MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5690, 8 October 1896, Page 4

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES.

[By Prompter is " Canterbury Times."] George Rignold will open his Now Zealand season in Auckland about March 27 next, probably with the condensed " Cheer, Boys, Cheer." The late Frank Gates was buried beside his wife, who died in 1893, iv tho " Actor's " ( corner at the Melbourne cemetery. Avnong3t the prize takers at the late Trades Musical competition, London, were Miss Bertha Eossow and Mr C. M. J. Edwan'es, both of Melbourne. \ The Vaidis, aerial gymnasts of the female order, and Harry Rickards's latest engagement, are regarded as being ahead of all others in their particular line. A London correspondent, writing to an Australian paper, says : — Melba is a marvel. Her singing in "Romeo et Juliette," Alvarez as Romeo, was splendid, and again in "Les Huguenots," as Marguerite de Valois. She made one feel quite sorry for Albani, who took the principal part. Albani is not now in her first bloom, but acts splendidly. Melba can't act much, but she can sing, and the recept-on she gets is wonderful for a Loudon audience Avhose sole exclamation of appreciation is — "Bravo!" It is not "good form" to cheer. As a little extra Melba gathers in the bawbees to the extent of 120 guineas when she sings at an " at homo "; hence it is not surprising she is content to stay where she is for the present, and let her compatriots wait. Bulletin pars : — " Frank Gates, who died last week, after years of misery, was, like Captain Humphreys, too much of the gentleman, in a Debrett sense, for the actor. Yet he was a London amateur Hamlet, wjth Beerbohm Tree in an inferior part. Always colorless, without the afflatus. Cates, Carden, Collier, and Bentley have been the only Melbourne representatives of Irving's Mathias, in* The Bells.' "On his wedding night Scot Ingli3 played Beauseant, in the ' Lady of Lyons/ at Sydney Lyceum. When foiled iv his desire to possess Melnotte's wife, Beausc-ant sarcastically wishes her 'a happy hones'nioon.' As Inglis repeated the lines of tho text a gallery voice chipped in, ' The same to you, old fellow, and many of 'em.' Mr and Mrs Charles Kean acted ' The Honeymoon' the night of their wedding, and it is said that Kean had shortly before been refused by Baroness Coutts. Mr and Mrs Kendal acted in *As You Like It ' on their wedding night. "The fascinating Mrs Potter has left for the north, taking with her Sydney's best blessings. That Mrs Potter was a big draw is self-evident — she was a far bigger draw even then Bellew, who played admirably, or Inglis, who was fully as good as Bellew — in fact, she was nearly the whole draw in herself, for, somehow or other, men and women love to gaze upon Mrs Potter, and even those who revile her acting go to gaze upon her again and again. The probable reason is that Mrs Potter's acting is bad to the verge of genius ; her wonderful ' versatility enables her to act badly in more different ways than any other actress the Bulletin knows of. Even Bernhardt isn't quite so versatile .as Mrs Potter. Also, her affectations and artificialities are so quaint and charming that, if the writer heard she was going to act — and if he wasn't a world-weary fragment who has gone to the show three times a week for ten years — he would travel a considerable distance by gradual coal train to see her. And, even if the same blase scribe was dying, he would want to be carried into the show just once more to see what kind of astounding hat Mrs Potter would wear next, and to wonder if he would see any hat like it in the world to come. To ' sum her up, Mrs Potter's charm apparently lies in the fact that, when alio fails, she fails in Strange, eerie ways that no one elso would dream of, so that it is a liberal education only to see her do things wrong and wonder how she manages it. Probably she would have been as accomplished as she is 'fetching 'had she begun at the bottom of the tree under some bright dramatic tutor, and had been shaken frequently when she was very young. As it is, the lack of being judiciously shaken has made her only a diaphanous advt., and she pro-

