Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XXI, 13 November 1897, Page 652

Music and Drama.

Mrs S. Charlton, of Hastings, gave a very successful limelight exhibition and concert at the Publie Hall, Maraekakaho, last week, when there was a good attendance. Views of London and other places of interest were exhibited, descriptions of which were given by Mr 11. 11. Hunt. Messrs George and W. J. Tyerman assisted with the limelight. The sum raised by the entertainment will be given to the funds of the Maraekakaho library. Mendelssohn’s ‘Athalie’ was re-pro-duced by the Nelson Harmonic Society at the Theatre Royal last Thursday evening after an interval of four years. It can hardly be said, however, that the performance was altogether successful, owing, no doubt, to the smallness of the chorus and also a red net ion of the orchestra. The few who were there did their best, but it is to be hoped that for the Christmas concert all the meiAbers will be able to attend, and so keep up the sound reputation of the well known society. The soloists were Mrs Percy Adams (first soprano), Miss Pratt (second soprano), and Mrs Walker and Miss Hunt (contraltos). All did their work well. Mrs Adams had a great deal of singing, but got through it successfully. Miss Hunt was heard for the last time in Nelson for some time to come. Her voice was full and sweet as usual, and there were many present who would have liked to have heard more of it. The entertainment got up by Mr Dobbie in the Public Hall, Picton, on Monday evening (Anniversary Day), in aid of the funds of the Literary Institute, was an unqualified success. A very large audience greeted the performers, and the funds of the Institute must be considerably augmented by and through Mr Dobbie's means. The orchestral music rendered by the Dobbie family was a great treat, and owing to the orchestra the solos were made enjoyable. The first part of the programme was varied. Overture, "Blenheim Waltz,’ orchestra; song, with orchestral accompaniment, "The Old Folks at Home,’ Mr G. Morris; guitar and banjo duet, ‘Carnival Serenade,’ Mrs and Miss Millington; song, with violin obligato, "The Love Tide,’ Miss Chapple; song, with orchestral accompaniment, ‘My Pretty Jane,' Mr Bathgate; ‘The Area Belle’ was the next item on the programme. Miss Thompson, who was the ‘Area Belle,’ did her part to perfection, and no one wondered that "Pitcher’ of the police, ‘Tosser of the grenadiers, and "Mr Walker Chalks,' the milkman, were deeply smitten with her charms, and felt an affinity for the cold mutton and Picton bloaters, which furnished Mrs Croker’s kitchen. The second part of the programme was a selection from Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan's opera, ‘The Pirates of Penzance.’ Mr Wilmot was Major-General Stanley, Mr J. Price the Pirate King, Mr Masters Pirate Lieutenant, Mr C. C. Howard Serjeant of Police, Miss Howard Mabel, Miss Speed Edith, Miss M. Philpotts Kate. The Pirates' Chorus, Girls' Chorus, Chorus of Police, and the Sergeant's Song all went off well, but the choruses were especially well sung, all the voices blending well together. No doubt, now that Mr Dobbie has found out that there is corn in Egypt in the way of voices, he will initiate other performances of the same kind. The national airs of great countries are short, while those of the little countries are long. ‘God Save the Queen' consists of but fourteen bars, the Russian Hymn is sixteen bars, and ‘Hail, Columbia!’ has twenty-eight bars. On the other hand, Siam’s National Hymn has seventy-six bars, that of Uruguay seventy, and Chili's forty-six. The comedy ‘ Sweet Lavender ’ is to l>e played by Nelson amateurs shortly, in aid of the funds of the Harmonic Society. A new organisation has been founded in Rome known as the St. Gregory the Great Society. Its object is to reform Italian religious music, which is accused of having departed from the traditions of the great Palestrina and become openly theatrical in its tendencies.

