nov. 1, Dr Low, of Ballarat, was united in the bonda of matrimony to Mies Alice Maude Payne, of the Payne family. The ceremony waa performed by the Rev W. Fraaer, of Scota* Churoh, the bride being given away by her uncle, Mr J. Payne, while Mr D. Bartholomew, of Stutt Street, acted aa beat man. Both bride and bridegroom were the recipients of many costly presents and congratulations from their numerous, circle of acquaintances.

The following items are from the Sydney "Bulletin":—

Gub Bruno, now appeaiingat Melbourne, Oxford, ia a speculation of Bickarda', and ie only on loan to the Cogbills. Bruno ia also well-known in America as an operatic comedian, and he intends, when his present agreement rune out, to open " on his own' in a season of musical comedy with Borne ot his American BUCceßees.

Alfred Plumpton, 4wad&m<mußiCß>critfe

bf Melbourne "Age," and composer of the tausic for the original living pictures, has . completed the score of an operetta called fluent flfee, the Australian right 3 of which "the Firm" have secured. Plumpton bas also a new opera ready, called His Excellency, the mUBio oC whioh ha wrote in Melbourne to a libretto by Fergus Han-som-Cab Hume. Arthur Roberts, aays tho " Bulletin's " correspondent, has taken London by storm again with his Claude Duval. It is a farrago of absurdities, being, in fact, Arthur and little more, except some pretty lyricß by ' Bowyer. Of plot there iB none, bub Boberts, in a bewildering number of changes, keeps the ball rolling and tbe audience in constant laugh! er. He is now a sniarb barmaid, with ail her airs and graces ; then a s fashionable lady palmist tslling fortunes, and showing to the life the vulgar ways oi' the parvenue ; anon he is a sharp up to all the tricks of the trade ; now be ia success- • fully playing the confidence-trick upon a simple-minded old gentleman ; now showing a " bit of life " to a young softy. There ia only one Arthur Koberta, and he was born, like Peuley, to make Bedate paople laugh. Some days people were waiting in the street at half-past five for the doors to open at seven.