Music and Drama,

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XIV, 25 September 1897, Page 427

Music and Drama,

THE nineteenth anniversary of St. Andrew’s Church was celebrated at the Town Hall, Waipukurau, on the 14th inst., when an enthusiastic audience of over two hundred people assembled there. The programme commenced with a performance on the violin and piano by the Misses Todd, followed by an address by the Rev. A. Grant. Mr Renaud, of Napier, contributed a song, ‘Nazareth,’ and an address, entitled ‘Church Music.’ The choir sang two anthems, and the Rev. A. Morrison, of Hastings, also gave an address. Dr. Godfray gave a clever recitation, and Mrs and Miss Todd followed with a piano duet. Mrs Ashby sang * Gates of the West,’ which was much appreciated. Mrs and Miss Ashby gave a vocal duet, and Miss C. Bailey, who was warmly welcomed, sang ‘ River of Years.’ Mr Eadie delighted the company with a recitation, ‘ The Coster’s Conversion,’ and * The Bumpkin’s Wooing ’ as an encore. Miss Merry lees was warmly applauded for her song, • Flight of Ages,’ and a solo by Mrs Vickery, a vocal duet by Mr and Mrs Swain, and a solo by Mrs Morrison,of Hastings, completed the programme. Much interest is being taken in Auckland in the forthcoming entertainment to be given by Miss Gladys Leigh in the Auckland Opera House on Saturday, October 2nd. It will be quite a military performance, as Captain Grant is going to march the volunteers from the drill shed to the Opera House, accompanied by the band. Colonel Banks and the city authorities are patronising what promises to be a capital evening. Many Auckland ladies are selling tickets for Miss Leigh, whom they are desirous of assisting.

At St. Mary’s schoolroom, New Plymouth, on Tuesday evening, was held the last of the winter series of entertainments. An excellent programme was given, and despite the wet weather there was a large audience. Dr. Walker sang with great spirit, and had to respond to an encore. Mr Walton, of Auckland, sang * One Hundred Fathoms Deep,’ and for an encore he gave ‘ Father O’Flynu.’ Mr Didsbury’s rendering of ‘The Long Shoreman ’ was well received. The duet (in character) ‘Where Are You Going,’ old and new version, was a great success. The old was taken by Miss Teed and Mr D. Hursthouse, and the new by Miss B. Bayly and Mt Taylor. Two plantation quartettes by Misses C. Bayly and G. Fookes, and Messrs Watkins and Noble, were well received. Mrs Burgess also sang, and Mr A. L. Cooke was encored for a violin solo. Mr S. Cooper gave a piano solo with his usual skill. During the evening five tableaux, which were very prettily arranged, were shown.

Never before in the city of Nelson has any musical performance attained such universal popularity as did the ‘ Mikado,’ which was produced by the Nelson Amateur Operatic Society last week. It is seldom, indeed, that any work has been staged by amateurs with such completeness as was the opera mentioned, for the scenery and stage appointments were most admirable and finished in every way, whilst to the smallest detail everything went with such smoothness and precision as could only have been fairly looked for from a well-drilled professional company. As Katisha, Mrs Howie was a pronounced success. Her singing and acting alike called forth rounds of applause and showers of bouquets. Her solo, * Hearts do not Break,’ was sung with force and great pathos, and was quite the gem of each evening. The part of Yum-Yum was allotted to Miss Kathleen Fell, who was exactly suited to it. Her acting was charmingly dainty and bright, whilst her singing was much appreciated. Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo were taken by Miss H. Reeves and Mrs Burns, respectively, and both were equally successful. The difficult tenor part of Nanki-Poo was taken by Mr Spaul, who, on the whole, acquitted himself well. As Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner of Titipu, Mr E. Mackay was eminently successful. He possesses a good voice, which was used to great advantage, and secured many encores. He is also a clever actor. Pooh-Bah (Mr D. Corrigan) was a host in himself, and one quite forgot that he was an amateur. From his first appearance to his last exit the success which he at once secured was an increasing quantity. Mr N. Levien made the very utmost of the part of Pish Tush, bis bye-play being most amusing. Last, but not by any means least, appears on the stage the Mikado, and Mr F. Kidson is to be congratulated on the way in which he took this part. His acting was good, and his sweet voice was heard to great advantage, especially in the solo, ‘ A more humane Mikado.' Of all the choruses it must simply be said that they were all good. The precision with which the ‘ fan drill ’ was executed was truly wonderful, and the effect of the different tableaux, capably shown up with lime-light effects, was beautiful, especially on the last evening, when a special tableau was arranged as a welcome to Colonel Pitt (who

had just returned from England and was present), and the pathetic way in which Mrs Howie sang * Home, Sweet Home,' must have touched the hearts of all present. A word of praise is also due to the efficient little orchestra, who worked well, and added greatly to the success of the performance. Mr Ambrose Moore was the able conductor.