The Municipal Council of Paris is renaming the streets of a part of Paris after celebrated men. Three of the streets are to bear the names of the following musicians—Ambroise Thomas, Chopin and Benjamin Godard. Dr. Malioutine, a Russian specialist, has published a curious article on the subject of the influence that a tuning fork has on the human voice. The doctor experimented on a number of workmen in a factory at Moscow. He took an A tuning fork of steel and applied it to the ears of his subjects, after having himself sung the A it produced. After two hours of work he found that his voice became more and more powerful and acquired a metallic sonority. He continued his experiments and found that in placing the tuning fork on his forehead he could sing from the chest several high notes that he had never been able to produce before, except falsetto. Several workmen who had never sung, and who were practically without voice, found themselves able to produce agreeable notes when the doctor placed the tuning fork on their foreheads. These persons stated that the notes came from their throats without the least effort. The doctor afterwards made experiments with professional singers, and found that their voices gained in power and facility of expression when the tuning fork was applied to their heads. It is possible that the experiment has a scientific value, but its practical application to professional singers does not seem easy. One can hardly imagine Raoul in ‘The Huguenots’ applying a tuning fork to his brow in order to take the chest Ut. in the duel scene, or the Queen in the ‘Magie Flute’ hanging a tuning fork to her diadem when she takes tbc frftnmis F in alt. Wagner societies everywhere seem to be outliving their usefulness, but the German Wagner Society is in the worst plight of all. According to statistics recently presented at the congress of the Allgemeiner Richard Wagner Verein, which recently met at Beyreuth, the membership has diminished more than 25 per cent, since IS9G. When Count Von Seckendorff, the president, made this announcement several members voted that the German branch of the Society be dissolved. The question was hotly debated, but finally it was resolved to continue the organisation with a number of modifications. The number of Wagnerian societies in other countries has fallen from one hundred to eighty-two during the last year. There is nothing astonishing in" this news. Wagner societies were founded to bring the works of Richard Wagner before a world that was cold and indifferent to the Beyreuth master's music. They have succeeded in their object. To-day ‘Lohengrin’ is better known to the theatre-going public than ‘Norma.* Popular audiences can recognise the ‘prize song’ from the ‘Meistersinger’ more readily than they would recognise ‘Una voce poco fa' from the ‘Barber of Seville.’ Bellini and Rosini are more in need of societies to keen their works alive than Wagner is. At the Theatre Royal. Nelson, on Friday evening. Miss Hunt gave a farewell concert, and. in spite of the very wet weather, there was a fairly large audience. Miss Hunt's charming contralto voice is well known and appreciated in Nelson, and now that she has decided to go to England to perfect her musical training all unite in wishing her every success. On Friday evening Miss Hunt sang, (a) ‘Still as the Night.’ (b) ‘The Answer,' both by Bohm, ‘The Young Nun’ (Schubert). ‘Sunshine and Rain’ (Blumenthal). and a duet. ‘Maying’ (A. M. Smith), with Mr 11. Kidson. Miss Hunt sang all her songs well, especially ‘The 1 oung Nun,’ which was much appreciated and received an ovation. Miss K. Fell sang ‘Damon’ (Max Stange) and ‘Pack Clouds Away’ (Macfarran), violin obligato by Herr Ilandke. For both songs she received an enthusiastic encore. Mr H. Kidson, Nelson's favourite baritone, sang ‘Harold’ (Loewe) in his usual finished style, and was, of course, encored. Pianoforte solos were played by the Misses Melhuish and Jackson, and a string quartette by the Misses Trix Atkinson and Shove. Messrs Handke and Crump. Sir Henry Irving and the Lyceum Com|»any playing to a sixpenny gallery! The idea is sufficiently startling with the memory of the ‘increased prices' which have marked hitherto

