Music and the Stage

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17545, 23 May 1925, Page 22 (Supplement)

Music and the Stage

It is officially announced that Madame Elsa Stralia's proposed tour of the Dominion is indefinitely postponed. The J. C. Williamson Musical Comedy Company opens at. the Theatre Royal on June 1 in “ Wild flower,'’ with reference to which the critic of the Sydney “ Evening News” says:—Marie Burke, Gus Bluett and other popular favourites have been the recipients of hearty congratulations on all sides. The ballets, chorus and wonderful scenic effects have charmed all who have seen them. The “ Bambalina” introduces some new and entrancing steps. “ Bambalina ” is also the song hit of the production, with its catchy words, time and music. Kaai’s Hawaiian Troubadours, wbu will appear next, week at the Theatre Hoyal, are described os a combination of Hawaii’s greatest vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers. They are twelve in number, playing on fourteen different instruments and their entertainment from start to finish is said to be a real novelty surprise, always refined, and in good taste. There is nothing overdrawn in their beautiful offering, “ A Night in Honolulu,” which is declared to have a charm and fascination all its own. No other combination of the kind, it is said, has received such enthusiastic welcomes in every part of the world. Theirs is an entertainment that grows on one, and compels admiration. The sixth vaudeville company under the control of New Zealand Entertainers, Ltd., will appear in Christchurch on June 17. The company, which has been organised, by arrangement with J- C. Williamson, Ltd., is headed by tbo Chinese marvel, Long Tack Sam, who is supported by an entirely new company of twelve oriental stars in his act. In addition, there are the Novelle Bros., a pair of French musical acrobatic clowns, Arthur Mayes, basso cantante; Chris Charl - ton, illusionist; Errol Addison and Gertrude Mitrenga, speciality and classical dancers; and Moran and Wiser, billed as hilarious bat spinners in a skit “All-in-Fun.” All these acts are selected from- tlie cream of the world's vaudeville appearing in J. C. Williamson, Sydney and Melbourne theatres. Advice has been received that Miss Phyllis Massey, the well-known New Zealand soprano, will he visiting the Dominion for a few weeks at the end of this month. Arrangements have been made for Miss Massey to be heard in all the chief centres of the Dominion, as she comes under special engagement. Dame Clara Butt was responsible for Miss Massey going to Sydney to studyunder Mr Foster, and she has made 1 much progress, having appeared with great success with the principal musical societies both in New South Wales and Queensland. • * A paragraph in the Wanganui “ Chronicle ” regarding part of “ Maritana ” having been written in Sydney < has called forth an interesting note ; from a correspondent, who says: “Parts ; of ‘Maritana’ were also written in New Zealand, and parts in Tasmania. In the visitors’ book in the old Bush Inn 1 at New Norfolk, Tasmania, the follow- \ mg occurs: “ Scenes that are brightest are to be seen around this lonely dis- \ trict—Vincent Wallace.’ ” The writer ] gives the probable date as the late ’sixties. He also adds a further very interesting bit of information—that he ; is the grandson of John Graves, the writer of “D'ye ken John Peel?” who ! died in Tasmania, aged 102 years. Reverting to “ Maritana,” a lady friend ’ informs me that she has been in the j room in Wellington where what we may term the “New Zealand portion” of the opera was written. A critic has suggested that operas would bo more intelligible to the t man in the street if their titles were made self-explanatory (says the Syd- . ney “Sun”). Why not? For a start, , “Thais” might become The Monk and . ihc Woman: “Rigoletto” The Body in the Bag; “ Samson and Delilah” Should a Man Tell? “ Camen ” Sixcylinder Love; “Butterfly'’ The End , of One Fine Dav; and “ Fagliacci ” Why Men Leave Horne. This is the day of the youthful comedian (writes a Sydney c ‘ Bulletin” correspondent). Witness the prominence of Gus Bluett, of “ Wildflovrer,” and Clem Pawe, of the Midnight Frolics, neither of whom has voted at n. general election, although both have qualified now. Gus, an Australian, has been in the game with his dad almost siure babyhood; and Dawe, though of English birth, has had most of his experience on tlio Australian stage. Though Madame Galli-Curci is said .o be the highest paid artist in the world, she began in a very modest way with those little travelling opera companies one finds all over Europe. Often there were catastrophes, mostly finan- ' cial, in the troupes in which Galli-Curci sang. On one occasion she found herself stranded at Alexandria (Egypt), and, to use her own phrase, was about to “ beat my way back to Italy as a stowaway,” when a lucky chance brought an engagement in Cairo. At this time her fee was about 25s a night. Ten years afterwards it rose to £SOO, and, later, there was a good advance on that. Madame Amelita Galli-Curci, the world-famous coloratura soprano, gave nine wonderful concerts in Melbourne, each concert having been filled to capacity (says the Melbourne “Leader”). Tlie great artist will now proceed to Adelaide, and then go on to Perth. After her Perth season Madame GalliCurci will give a return concert in Sydney, then proceed to Brisbane, after which season she will tour New Zealand. Melbourne music lovers are disappointed tjiat Madame Galli-Curci will not be giving a return concert, but owing to the great artist having contracts for eight years ahead it is impossible for a return season to be given in Melbourne. A decision given by the High Court of Australia will result in the disappearance of one of Sydney’s oldest theatrical landmarks. It concerns the Criterion Theatre. In March, 1924, the Municipal Council resolved to take the land on which the theatre was built for street-widening purposes. The Gov-ernor-in-Council approved of the resumption, but Criterion Theatres, Ltd., took action. The Equity Court refused an injunction, and the Full Court dismissed an appeal from Criterion Theatres, Ltd. The High Court has : now given its judgment, and the result is that the old Criterion and all its I associations will disappear when the | Uuii*. .

