Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue V, 30 July 1898, Page 139

Music and Drama.

An entertainment consisting of a concert and some tableaux, which were followed by a dance, was held at Ormondville, Napier, on a recent Friday evening. The Misses Chadwick played two pianoforte duets and Miss Allen sang ‘La Serenata.’ Others who contributed to the musical part of the programme were: Mr Webb, Mr Alabaster, Mr Westall and Air Forbes, etc. Perhaps the tableau which proved to be the favourite was ‘Britannia.’ ‘Mary's Garden,’ in which M iss Allen took the part of Mary, was also very well carried out, and so was ‘The Three Witches,’ and in this the characters were represented by Messrs Wilson, Palmer and Cracknell.

Miss Eloise Juno, who plays Nanny Webster in The Little Minister,’ was recognised, says the Sydney ‘Evening News.’ many years ago as one of the cleverest exponents of Scottish character ever seen in Australia. She did not, however, come to this part of the world as a specialist in that particular line, but, after the fashion which was common during the earlier portion of her theatrical career, took a turn at all sorts of characters. It was in New Zealand she first came into prominent notice, at the first theatre built in Invercargill, the capital of the province of Southland. Miss Juno was then a very young girl, and not long from ‘home.’ Sse is a native of Edinburgh. The present writer has a very distinct recollection of the versatile talent which she displayed, and the success with which she assumed both serious and comic parts.

The Cowan Dramatic Company has been doing fair business in Wellington.

The Greenwood Comedy Company is at present in the Otago goldfields districts.

Among the new productions with which the Pollard Company intend to entertain their New Zealand patrons in the forthcoming season are: — ‘Newmarket,’ Trooper Clairette,’ ‘The Dandy Fifth,’ an opera which has created quite a sensation, To To and Ta Ta,’ ‘Manola,’ and ‘The Telephone Girl.’ ‘Pepita,’ The Gaiety Girl,’ and ‘The Vicar of Bray,’ which we have seen before, will also be included in the repertoire of the Company.

Messrs Williamson and Musgrove’s Dramatic Company now playing the ‘Prisoner of Zenda’ at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, will introduce two new plays to Australia during the season. One is The Christian,’ Wilson Barrett’s dramatisation of Hall Caine’s well-known novel, and the other ‘Under the Red Robe,’ a dramatisation of Stanley Weyman’s novel.

Mr Robert Brough has purchased the Australian rights of Mr R. C. Carton's three-act comedy, ‘Lord and Lady Algy,’ now being played by Mr Charles Hawtrey’s company at the Comedy Theatre. This makes three new plays which Mr Brough has added to his repertoire. The other two have been referred to before. One is ‘Madame Sans-Gene,’ adapted by Mr J. Cornyns Carr, and produced last year at the Lyceum by Sir Henry Irving, and Miss Ellen Terry; and the other,

The Liars,' a play by Mr H. A. Jones, which has been produced at the Criterion.

Barrie’s ‘Little Minister’ is shortly to l>e presented on the New Zealand stage, Air Harry Rickards having arranged to send a company to this colony to play it, with Aliss Pattia Brown as ‘Babbie.’ Al me. Cecily Staunton (Airs Goldenstedt) made her London debut at Stafford House (Duchess of Sutherland’s) on June 9th. at a charity concert in aid of the South London District Nursing Association. Afiss Esther Palliser, Aliss Fanny Davies, Air John Thomas (harpist), and other distinguished artists also appeared. Alme. Staunton sang Schubert’s The Young Nun,’ and made such a favourable impression that Air N. Vert at once promised to introduce the Australian mezzo-soprano to the directors of the Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company.

Mr Henry Stockwell’s clear tenor voice is at. times apt to be a little strained (says the Adelaide ‘Critic.’) The cause is undoubtedly due to a habit of holding his head so far on the back of his neck as to place the larynx in a most unnatural position. Many artists in singing high notes throw back their heads and hold their music at arm’s length, in the approved fashion of the tenore robusto in comic journals. The artist pupils of the celebrc.ed Maestro Maurice Strakosch were taught on the contrary to lower their heads, and this is the secret of the exquisite beauty of their high notes. It was by this means that Adelina Patti learned that sweet and delicate pianissimo on high C which has held so many an audience spell-bound and entranced.

The concert given last week by the Auckland Banjo, Guitar, and Mandolin Club filled the Opera House to overflowing-. A very varied and entertaining programme was presented, including concerted pieces by the club, instrumental solos and songs by Alisses Lily Thomson and Aland Donovan, Mr Ernest Schatz, Mr W. M. Quinn, and Air A. L. Edwards. Air Arthur Towsey conducted, and Alessrs Cyril Towsey and Alf. Bartley were the pianists of the evening.

