ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8053, 4 July 1904, Page 1

ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

FFkom Our Correspoxdent.l » LONDON, April 29. Miss Ettie Maginnity, of Wellington, who • came Homfe just a, year ago to have her 1 voice furfc&r trained, is to be married in • Bombay early in October next. She has ■ just complebed her singing lessons wider ! Mr Pierpoint, and is now spending a couple '■ of months in. London-; "doing" the shops, 1 the theatres and the concert-halls. Miss ' Magirinitjrwill go into, the- country lor the ' summer, staying, however, within easy f reach of town; and in. September- she will leave for India with her future paxeats-in- '• taw, Mr and Mrs Cowell. A week's stay ' will be made in Paris on the- journey out. J I went to Sfc James's Hall on Wednesday evening to hear two artists who nave been engaged by Air J. C- Williamson for a i concert tour in Australia and perhaps New Zealand, at the beginning of next year. Miss Margaret Thomas, who will be the j contralto of the,cpnipany, is a young Welsh singer with a charming voice, rich and well trained. She gave admirable renderings of ' Giordani's familiar "Caro mio "ben," ..Nevin's "Rosary," iuid ah'stttractiVfc Wefch folk-song by Mr Vincent Thomas.' With j Schubert's "Die JKrahe' 1 and . Brahms's 1 beautiful "Liebe6treu" — songs which made a greater demand upon the vocalist's powers of interpretation — Miss Thomas was not so successful, but in music more within her grasp she sang agreeably and well. Mr ', Arnold Foldesy, a young Hungarian 'cellist who has also been engaged for the Aus--5 tralian tour, tendered Goltermann's "Con- i oerto in A Minor " very accceptably. He j ' has a fine command of technique, as he j : showed by his playing of this piece and j Popper's " Elfin Dance." The touring company will be headed by Miss Elizabeth ; ? : Paxkitfa, the well-known soprano, and will j open in Melbourne in the middle of. Februa ry. May 6. • Mr Victor G. Booth, of Oamaru, has E been awarded the Charles Mortimer Prize ! 1 for composition at the Royal Academy of 1 Music. Ho gained the prize with a series 3 of original variations for the pianoforte ' ' upon a theme submitted by the examiners, i i and his work, lam told, displayed consider- ! 5 able merit. Although this ia only Mr > Booth's first year at the Academy,. he has r already won his degree of L.R.A.M. with, ' honours, in addition to the composition I prize above mentioned. Besides the piano- • forte and composition, he is studying sing- ■ ing and the viola, with very promising re> suitsMay 13. i Another deluge of plays during the past , few weeks— mostly melodrama of the pici fcuiekpie type. Mr Lewi^ Waller is again ; the romantic and handsome lover, a part : which suits him to perfection, in ."Miss, ■ Elizabeth's : Prisoner," at the Imperial , Theatre. It is a dramatised version of ; an ' , historical novel dealing 'with .the 1 American , War of Independence, and the story, al«---i though melodramatic in character, has the ■ glamour of romance about it. " Sunday," 1 • at the Comedy Theatre, where Miss Julia i Neilson and Mr Fred Terry, are the stars, ■, is another .interesting! melodrama,, with an i atmosphere reminiscent somewhat of Bret [ Harte's Western tales. Sunday is a beautiful English girl, who has been brought l up from childhood bf rough, but kind- ; hearted, miners, at Silver Creek, and the ' story describes how one of her admirers is^ • shot for insulting her, and how she and , the dead man's brother meet in England, . and fall madly in love. with each ''other. i In a pathetic scene with her lover, to '. whom the tragic fate of his brother is un« , known, Sunday declares that there is a* ,- man between them,; and back she goes to , the old life al< Silver Creek. But, of . course, it all ends happily with the reunion ; of the lovers. The play has many good touches, and • its popularity is nightly attested by the box-office returns. Sunday, in Miss Neilson's capable hands, is a fine ' character-study: At Terry's Theatre, "The Ilouse ,of Burnside" has provided Mr Ed- ! ward 1 ferry, with a part which long experience has' marked out as pre-eminently his ; own: Burnside, a hard, crusty old fellow, ' wealthy, l but " dour " and ■unsociable, has a 1 wonderfully soft spot in his heart for hi< ' two grandchildren, Margaret and Dick. • Suddenly he learns that 'one of them— the 1 mother will not say which— is not this son's child at all. "At. first he turns mother and children from his door; then he decides to 1 devote all his love to little jMargaret, whom heidiscoyers to be his Teal grandchild, and inthe end he finds that, grandchild or no grandchild, he cannot do without poor little Dick. ____**_____•____.