Lilt© Pc tor Pan, there arc some entertainers who will not grow up. Woe Willi© Lancet is probably tlie smallest “ boy” on the vaudeville stage, but be owns to twenty-nine years. His voice indicates ten—it has never broken. “ I have been on the stage for fifteen years,” remarked this clever performer the other day. “I began as an acrobat, when 1 was a lit tie chap, and used fo be thrown from the stage io a man in the stalls. One day the man didn’t catch me, and T had to look for other work as a result of the fall. For little fellows like myself there are not many openings. I had to be either a jockey or a comedian, and as l did not want to be a jockey I am a comedian. At least, 1 hope I am.” Bert Bailey, who is the life and soul of “On Our Selection,” awakened memories at the Palace Theatre, when at the conclusion of the thirteenth anniversary of the production be had a few words to say about this fine Australian production (says the Sydney “Referee’’). His name must always be associated with this play, though, of course, he has had a very wide experience during the past thirty years with Australian-born productions. Bert is a New Zealander, but was educated in Sydney. His first experience was “The Eureka Stockade,” and during the next twelve veal's h© became associated with William Anderson, whose efforts on behalf of Australian productions arc well known. He is not merely a comedian for be lias played in opera in “Carmen,” “The Bohemian Girl,” “Maritana,” “ Sinbad the Sailor”; hut particularly his Cavardossi in “I/a Tosca ” was outstanding, and stamped him as a versatile actor. The Australian drama is now assuming big proportions, but we nr© still a long way behind modern standards (says a. Sydney paper). Our plays are either tensely melodramatic, out of date, or very low comedy. Even “On Our Selection ” requires being brought up to date. There are lew. if any, selections out back of the type in the play. Modern conditions have altered, times have moved on, and so have the wav of our squatters. The so-called “ way-backs ” have come forward a good deal of recent years, and most country homesteads are quite as modern in methods as our city dwellers. And so is it not time for an Australian play more true to present dav conditions? However, what hare we? Marcus Clark’s “ His Natural Life,” Rolfe Bolderwood’s “ Robbery Under Arms.” Ambrose Pratt’s “Thunderbolt,” Edmund Duggan’s “ Squatter’s Daughter,” “My 'Mate.” and “ Tlie Southern Cross,” Jo Smith’s “The Bush Woman,” Beaumont Smith’s “ While the Billy Boils,” Temple Harrison's “ Winning Ticket,” and Randolph Bedford’s “ WTiit© Australia.” There are others, but these represent types. A Melbourne “Age” criticism of Madame Galli-Curci: —The Galli-Curci voice is a flexible flow of fresh and crystalline sound, of light to medium strength, invariably jmre and sweet, and evenly produced throughout its extensive range from below the stave to a region well above the high soprano C. She has foibles—not the blemishes of crudeness nor of inefficiency, but rather the aberrations of a superdelicate and perhaps anxious mentality. She does not exhibit the contrasting tone qualities that have so wonderfully enhanced the art of some great sopranos. Neither has she that rhythmic bravura which often fires audiences to wild enthusiasm. Sometimes her tone-line wavers and misses the narrow way of perfect intonation. Some of the songs she chooses to sing are beneath the notice of a great singer. \et Galli-Curci is a great singer. It has been said, superficially, that her singing is limited to one colour of tone. It is a description that fails to convey the truth, for if her range of tonecolour is limited, it undoubtedly ex-

