Plays and Players.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XVIII, 31 October 1896, Page 588

Plays and Players.

ALL Auckland is looking forward with great interest to the production of * The Gondoliers ’ by the Amateur Opera Club. The first performance will take place in the Opera House next Tuesday, and the season will probably last ten nights. The production is said to be on a very elaborate scale. The scenery and dresses are magnificent, and those who take part in the opera are said to be particularly well up in the work. The Society claims that the piece will be the most perfect production in the way of comic opera which the colony has ever seen. This is saying a good deal considering that there is such a firm as Williamson and Musgrove, but we shall see. The box plan is at Wildman’s, and the usual popular prices will rule. The Auckland Amateur Opera Company acted very wisely iu again securing the’ services of Mr Theo. Queree as costumier of their present production. His success in the * Mikado ’ was undoubted, and a visit to the Misses Reid’s room, his faithful workers, showed that he fully deserves the confidence the Committee showed bv placing the * Gondoliers ’in his hands. Not only has he prepared some very sumptuous and elaborate toilettes, but he has thoroughly entered into the Gilbertian humour of the opera. The visit of the penniless Spanish Duke, family and suite, to Venice is a good sample, dressed in the few relics of pompous clothing they still possess. The Duke himself in purple velvet Court breeches, old military cloak, and the polishedup family breastplate ; the Duchess with her quaint capes and full skirt, and smart but antique bonnet ; Casilda in an old brocade and clad as warmly for the voyage as their poor purse will allow, plainly tells the tale of how the family wardrobe had been emptied in a great effort to look supernaturally grand. Note the surprising change of this trio in the second act, when the Duke of Plaza Toro has been floated into a company and has unlimited pocket money. Here Mr Queree revels in his great love of colour, and aims for the highest effect. The Duchess’s Court dress is of heliotrope satin made en princess. The front is trimmed from the bust to the feet with Venetian point and silver embroidery ; the bodice opens out in pale green and silver over a chemisette of pale green chiffon ; the high-poiuted collar is in the same colour, and the full Court train falls from the right shoulder, while trails of large pansies finish this beautiful dress. Casilda’s costume is of ivory Duchess satin beautifully embroidered with pearls and silver. The train is cut very full, and falls from the waist ; the neck is cut square and finished with a high lace collar. The Venetian origin of the dress is suggested by the roll on

the long bodice and the flat-pointed epaulettes. A diamond coronet, necklet, and plume fan complete this handsome dress. The Duke appears in cream satin goldembroidered vest and breeches, and a brilliant yellow satin coat handsomely embroidered in silver, and yellow satin shoes.

The two pages who attend the Ducal party are distinctly Venetian, with their orange and blue trunks and their little brocaded coats and turbans. And the two kings in their superb dresses of crimson velvet and white satin massively embroidered in gold, Elizabethian ruffles, and pink silk tights, complete a brilliant combination of colour, and shows how carefully Mr Queree has worked to keep in harmony with Herr Vennamark’s beautiful painting. The ladies’ and gentlemen’s chorus dresses are well carried out, brilliant and effective, and in keeping with the Italian scenery, and on this highly coloured background Gianetta and Tessa appear in comparatively quiet dresses, making them immediately distinct from the rest. Gianetta’s dress is of dove-grey and silver with a pale green apron and cap relieved by ribbons and a cluster of red roses. Tessa is in pale green trimmed with emerald velvet and gold, rose-pink apron and cap and ribbons. Marco and Guiseppe supply the necessary colour to this quartette when they appear in their bright dresses.

Don Alahambra’s dress is somewhat different to what we have seen, but it is a copy of the original dress as worn at the Savoy. Luiz’s coronation dress is composed of a white satin Venetian tunic with puffed front and sleeves trimmed with white fur and silver, white tights. The men’s court costumes, the usher, heralds, and others in the second act are all carefully considered and arranged, and only a visit during the opera season can give an adequate idea of the effect of these beautiful dresses when seen in the complete pictures.

An actor who has abandoned the stage to adopt the legal profession, gives the following reasons for so doing. He asks that they be accepted as coming from one who has not loved and lost: —‘ I was on the road five years, and during that time never passed five continuous weeks in one place. The actor leads a nomadic life ; he is constantly with self and for self; he grows away from family associations and becomes estranged from old companionships ; -he never forms new ties to take the place of the old ; he cannot choose his' business associations ; and when by chance he meets a congenial companion, they must part after a few weeks or a season at most. The demands of his business tend to make him live his whole life on the surface. He makes a pleasant acquaintance to-day and to-morrow bids him farewell. It is a tinsel, shallow existence, utterly devoid of the deeper sentiments and nobler ambitions that give solid value to life. But does not the actor live for his art ? you will ask. Theoretically yes ; practically no. Every actor —every capable actor—has his artistic ideals, but, oh, how few attain them ! The actor with an income can indulge his art impulses. He can afford to play such parts as he is attracted to and in such companies as he chooses. But alas ! few actors are so blessed. Necessity compels them to play the parts they can get at the best going salary. They fall from the exalted plane of the artist to the common highway of the artisan. Olga Nethersole, the English actress, is quoted as saying that the Americans are the most inquisitive people on the face of the earth, and that the Boston newspaper women who interviewed her were inquisitive, impertinent and indelicate. George Grossmith is to return to the stage in a piece by F. C. Burnand, of Punch, who wrote the book to ‘ The Chieftain.’ Max O’Rell’s new play, ‘ Heartsease,’ is said to be strong and very cleverly written. It deals with two people, both painters, one the man of the practical school, the other the woman, an idealist. They are married. The husband leaves painting and invents a gun, which he is desirous of selling to the Russian Government. He asks his wife to make love to the secretary of the embassy, and the strong scene is where she bites the hand which the secretary has kissed, asks her husband with the utmost contempt if she is to offer him the rest. She leaves her husband, and after poverty and struggle she consents to be reconciled to the repentant man. Since Mary Anderson married Fernando de Navarro their home has been in Tunbridge Wells, where most of their time is spent in the open air. Attired with greater regard for comfort than for style, looking, as she expresses it, disreputable, Mme. de Navarro delights in a vigorous walk, a hard climb, a brisk gallop, or a drive in the teeth of the wind. A London special says : Some newspapers here make fun over the fact that Mrs Ormiston Chant, the wellknown reformer who made a crusade against the music halls some time ago, has asked the Abbott sisters, American variety actresses, singing at the Empire and other music halls, to sing songs which it appears she composed.