bably pays better as she is than she would auy other way." London Society states that to adjourn to a music hall after dinner is now in London as common as to go to the play, even with ladies of unimpeachable reputation. A revolt of the ballet is in progress in , France, the young coryphees complaining, apparently with a good deal of truth, that their names are kept out of the bills, while the pride of plaeo is occupied by premieres danseuscs getting into the" sere and yellowleaf. As a terrific blow at these ladies their ages have been published and are | found to nearly average the half century. ■In connection with this dispute, a Sydney paver quotes some interesting details it ivings to iight as to the method of training dancers. "It appears that a girl enters the French corps de ballet between the ages of seven and ten, and for five days a week at 8.30 a.m. joins in the exercises by which her limbs are 'broken,' that is to say ■' made pliant.' She is technically known as a, 'rat' at this period, and appears occasionally on the stage amongst tho crowd of towns-children who cheer the soldiers in 'Faust' or 'Carmen.' Next she passes an examination for ' the second quadrille,' and learns to execute the plies, the rouds do jambe, the Crises de Telemaque, and ether more difficult steps. Then she passes into 'the first quadrille' — unfortunately a' great sticking place for young ambition. The next stage is that of a coryphee,' who may rise thence to be a petit sujet, then a sujet, and, finally, may blossom into a full-blown star with the calr.ry of a general in the army." LONDON. August 14. I There can be little doubt that Savoy C'*?va —by .which of course one means | Giibert-cUIU-Sullivan— has had its day and I that tho public desires something fresh. The last two works were generally admitted to bo as goccl as the majority of their predecessors, nnd a few years back would have run fifteen to eighteen months apioce. But now public iuterest fizzles out in as many weeks. Mr D'Oyley Carte wisel y recognisingthe inevitable, proposes to change his tune and replace Sullivan pro tcm with Offenbach, and the topsy-turvey-doni of Gilbert with the flexible morality of "The Grand Duchess." The book is being re-written by clever Mr Brookfield, and in Mdlle, Ilka Palmay the manager has, of course, to hand a prima donna who should make even memories of Schneider pale. Judiciously cast and liberally mounted I believe both this opera bouffe and "Barbe Bleue" will well repay revivnl. The August recess is noAv as much a matter of course in London as Paris, in fact alt present there are only half-a-dozen West End theatres open. At the Lyric I henx"']Tho Sign of the Cross" shows signs of watting, which 'may or may not be permanent. Anyhow, Mr Barrett has put " The Daughters of Babylon" into rehearsal. Despite the censor's dictum a vigorous attempt to work the apparently profitable mine of dramatising scripture seems pending. Amongst the newest scripturallynamed plays looming ahead are " A Crown of Thorns," by Mr Gilbert Elliot, "As We Forgive," by Mr Charles Darrell, and " A Defender of the Faith," by the same. * There is to be no autumn play at Old Drury this year, and Oscar Barrett has taken the Christmas pantomime off Lady Harris's hands. The memorial to Sir "Gus" prospers despite the criticism of those who, loved him not, and his statue will presently occupy a niche in the salon of the great theatre for which he worked so well. The manner of man Druriolanus was is most conclusively evidenced by the way in which the enterprises, he had in hand have crumbled to pieces. People said others worked whilst he talked and took the credit. Asa matter of fact, the instant his strong hand fell from the tiller his whole crew were at loggerheads. The autumn play for Druiy Lane was written, tho cbmpaiiy engaged, the scenery painted, yet none of Sir Gus's underlings could say, " I will produce it." Strange, isn't it ? Mr C. Haddon Chambors's " Fatal Card " was one of the very best melodramas ever produced at the Adelphi, and it was shockingly bad luck that the prolonged run which everyone predicted for it should have been cue short by the worst winter of the decade. Let us hope the Waler playwright may be more fortunate with " Boys Together," now in rehearsal at the same house and due for production next week. One hears excellent accounts of this new „piece, which is of purely romantic interest, 'and promises to be very picturesque. The first act is laid in Southampton, and its chief scene will represent a hostelry wherein Warren Hastings spent a few days when en route to London to undergo his long, long trial. This act will be labelled "Good-bye, Sweetheart." Act 11., entitled " Man's Hate," will deal with sundry Soudan places hard by the Blue Nile. The period of this act will be about the time that Gordon was left to die. Act 111., dealing with " Woman's Love," will bo laid in and around a fine old English hall, thick with ancient armour and other articles of bigotry and virtu. The fourth act, labored " Forgive us our Trespasses " will taice place in the Tyrol, and the last scene, "The Top of t.he Pass," will be another magnificent stage picture. Mr Sims Reeves is on his way to the Cape, and despite his seventy-nine summers means to sing there. Should the old man stand the voyage well and meet with a cordial reception he and Mrs Reeves will proceed to Australia, where several impresarios are understood to be willing to I run them round.