hibits prismatic variations of its ownsunset amber, shining topaz, pale gold of winter sunlight. There is a strangeness in its allure like the faint, exciting scent of the magnolia. This tone is conveyed with all the. arts and artifices that are involved in passing from one note to another. She is tasteful in her indulgence in the slide from tone to tone—the portamento. Her staccato, dotted with black spots of silence, is pointed and brilliant. In the legato (the perfect merging of each note in the next) Galli-Curci. in the words of an Australian poet, “shines to dim all praise.” The voice purls along the tones like water running unbroken over rounded pebbles. More felt than consciously realised, her legato is a refinement of vocal artistry that none but an aristocrat of the tone world could achieve. The vowel does not seem to exist that can impair the quality of her tone. When the flower-like charm of her platform demeanour and carriage is added to all this, it is not difficult to account for her fame and her popularity. She has qualities that are rare indeed, and these qualities can easily carry more minor blemishes than can truthfully be debited against GalliCurci’s artistic account. Suit has been brought against tlie proprietors of the Nelson Theater in Berlin because of their presentation of a. revue, one scene of which is laid on the steamer Beer Gyut. representing the passengers as constantly seasickThe Peer Gynt is a well known German tourist steamer, and the owners allege that their business lias been damaged by the play, discouraging wealthy Berliners from taking tours do luxe to Egypt. Dame Clara Butt is in her spare moments a great collector of musical instruments. At her Hampstead home she has a most interesting collection of wood instruments, oboes, flutes and clarinets from all over the world, including native instruments of many curious shapes and sizes. Iler husband, Mr Kennedy Rumford, has a leaning toward jugs, and he has a varied assortment in every conceivable material, from lustre ware to old leather, the leather hailing from Norway. “Since I am not allowed to play ‘Kismet,’ ” said Oscar Asche to a London pressman, ‘'l have decided to re vive “Chu Chin Chow,’ and to produce a play with music, which I have called ‘The Good Old Days.’ We shall put them on one after the other in the near future. For I still think there is a London public for Oriental spectacle as well as an ever-increasing public for musical shows, as the present season hps already shown. ‘The Good Old Days’ is a play set in an old English manor house.” An appeal for tlie creation of a National Opera Trust, primarily to assist the British National Opera Company which, in face of great difficulties, has in the last three years been carrying