the travels of the great actor and his comrades. But the sixpenny gallery at Mr Fredericks’ fine theatre at Stratford remained at sixpence during Sir Henry’s visit there, and if this innovation may be taken as a sign of the times it marks a very striking development indeed. If the suburban playgoer, who, mark you, is the chief supporter of the theatre in the West End —for everybody lives without the fourmile circle nowadays—if the suburban playgoer is to be further encouraged by so potent an argument as the full Lyceum Company and accessories, that everything comes to him who waits, and that the very finest productions of the London stage will in due course be brought to his very doors, where it will cost him half or less than half to enjoy it than if he submitted to the rush and discomfort of a sveral miles journey to town, then, indeed, we may expect to see the fashionable theatres decline continually in importance until at last they exist merely as a vehicle for the testing of plays intended to be taken afterwards to every district in London. The Lyceum Company has attracted huge audiences to the palatial theatre at Stratford. At the Metro]K>le, Camberwell, when Sir Henry plays ‘The Bells’ and ‘A Story of Waterloo,’ the charges of admission have been raised. There is yet one other notable change in Mr Robertson’s revival. At the end of the play, Hamlet, wounded and dying, is set in his uncle’s vacant throne, the diadem is placed in his lap, and, so sitting, he dies. Fortinbras, the man of action, as opposed to the dreamer, Hamlet, enters with his soldiers —as he never has done on the stage—and it is on their shields, in Roman fashion, that the dead Prince is borne away as the curtain falls. The new play that Mr George R. Sims has written for Mr John F. Sheridan is called ‘When the Lamps are Lighted,’ and will be produced at Manchester on October 11. The scenes are laid in and about the London railway stations and on the Thames. Mr Sheridan plays the part of a woman, Miss Gracie Whiteford that of a man. The company will visit America shortly under the direction of Mr John R. Rogers. Mr Beerbohm Tree has confided to an interviewer his impression that •unfortunately for the theatre the tendency at the present moment seems to be in the direction of the light music hall entertainment, 'mere will of course always be a demand for productions of the lighter kind, but I have not the slightest doubt that in time the taste will again change in favour of the higher forms of drama. It is astonishing how the old extravaganza and burlesque—the most delightful kind of light entertainment—have died out.’ Signorita Manchette Duse, who is now travelling in Switzerland with her mother, the famous actress, is described as a tall, slim girl, still in her teens, and a head taller than her mother. Between the two there is little resemblance. What they have in common, however, is the deep, melancholy expression, which in a sixteen-year-old girl looks less natural than in the face of a dramatic artist. But they have only to talk together. and their faces are transformed as if by the touch of a magic wand. The melancholy has gone, and in its place is laughter, bright and catching. Mr Kyrle Bellew is back in London again after his world tour. His experience has been that whatever the fluctuations of publie favour.it has been accorded liberally and without variation to the legitimate drama. ‘Take Australia,’ says Mr Bellew. ‘I suppose there is no more acute management in the world at this moment than that of Mr Williamson and Mr Musgrove; and what is their course? Why. they go straight for “Hamlet" and "As You Like It.” It is the same everywhere, and there is no corner of the Englishspeaking world, with a building capable of accommodating an audience, that I and Mrs Potter have not visited —aye, again and again. So completely have we established ourselves in the ‘‘four corners of the earth” that I think I could approximate the receipts. at point ami point, of a tour round the world.’ It is interesting to recall just now that Mr Forbes Robertson's first trial of his powers was at painting. He

had distinct artistic talent, and at the Royal Academy School of Art proved a singularly promising pupil. The work grew irksome, however, and he definitely decided for the stage. The latest letters from New York spoke of a great spectacular play entitled ‘Nature’ that was to be produced there on a thoroughly American scale. Everything was to be the biggest on record. There were to be an Amazonian march of 200 people, real live Esquimaux, and floral and choral ballets, imported regardless of expense. The irony of fate! Mr William de Verna, who was known as the ‘king of property men,’ and who designed the scenery and properties to be used in ‘Nature,’ a great spectacular play produced in New York, died on the eve of its production, after devoting years to what was to be his last and greatest enterprise and investing the savings of a lifetime in it. He spent several months in Europe last spring perfecting the details and engaging performers. Shortly after his return he broke down from overwork, and he died last month, just as his hopes were about to be realised. Just before he died he turned to his wife and said, ‘Oh, I wish I could have seen it once.’ The management of the Grand Theatre, Fulham, has made a rule, in the interest of their patrons, to the effect that infants in arms must be paid for. The intention is doubtless to discourage the practice of taking babies to the theatre, and so prevent, as far as possible, the outbreak of those shrill infantile screams which so often injure the effect of a good situation. ‘Diarmid,’ the new opera by the Marquis of Lome and Mr Hamish McCunn, will, it is understood, be produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company at no distant date. The role of the Celtic heroine is being studied by Mass Cecile Lorraine, the new American soprano. An excellent impression seems to have been made during the Carl Rosa Company’s visit to Liverpool by Mdlle. Dorre as Carmen. This artist, who is of French descent, came here with a big reputation gained in opera in Canada and the United States. Her impersonation of the wilful gipsy in Bizet’s opera is described as strongly dramatic and full of subtle touches. During the last week the Auckland Opera House has been well patronised. the attraction being an entertainment combining the Kinematograph and Phonograph. Some excellent pictures were shown, the illuminant being electricity. Mrs Alfred Levi’s pianoforte recital at the Wellington Art Gallery last week ranks among the most successful musical evenings of the season. The performance unquestionably added to the reputation which the lady has enjoyed in Wellington as a pianiste. The gem of the evening was Liszt's setting of Schubert’s ‘Erl King,’ that delightful composition that so amply repays the conscientious musician. Mrs Levi played it with great expression and power. Weber's ‘Rondo Brillant,’ Chopin's ‘Nocturne in E Flat,’ three movements of Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein Sonata,’ and three, of Grieg's solos. The vocal contributions to the programme were given by Miss Phoebe Parsons ami Mr S. Dyer. The former sang Garcia's ‘Salve Maria" in admirable style, and was so warmly applauded that she had to repeat a large part of the number. She also sang Handel's ‘Slumber Song’ and Bohm's ‘Entreaty.’ Mr Dyer gave ‘My Life for Thee,’ and ‘The Deathless Army.’ Mr H.Spackmann played a violin obligato to Miss Parsons' ‘Salve Maria,' and a solo (‘Sartarelle’) on the s.une instrument. As an encore he played the ‘Serenade of Pierae.’ The ‘Daily Chronicle,’ speaking of the production of ‘Francillon’ by the Potter-Bellew combination at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, says:—‘Many persons financially interested in the drama on this side of the Channel probably weighed ‘Francillon' and found it wanting in the qualities likely to draw the public, were its interpretation ever so good. Messrs Williamson and Musgrove, theatrical caterers of renown in Australia, have displayed more courage. The piece pleased their audiences at the Antipodes, where Mr Kyrle Bellew and Mrs Potter are great favourites, and they doubtless thought the prospects were fair of corresponding success being achieved with it

here. Whether their estimate of the attractiveness of “Francillon” in the Old Country will be justified remains to •be proved. Its reception on the opening night — when everybody wished the managers well—was not precisely enthusiastic. From no point of view can "Francillon” be considered a satisfactory acting play. Its romance is commonplace, and somewhat tedious realism; its realism is extravagant romance.’ One critic speaks of Mrs Potter as having enormously improved since she was last in London. Another remarks: — ‘There was an air of artificiality in Mrs Potter’s utterance and manner that materially interfered with her impersonation of the Countess, though of the main elements of the part she seemed to have an excellent idea. On the other hand there was nothing stilted or forced in Mr Kyrle Bellew’s asumption of the Count. It was polished and telling—neither too warm nor too cold in tone, and the actoi- looked the part. The ladies' dresses were rieh, almost beyond description, and in one case at least decidedly daring, and for those who cared for decorative detail, “real Louis XV. furniture” was provided.’ Says the ‘St. James’ Budget’:—‘Upon the performance of “Francillon” there is no great temptation to linger. As Francillon, Mrs Brown Potter wore a number of exceedingly lovely dresses and looked as beautiful as the most aesthetic playgoer could desire Her delivery was, however, jerky, and her manner mincing. A pleasing feature of the performance was the Annette of Miss Grace Noble, a young actress possessd of a very charming manner and exceedingly sweet voice. The reception of the play, if not enthusiastic, was at anyrate favourable.’