On Saturday last an excellent concert was given in the Auckland Opera House in aid of the Parnell Orphan Home. The. entertainment was promoted by Professor Carrollo and provided by the leading- local amateurs. The management committee consisted of the Rev. Canon Nelson, Captain Alorrow, and Alessrs F. Innes, H. C. Tewsley, and R. Walker (sen.) A delightful programme was gone through, and was evidently highly appreciated, and the Orphan Home will doubtless reap considerable benefits from the efforts on its behalf.

The Beauty Slave,’ the new piece at the Savoy Theatre for which Sir Arthur Sullivan has furnished the music, while Messrs. Pinero and Cornyns Carr have written the words, is founded on a passage in the old French chronicler Froissart with reference to the adventures of certain French nobles on their return home through the Greek Archipelago from the wars against ‘black pagans, Turks and infidels.’

The ‘Australasian’ relates the following amusing incident:—‘An unexpected hitch arose during the performance of ‘La Fille de Madame Angot’ by the Sherwin-Shepherd Opera Company at St. George’s Hall on Saturday evening. During the interval at the close of the first act, a small man in a long overcoat ran rapidly through the place reserved for the orchestra, the members of which had retired, and gathered up all the band parts of the music, with which he disappeared. Only the pianoforte score was left, and with that the performance was continued, the other musicians playing from memory, and doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Later on in the evening the band parts were restored, after the small man with the overcoat had had a satisfactory interview with the treasurer.’

A controversy, prolvably unique in theatrical annals, is taking place at the Imperial Vienna Opera House. Alahler, the new director, has constituted himself a sort of Czar, and his latest ukase is to the effect that he will have no noisy expressions of approbation on the part of the audience. In order to insure the carrying out of this decree he solicited the intervention of the police, and two spectators who manifested too noisy an approbation for the artists were led out by the collar and heavily fined the next day. The gallery, however, has refused to be intimidated by Mahler’s decree. On the contrary, its manifestations of approval have become more and more tumultuous, and regular scenes have taken plaee between audiences which wanted to applaud and the police who wanted to silence them. Indignant at the non-fulfilment of his orders, .Mahler grew wrathy with the artists themselves, declaring that they had hired a clique. The poor singers were so indignant at this unjust accusation that they took a heroic stand —they struck against all sorts of applause. At present they refuse to take any notice of the public, and one and all refuse to appear before the curtain. To show their sincerity and prevent misunderstandings they have sent copies of their resolution to all the Viennese papers. The London ‘Era,’ referring to Air Gladstone’s custom in later years of sitting- behind the scenes, says:—The first time, he occupied the seat the carpenters and property people arranged a velvet canopy over it so that Air Gladstone might not feel any draught. Two men, moreover, were told off to stand close to him through the performance in ease anything untoward should happen. When "King Lear" was being acted, Air Gladstone told Sir Henry Irving that he—Gladstone —was surprised at the “lack of patriotism shown as existing at the time of the play. The. invader was made welcome.” Alany years ago. when “The Corsican Brothers” was being played, Air Gladstone came behind the scenes and peeped through one of the boxes on the stage which were supposed to represent the front of the opera house in the play. In the excitement of the moment he leaned out of this box, and the audience immediately saw and recognised him, and then there was a cry, “Bravo, Gladstone!” He visited the Lyceum the night after his great speech on the Home Rule Bill. Air Gladstone’s 10 o’clock Thursday breakfasts at his house in Carlton House Terrace, at which Sir H. Irving, Air J. L. Toole and other distinguished actors, English and foreign, were often invited, were famous. Air Gladstone loved to speak of Edmund Kean, Charles Kemble, Alaeready, Helen Faucit, Rachel. Ristori, Frederick Lemaitre, and Charles Kean, all of whom he had seen act. “Here,” says a writer on society, alluding to these breakfasts, “you may meet an operatic prima donna, or a popular actor, or an editor, or a litterateur, or Aladame de Novikoff, seated between a Whig peeress, stiff and frigid as an icicle, and an Anglican preacher such as Canon Liddon.” ’ On the very night of the day on which the last Derby was won, a London audience, thanks to the Biograph, were able to see the great race represented, and of course almost as natural as life.

Alfred Ernst, one of Wagner’s most doughty champions, has just died. He wrote in praise of Wagner at a period when the Bayreuth master was in need of a champion, and he has lived to see the triumph of the principles he advocated. His book, ‘The Poetry of Richard Wagner,’ is a standard work with lovers of Wagner's music. At the time of his death he was just finishing another volume, ‘Musical Work of Richard Wagner.’

Two American actresses and three American actors sire rated as millionaires by a leading New York news|siper. Miss Crabtree, known professionally as Lotta, heads the list with a fortune of three million dollars; Maggie Mitchell is placed next as the possessor of two and a half millions; Joseph Jefferson is said to lie worth two millions; Sol Smith Russell, one ami a half millions,and Joseph M urphy one million. Among those whose fortunes are said to be ‘on the road to a million' are: William 11. Crane, three-quarters of a million: Fanny Davenport, half a million; William Gillette, a. quarter of n million; E. 11. Sothern, two hundred thousand; and John Drew, one hundred and seventylive thousand.