on the traditions of the Beecham Opera Company—is being made by the Marquis of Londonderry and other distinguished patrons of music. The trust aims at raising £500.000. the income fro'm which shall assist English opera as opera abroad is subsidised by Governments and municipalities. The English musical public is asked to consider that if it desires opera adequately performed it cannot expect it in the ordinary way of commercial enterprise. “Australian Girl's Leap to Fame” is how the London “Daily Chronicle” headed its notice of Dorothy Seacomb’s success in that city, and other journals have spoken in highly flattering terms of her acting in “Tust Married,” at the Comedy Theatre. Three weeks before Miss Seacomb took the leading role she was asked to understudy Vivian Martin, who will be remembered by screen patrons. A few days afterwards she was invited to understudy Fay Compton in “Orange Blossoms” at the Queen’s, and later was offered a small part in another play. The day after she had refused this offer Miss Seacomb was called upon to step into Vivian Martin’s shoes. Miss Jessie Will ward, the actress, tells a good Beerbohm Tree story in her volume of theatrical reminiscence, “Myself and Others,” just published. Sir Herbert had taken a cab and at the journey's end handed the cabby half a “I recognise you. Sir ’Erbert,” said the Jehu ingratiatingly. “The last time Sir ’Enry Irving was ’ere I drove ’im, too, and he gave me five shillings.” Pause, during which Tree dreamily commenced to ascend the hotel steps. “ An’ you're a deal better actor than Tree still ascending the steps, and cabby’s voice rising to a hopeless roar: A research scholarship to encourage inquiry into the History and Literature of the Drama has been founded at Cambridge (writes a London correspondent). The donor is Oswald Stoll, theatres and latterly in films. The fund is £6OOO of 2J per cent Consols, to provide £l5O a year. Stoll says his object is “to educate the public to a better appreciation of the stage on the artistic side, and educate the stage to an appreciation of the demand of the public for artistic excellence, coupled with sound business methods on the financial side . . . discarding the happy-go-lucky finance to which the artistic temperament is perhaps naturally prone . . . bringing the artistic temperament within tlie ambit of tbo business sense.” The mother in whose memory the scholarship is founded was an early resident of Melbourne, where Oswald was born in the middle 'sixties. Referring to “No, No, Nanette,” the New York musical comedy success, which lias been a great success at. the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, and the Australasian rights of which have been secured by Air Hugh J. Ward, the “Era” says:—“By the end of the first act it could easily be believed that the police had to he called on to deal with the queues at Glasgow a fortnight ago; they will probably also be needed in Shaftesbury Avenue for months to come. This jazzical comedy is the finest exhibition of high spirits Loudon has had ior years, and as an example of high speed production on American lines, we do nob remember anything to equal it.

At times the excitement roaches a point of frenzy that is thrilling t<> a degree. It is a riot of melody and movement.” The reference to Glasgow is due to the fact that “ No, No. Nanette ” was played there for a week before being given its London premiere. On tlio clay of tlie last performance at the Glasgow Alhambra, a gallery queue of more than 2000 people assembled at the theatre before 10 a.m. the rest of the bouse having been booked out some days before. Fritz Ivreisler (says a Sydney paper) believes that ours is an over-taught generation. Like- Galli-Curci, he is ! largely self-taught, never having had a lesson since he was thirteen. Excessive devotion to technique, lie thinks, is a hindrance to art. Kreisler forecasts a return to simplicity to form, in music. Contemporary music, he finds, is “brain and intellect versus emotion,” and he is frank enough to admit that lie judges the inspiration of a piece by the “thrill” it gives him. The so-called advanced music of the day wears a mask of intellectuality and cleverness which conceals the poverty of inspiration of composers unable to create beautiful music. The greatest art appeals alike to the ordinary man and to the scholar. ” I still believe that the perception of art is intuitive,” says the great fiddler. Knowledge, it might be said, is an added pleasure. “ Colour and harmonic development have been overworked,” he adds, and he recalls the test, propossd by the critic Hanslick, of playing an orchestral piece on the piano Do this, and in tearing off the superb drapings of the symphony orchestra one finds often “ not nakedness but emptiness.” “White Cargo,” that vivid, highlv dramatic play of the West Coast of Africa, which has been running for something like two years in this city, and boasts of a half-dozen and more road troupes, besides a company presenting it in London, is a plagiarism, according to a recent decision by Federal Judge Knox (says a New ~ York paper). Leon Gordon, actor and writer, is advertised as the author of the play, but this was disputed by Miss Jda Vera Simonton, who brought suit against Gordon and Karl Carroll, producer, for it « h * re in t,lc Profits, alleging that White Cargo” was pirated from her novel, “ Hell’s Playground.” It is said that Miss Simonton refused a < <>mpro i mise offer last October to settle with her for lOO.OOOdo!. She believes that she is entitled to fvtllv a-quarter of a nulhoir dollars. As Soon as she had scored her victory in Court. Miss Simonton intimated that unless she received a. “fifty-fifty” split of the more than oOO.OOOdoI earned by the drama through the various companies pjaving it she would enjoin its further presentation anywhere. Judge Knox found a very marked similarity between " Hei’ s Playground ” and White Cargo/"

VAUDEVILLE IN AUSTRALIA.