A benefit concert was tendered in Auckland on Thursday last to the clever little violinist, Miss Celia Dampier. There was a large attendance, and an excellent programme was performed, a number of prominent musical people giving their services. Miss Dampier gave the violin solo, * Caprice Americain,’ and had to repeat a portion of it in response to a loud encore. She also with Miss Kent and Mr J. Beale took part in the instrumental trio * Scherzo ’ (Reisegur), and played a violin obligato to Miss Lorrigan’s song, * Ave Maria.’ The other performers were Messrs Fountain, Foster, Wynyard Joss and Keesing, Messrs Abel Rowe, Tracey Hall, and E. Schatz, Mons. Casier, Mrs Kilgour and Mrs Boylan, Misses Maxwell (two), E. Farrell. The accompaniments were played by Messrs Bartley and Boult, and Misses Heywood, Kent and Midgley. One night Sarah Bernhardt was playing * Fedora ’ to a crowded house. The poison scene, as usual, excited a tempest of applause from the audience; but ere the clapping of hands and the stamping of feet had died away, loud peals of laughter burst forth from the upper part of the theatre. In the front row of the third gallery, and in full view of all, stood two one-armed men, who, unconscious of the amusement which they caused, were energetically co-operating to prolong the applause by clapping their remaining hands together. In the beginning of the present century there was an actor named Cummins who had such remarkable power that on one occasion his performance of Charles I. caused the death of a young girl in one of the boxes from agitation brought on by his picture of the sorrows of the unhappy monarch. This same actor dropped down dead himself upon the stage, on 20th June, 1817, after speaking the following lines, from the play of 1 Jane Shore —

‘Be witness for me, ye celestial host. Such mercy and such pardon my soul Accords to thee, and begs of Heaven to show thee, May such befall me at my latest hour, And make my portion bless'd or cursed for ever.’ There are suicides in plenty in Paris, but it is not often that any one has a complaisant audience, which simply looks on curiously and acquiesces in the exit at the ‘ open door,’ says a Paris letter. Yet such is the case in the latest from Paris, and the suicide was a woman, and a woman in her teens at that. I recollect that Mrs Deland has in one of her books a man who felt that he had no right to interfere with thepersonal will of any human being, and who, owing to his inability to take any decided action, was a failure. Natures of that sort are evidently plenty in Paris. The woman in question was an actress—they always are what the newspapers call * theatrical artists.’ She was but seventeen, and her name was Mathilde. She resided in the Rue des Martyrs. Having made up her mind to die she gave a lunch party and was as gay as any of her guests. At the end of the meal, when all were smoking, she calmly said, ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, lam about to take my life.’ Did anyone interfere ? Not a bit of it. They all apparently thought it was her life, and if she wanted to end it she had a right. They discussed methods with her, and finally decided on poison. One of them even went to a shop and bought a quantity of medicated plaster and helped her make the decoction. Then she drank it off in their presence and they all sat around until she was dead, when they notified the commissaire of the district. They made no secret of the affair, and M. Cornette, the commissaire, has recorded that he had great difficulty in persuading them that their conduct was most reprehensible. Now that is fin de siticle with a vengeance. It is a story for Catulle Mendes himself.

When Mr Morse assumed his duties last month as custodian of Covent Garden, London, he found, among other treasures, nearly 9,000 pairs of shoes in varied states of repair, bought for different operas, but all unlabelled. Other departments were in a similar state of confusion, and it cost /"is merely to find and dig out the scenery for an opera that was to be revived.

Bernhardt’s London season has been a failure, and about three-quarters of the audience came in on passes. On one occasion only eleven people in the house had paid for their seats.

The London Council has voted £7,800 for the expenses of music in the parks this summer. The season lasts till the end of August.

