DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 25, 18 June 1892, Page 616

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.

AN enthusiastic Dunedinitesends some particulars anent musician Jude, who is, as we have before mentioned, coming up the colony with his ‘music and moral’ entertainment. Mr Jude gave a lecture at Girton College, Dunedin, and on this and other occasions greatly impressed my correspondent, who enthuses in the fojjowing strain:—‘To young musicians his instruction is invaluable, and musical people of all ages have been careful to avail themselves of the opportunities afforded of gaining the knowledge he imparts. Even the scales in his hands are things of beauty, while the simplest pieces take on a dignity and eloquence that is a revelation ; but when he takes one into the fields of scientific music he opens up vistas of beauty and grandeur undreamed of, while in his interpretation the most intricate pieces explain themselves to those whose musical education has been too limited to allow them to understand the usual run of scientific music. ‘ It is very easy to understand the disappointment of the musical world at Mr Jude’s severance from it, and so far as I could judge from the only time I heard him lecture to an adult audience, the religious world has not gained a sufficiently good preacher to compensate for that loss.’

Evidently my impressionable friend is sorry for this remarkably just piece of criticism. Jude is not a preacher, and his egotism will always stand in his way, for she concludes :— ‘ The language of his music is limitless. He appeals, applauds, encourages, commands. He makes you laugh and makes you weep. He is a comforter, an inspiration. Mr Jude’s desire is to do good, and he can never fail to do it while he can speak upon an instrument so.’

It is good to find someone enthusiastic in these /?n tie 'iiicle days.

‘ Ta-RA-RA-BOOM DE-AY ’ has reached New Zealand, and bids fair to become as much the rage here as it has been and is still in the old country. Where the charm comes in it is hard to say. The tune is catchy, and when the Boom is brought out to the accompaniment of a high kick as seen in our illustration, there is no doubt that the effect is wonderful. There is a semi-maddening excitement in the jingling repetition of the refrain, and the audiences soon begin to shout ta-ra ra, while the boom comes with an exultant roar after the first verse or so. There is surely some strange magnetism in the air, for the words are as silly as could well be invented. In Sydney people are * Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay ’

mad already, and the disease is spreading with fearful celerity in ‘collapsed Melbourne.’

The Choral Society Orchestra are engaged rehearsing several orchestral pieces for performance at the Ovide Musin concerts, which open on Monday next.

Here is a yarn re poor Majeroni. The Signor and Signora were staying at the Criterion Hotel, Napier, when they told the Boniface they yearned tointerview a Maori chief —one of the real old cannibal school, unspoilt by knowledge of English ways. The host presently introduced Willie Broughton, a popular half-caste, owner of sheep runs and racehorses, and a party to the Broughton-Donnelly will-suit before the Privy Council, and persuaded him to be an ancient authropophagist for the nonce. A friend was procured to act as interpreter, and the pair were taken up to the sitting - room where the Signor and Signora awaited their coming. The interpreter turned out to be an old acquaintance of Majeroni’s, and after several questions had been put through him to the noble savage and duly answered in primitive Maori, he forgot about the savage and began talking of the season just concluding. The ‘ chief ’ gradually became more and more fidgetty as he felt himself out of it, and the conversation rattling on, the * interpreter ’ complimented the Signora on her appearance as ‘Marie Antoinette.’ ‘Marie Antoinette!’ burst in the ‘ untamed savage ’ in perfect English, ■ why that’s the dam of Silence ’(a Maoriland racer). Then the show broke up. At Sydney Royal Mrs Bernard Beere continues to hold a modern looking-glass up to the insincerities of drawingroom melodrama, and she dies nightly with great success in a flood of crimson-tinted limelight to the great distress of a titled detective of Russian birth, who speaks very decent English with a decidedly French accent, but whose acquaintance with the Newgate Calendar passeth the wisdom of the serpent. The weather has lately been anything but propitious, yet ‘As in a Looking Glass ’ has drawn very good houses, and a fair proportion of Mr George Gordon’s admirers do nightly congregate to make remarks anent the new ‘ drop,’ and lay wagers as to its whereabouts in Sydney Harbour. However, the ‘ Looking Glass ’ has to give place to ‘ Masks and Faces,’ and the Lena Despard of Mis Beere, the detective of M. Marius, and the card-sharper of Mr Standing will be numbered among the artistic memories of a gladsome past.

The Committee of the Auckland Amateur Opera Club have engaged Mr Geo. Leopold (late stage manager for Messrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove) to instruct the members of the Club in the ‘stage business ’ of H. M.S. ‘ Pinafore.’

The Montague-Turner Opera Company had a very success ful season in Napier, and might, it is said, have easily filled the theatre for another week.

The Carl Hertz Company were also well received at Napier, and delighted a large audience with their wonderful performances.

A very good Christy Minstrel concert and farce was given by the Hastings’ Athletic Club in the Town Hall. The building was packed. The first part of the entertainment consisted of a concert, Mr Broad (a new arrival in Hastings) acting as interlocutor, Mr Nicol being Sambo, and Mr Waun, Bones. Nearly all the solos were exceptionally good, and most of them were encored. Master Victor Roach has a very sweet voice. It could be plainly heard in the chorus. Jokes and conundrums followed the concert, then came a ‘ stump ’ speech given by Mr Broad, ‘ Is Marriage a Failure,’ followed by the farce, ‘The Showman’s Dilemma,’ and very good it was—most laughable, and well put on the stage. During the evening Mr Hobbs thanked the audience for their attendance, and said that in order to induce members to join the Athletic Club the subscription had been reduced to 7s 6d per annum. The Misses Lee (3) played on their violins, and Miss Kelly played the piano. This constituted the orchestra, which though small was very good. Everyone went home well pleased with the evening’s entertainment.

A great Edinburgh preacher once treated himself, during a visit to London, to a seat in the pit at Drury Lane. A hand was laid on his shoulder, and an awestricken voice said, ‘ Oh, Dr. M’Grugar, what would the people in the Old Kirk say if I tell’t them I saw you here ?’ But the good old man’s presence of mind did not fail him, and he straight' way replied, ‘ ’Deed they wadna believe you, and so ye needna tell them.’

Frau Rosa Czillag, whose death at Vienna was recently recorded, was an opera singer with a wonderful mezzo-soprano voice, and had sung in nearly all the great opera houses of Europe. Early in her career she was married to Herrmann, the late conjuror, but was shortly afterwards divorced from him. For some time her art brought her an immense income, but in 1874 she lost her voice, then became acripple and finally died a pauper.