ARTISTS’ SALARIES. Enormous salaries were—and si ill are—paid to vaudeville stars (writes Norman Campbell in Melbourne

“Punch”). Of the artists imported b.y Harry Richards sojlne drew big money. Carl Hertz, the illusionist with, the “ vanishing lady,” received £IOO a week. Johnny Ooleman, one of the first of Richards's engagements, who introduced the “ scarecrow dance,” got only £ls. Ho was a popular little man—he weighed but 7st 10 lb—who afterwards played in musical comedy with Ada Reevo under the Williamson banner. Charles Godfrey, the famous actor-singer, received £IOB a week. George H. Chirgwiu, “the white-eyed Kaffir,” received £IOO. One of the most popular importations was Paul Oinquevalli, a .iuggler, who was unrivalled. He came, hero in 1899. His weekly salary was £IOO. Little Ticli came out in 1905, drawing £250 a. week, and ho was paid full salary for time lost in travelling, receiving a cheque for £1250 as soon as he stepped off the boat at premantle. I Then there was Houdini, the “ Handcuff King,” who made one of the early airplane flights here in 1910. Charles Barnold, with his monkeys and dogs, including “Drunken Dan,” drewrt £2OO. Madame Marzella, with hen performing birds, got £7O. Julian; Rose, of “ Levinsky ” fame, nnd brother to Henry Dee, the quick-* change performer, received £125. Lamperti, musician and impersonator, £75 a. week. Chung Ding Soo, the quasiChinese magician, seems to have been til© highest-priced performer of them all, for he drew £4OO a week. Neil Kenyon, the comedian, received over £IOO. So did the inimitable Mari© Lloyd. Sandow, the strong man, got over £IOO.. Hackensohmidt was paid £125; but Billy "Williams, the singer, drew only £25. Harry Rickards extended his vaudeville enterprises all over Australia, having theatres in all the capitals and at Kalgoorli© and other important I towns. Ho also had interests in New Zealand. Ho died on October 13, 1911, and Hugh D. M.’lntosh became I governing director in 19]2. The j Tivoli circuit is now conducted by J. j C. Williamson, Ltd. Tn Oastloreagh Street, Sydney, where ! the comparatively new Fuller’s Theatre | now stands was once a carriage factory. At a cost of £IO.OOO this was ! transformed into the National Sporti iug Chib. A new Liquor Act spelt ruin for the club, and so James Brennan, its manager, made it into a vaudeville house, the National Amphitheatre, which was opened under the experienced managership of “ Jimmie” j Bain, an Australian vaudeville perfori mer of repute. The Boris Brothers j were also concerned in the management at first. Brennan spent another £IO,OOO in converting the club into the Amphitheatre, a theatre with a seating capacity of 3000. This was •Tames Brennan’s first experience of the vaudeville business, and he did well, mostly with native performers. Later he joined Ben (now Sir Benjamin) Fuller, and the firm launched out all over Australia and New Zealand. Mr Brennan is long since out of the business, which is now controlled by the brothers John and Benjamin Fuller. Their father, John Fuller, was prominent as .a vaudeville singer for years, and bad large interests in the motion picture business in New Zealand. Indeed, showmen facetiously cal'ted New Zealand “ Fullers’ Fartb.” To-day the Fuller Vaudeville Circuit is probably the widest extended in the world, defined as it is by Dunedin in the south, Townsville in the north and Fremantle in the west. Vaudeville is as popular as ever in Australia, and even the picture show men recognise the wisdom of introducing “ live ” acts of vaudeville to their shows to stiffen the attraction of the films. Fashions in entertainments change, like all other fashions, but the charm of the “ serio comic,” the dancing specialist, the magician, and the acrobat, the juggler and the gymnast, together with the comedian, the comio singer—a comic sinner, too often—and all that makes up the many-faceted vaudeville show persists. Most of it may be frowned down by the serious-minded as nonsense. But. we are all inclined to soy, with, the Lady Saphir: “Nonsense, yet.. per. haps: but oh. wbat. precious nonsense !”