Two years ago Paris was proud of maintaining five grand orchestral concerts, those of the Conservatory, the Chatelet, the Cirque d’Hiver, the Opera, and the Concerts d’Harcourt. At present it looks as if the number would be reduced to those of the Conservatory

and the Chatelet. The Opera has announced its intention of giving no concerts next season, and to the great regret of musical people, Lamoureux has paid off his musicians, and announced his intention of conducting no more for the present. In some statistics published by a German newspaper concerning the seating capacity of Prussian theatres, it appears that the biggest opera house in Emperor William’s dominions is that of Frankfort, which can seat 1,900 people.

Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, has completed an oratorio on which she has been working for some time. The work will be executed early next year, but its title is not yet decided upon. A singular lawsuit is agitating musical circles in Germany. In consequence of a polemic in several of the papers two musical critics, Tappert and Lackowitz, were almost forced to commence libel suits against the charges made in the polemics of having accepted bribes from artists for write-ups. Several witnesses and experts have testified, and it has been proved that Tappert, who is one of the most famous of Wagnerian writers, has received from time to time considerable sums of money from musicians. Tappert has affirmed that he received this money to cover expenses incurred in the exercise of his profession, such as carriage hire, dinners at restaurants, when the concert clashed with his dinner hour at home, fees for lessons and advice given to artists before their concerts, etc. Several artists and other witnesses have refused to testify, while others have struggled to evade the questions of the presiding judge. A few witnesses have squarely declared that they strongly disapproved of Tappert’s attitude. The case has been adjourned, but the public has already judged Tappert, who will not come out of the trial unsmirched. As for Lackowitz, the other critic accused of blackmail, he is not of sufficient prominence to interest anyone. It was Tappert who, a few years ago, opened a regular campaign to prove that Rouget de Lisle, the composer of * La Marseillaise,’ stole the tune from a mass composed by a German composer of the last century named Holzbauer. Tappert never proved his assertion, and ended by owning that he was mistaken. It is this same writer who is the author of the volume bearing the somewhat elongated title of ‘ Wagnerian Lexicon, dictionary of incivility, containing the coarse, contemptuous, vindictive and calumnious expressions which have been employed against the master Richard Wagner, his works and his partizans by his enemies and insuiters, collected in hours of idleness.’

The Residenz Theatre of Munich has just given a model performance of * Cosi fan tutte,’ according to the original score of Mozart. The success of the enterprise was considerable, and the artists, as well as the chef d'orchestre, were recalled many times. This work of Mozart, which is in the old Italian style to which the composer inclined at one period, did not seem at all wearisome or out of date, in spite of several imperfections in the execution, for ‘Cosi fan tutte ’ demands a much greater perfection of vocal virtuosity than singers to day are capable of. The orchestra was reduced to the number of executants who took part in the original production in Vienna in 1790. The numbers which produced the greatest effect were the canon of the second finale, the quartette of * Adieu,’ and the trio which follows.

Mme. Nordica is so much out of health that her friends in London, where she is stopping at present, feel grave disquietude on her account. During the last nine months she has had considerable worry and vexation of spirit, for the utter failure of her campaign against the De Reszkes, her non-success in Paris, and the indifference of Grau to secure her services, have all no doubt preyed on her mind and chafed her proud spirit. Added to this, her youthful husband has proved an utter fiasco as a tenor, and Nordica forfeited her first husband’s fortune to marry her Hungarian nobleman. We learn from a Southern contemporary that as a souvenir of Wellington, Mr and Mrs Brough took away with them a dainty manicure set, in silver, a token of esteem and admiration from the Wellington Dramatic Students, who unostentatiously made the gift with a floral bouquet early in the season. Mr Brough subsequently wrote the students a graceful acknowledgment of the little memento.

Miss Ruby Kennedy, daughter of Mr J. J. Kennedy, who died some time ago in Auckland, is playing in * The Gay Parisienne ’ in Sydney. The Bland Holt Company’s advance agent, Mr Chis. Simonsen, arrived in Dunedin last week to make arrangements for Bland’s New Zealand season, which opens in the Southern city on the 25th inst.

A private letter received from Mr Dan Fitzgerald, who was in London, states that all the arrangements for opening the camp again have been completed. A very strong company of riders and acrobats has been engaged, and amongst other novelties there will be a great animal act —elephant and lion. The circus left London on the 14th July, and opens at Freemantle, West Australia, on October nth.