THE STAGE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16833, 8 September 1922, Page 11

THE STAGE

Everest's Monkeys, a tronpe of ani- | mal acrobats, are clue at the Opera j House at an -ar!y date. They are direct from Snn Francisco, where they proved an immense attraction. The M alter George Sunshine Players ■will shortly open a season at the ; Opera House. Walter George, Hulcie j Martin and George Storey are the only j ones left of the original company. • Mr John Fuler, sen., is making a. | good recovery after a serious illness. | i Mr Leo Du Chateau is to manage : the New Zealand tour of the Sistine j Choir, which is due in Auckland this j month. An Australian correspondent, j who was privileged to hear the mem- ; hers of the choir coming to New Zea i land, writes*: “ They are simply wonderful, these ten soloists. 'l'hey are all. and more, that their most ardent admirers have written or said; and they will prove a iovelation to all lovers of music.” j Some of the small touring comj panics do cover vast distances. During | Che twelve months the Lionel Walsh j Company has been out with “ The j Maid of the Mountains.-” the company ! has invaded tiro States'of the Australian Commonwealth and New Zealand. The anniversary of this “ Maid ” Company was celebrated by a little supper in New Plymouth, when Mr Walsh ; stated that though the companv had ! travelled 18.000 miles in that tirrtc- ! only six weeks had boon lost out of the J fifty-two. One verv remarkable achievement was that the company on one j occasion played in three States in three nights in Denmark fSouth Australia), i Wentworth (New South Wales), and j Mil dura (Victoria). Although the eompanv has been out twelve months it j .'till has a Minr-mouths’ tom- ahrntl of it. including a visit to the Golden West. Allan Wilkie went through an experience on his last New Zealand tour which .howv the ingenuity of the actor under difficulties (savs a Sydney paper). He tell s Hip story;- ' We'were playing ‘The Silver King' in the small town of Westport, and owing to a breakdown neither ‘cenerv nor clothes arrived. The local scenery consisted of one room and an extra, back-cloth. We had two sticks of grease paint between us. T had many disguises, and I made, my changes by borrowing the clothes the local stage hands were wearing—a, the dignified Silver King himself 1 spilled some flour over my head and put on my overcoat; for Deaf Dickyanother disguise—l wore the electrician’s coat inside out. and made a heard of frayed rope, ser’eotined to my chocks. In the first act one Geoffrey Ware has to be shot. We had no cartridges for our revolver, so the* property man stood in the wings with a large paper bag. and endeavoured to burst it as the trigger was pulled on the stage. The one “set s '--a vivid scarlet—did duty as Denver’s home, the palatial mansion of the Skinners, and the wretched hovel where Nellie Denver lived. We had a restless audience at first, but they soon realised that we were doing our best, and we manage*] to persuade them that ‘ the play’s the thing.’ ” Tfc is asserted by some critics that the tenor soloists. Signors Paganelli and Facchini, of the Sistine Choir soloists, arc the equals of Paul l>ufault and •lohn M’Cormack ; and that Signor Rnsponi is the best baritone heard in Australia for a decade. Melba lias won some tremendous booking receipts for charity—£6Bso in Sydney for the Polish relief fund, and £6200 in Melbourne for flic war fund but her concert in Geelong (Victoria) for the Kitchener Memorial Hospital on August lf> realised the biggest booking of her career—£7ol2.

Clara Butt’s sister, who appears in vaudeville under the name of Ethel ! Hook, has been engaged by Mr Harry : Musg.rove for an Australian sea-eon. j One of the features of the J. C. Wil- j liamson Ltd. production of ‘‘The j Peep Show ” at Sydnev Theatre Royal ! is a. wonderfully realistic ocean 6cene. j The rocket containing the principals. I who have descended from the moon. ! falls into the ocean, and the wave? are seen breaking over the contrivance the j spray at times appearing to sweep over j the orchestra and the petiole ill the | front stalls. *.* M ith “ Spangles.” which will reach its ; 153rd performance to-night, (says the : Melbourne “ Argus ” of August 26). \ the record- of many Australian musi- j cal productions have been exceeded, but | the revue will have to run some weeks | longer before it can pass the top score I —that of “The Maid of the Moun- j tains. ’ Miss Ada Reeve cherishes some hope that “Spangles” will do this. ! Having succeeded in turn as a poem I and a picture, “ The Sentimental j Blok©” is to appear next as a plav. It has been dramatised by Mr Dennis j (says the “ Australasian ”), and will bo ; staged at the King’s immediate!v after i Miss Polini’s season ends. The pro- \ clucer will be Mr Bert Bailey, who. with his partner. Mr Julius Grant, and . the Messrs E. Jf. and D. Carroll, will run the play through Australia. Not only the musical communitv. but the general public, too, writes the SvcJ- j ney correspondent of the Auckland I Star ”), is interested in a new opera entitled “ Auster,” composed by Mr ! Alfred Hill, a native of New Zealand : which is to ho performed at the .Sydney Town Hall on August *3l. It is on an essentially Australian subject. ! being taken from the poem “ Princess ! Mona,” by Mr E. Con genu, of Bri* oane. Iho composer, already known 1 for various operatic pieces of a light character, such as “Lady Dollv ” (musical comedy). “Taupo ” and “Rajah i oi hivalipore ” (comic opera). “ Gio- 1 vanni " (grand opera). “The Moorish’ M a id ” (in which Lilian Tree n nd Ro- : sina Burkinan appeared). and the ! Ilinonion Cantata. 1 is believed to have put the most inspired effort- into this purely Australian romantic opera, j Tim cast will include Mdme Goosons- | \ jeeroy ns “ Auster.” the Queen of the South, and Air Haigh Jackson will also hr in the cast. There will be illustrative tableaux or visions showing Wentworth’s expedition over the Blue Moun tains, the Pastoral and Agricultural Age. the Age of Invention, and the Anzac’s return to Sydney, (supported by impressive music. The allegorical story in brief is that Auster was a Nereid or Sea-nymph daughter of the Sun by Oceania, and lay in embryo for countless ages walled within a" coral atoll. Gnomus. the Spirit of the Past, alone saw the birth of Auster. and foretold that ehe must sleep within her beautiful Nautilus shell until Love should change her to greater beaut.v. j She is ever attended hv Camoola. (Fidel- ! itv). and her companions are the elves. ' birds, waves and flowers. Auster’s fa- j mous Pearl Girdle (t]He Earth) is one | day stolen by Indunesianfs. who depart j again in their junk with the rare troa- j sure, as they had done for ages. At ! length from the Boreal Seas comes her I lover Prinre (Britain), and marries Ausier . . . the land is peopled and tilled, and in the Great War their sons (the States) fight for their parents, and later crown Auster with priceless jewels (Anzac), which thev bequeath to her in conjunction with New Zealand—and thus Auster takes her place amid the nations. FOB THE HOT7SEWTFJ2. Minson’s wool duster (on stick) 1 s 9d, a great 2duster. Rimu tea tray, 14 x 20. very strong, just 6s. Cotton gloves lid.