Music —and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XX, 20 May 1899, Page 682

Music —and Drama.

On Monday evening the Ernest Toy Concert Company concluded a short season in Auckland. The playing of Mr Toy, the seventeen-year-old violinist, was unexpectedly good. As a rule one is a little shy of child prodigies, especially in the domain of music. Too often they are not really musicians in the best sense of that word, but clever youngsters who show a marvellous dexterity in the pieces they have been drilled to play. Mr Toy has all the dexterity of the ordinary prodigy, but he has something more. He plays with his mind as well as with his fingers. A little girl of fourteen, Miss Renee Lees, did on the piano something almost as wonderful as Mr Toy achieved on the violin. Miss Renee, too, escapes the mechanical brilliancy of the ordinary child musician. There is feeling, beyond her years, in her touch. Her rendering of some of Mendelssohn’s music was a surprise. The vocal part of the concert was contributed by Miss Alice Simmons (soprano), Miss Maud Dalrymple (contralto), and Mr M. Marcus (tenor). Their efforts added greatly to the success of the various concerts.

Miss Alma Stanley whose death we reported the other day is, it appears, not dead after all. She was very ill; in fact she was at death's door; but ‘the abhorred fury with the shears’ hesitated to deprive the stage of one of its favourites, and Alma is yet able to play her part on the stage of life and the theatrical stage too. The ‘Australasian’ speaking of Cinquevalli’s wonderful juggling at the Bijou Theatre, Melbourne, says: — ‘When he placed a florin on the toe of his shoe and flicked it into his eye, where it stuck like a monocle in the ej e of an exquisite, there was a gasp of amazed amusement all round the house. Cinquevalli requires no elaborate properties for his performance, and he scorns all the ‘fake’ which is indispensable to the ordinary juggler. Probably Cinquevalli is the only man alive who can balance two billiard balls one on top of another, and then elevate them into the air on the butt of a cue, and balance the tip on his chin. To learn such a trick as that one requires the patience of Job, and the persistency of Bruce’s spider.’ ‘The Belle of New York’ Company hat now been running its great piece a week and more in Sydney. It will be remembered that the thing did not ‘catch on’ in Melbourne at first. Latterly, however, public opinion grew more favourable towards it, and it was anticipated it would ‘go’ in Sydney.

Mr Brough has completed arrangements by cable for the purchase of the Australian rights of ‘The Manoeuvres of Jane’ and ‘The Physician,’ which are two of Mr Henry Arthur Jones’ latest plays. They will be produced by Mr Brough in Sydney towards the end of the present season. Among the novelties Mr Williamson is getting ready for Australia are ‘The Three Musketeers,’ ‘The,- Christian,’ and the great military drama ‘Secret Service.’

It is quite possible, if not probable, says the ‘Sydney Daily Telegraph’ that when ‘The Belle of New York’ is withdrawn from Her Majesty’s, that Mr Harry Conor and his new American company will open in Sydney with ‘A Rag Baby.’ ‘The Three Musketeers' was produced for the first time in Australia the other day, when Mr Alfred Dampier staged his version of the story at Adelaide. Mr George Rignold is also about to put the drama on the boards at the Criterion, Sydney.

A testimonial benefit to Mrs Marcus Clarke was given in the Town Hall, Melbourne, the week before last.

After a run of 400 nights at the Forte-street Martin Theatre, Paris, Cyrano de Bergerac’ was recently withdrawn. The piece drew over £104,000, the nightly average being £260, which is higher by £6O per night than any Parisian success ever recorded.

We learn that Mr Charles Arnold’s Australian season will probably begin in Sydney at the Palace Theatre in

August. He will play ‘What Happened to Jones,’ with which he has scored such a pronounced success in London. The eminent German pianist, Herr Friedenthal, who has just completed a series of highly successful concerts at the Melbourne Town Hall, and is now appearing in Adelaide, will make bis Sydney debut at the Town Hall on May 25. The Nelson Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society scored another success last week when ‘The Magistrate,’ an original farce in three acts, by A. W. Pinero, was produced. The audience was large and most enthusiastic each evening. The piece went with a swing from the rise of the curtain to the fall; the acting was good throughout, and each one sustained bis or her part well and thoroughly entered into the spirit cf the piece. Mr E. F. W. Cooke, the energetic and painstaking stage manager, is indeed to be congratulated upon the success of the performance. The following is the cast of characters:—Mr Posket, Mr A. P- Burnes; Mr Bullamy, Mr E. F. W. Cooke; Colonel Lukin, Mr F. Kidson; Captain Horace Vale, Mr W. W. Squires; Cis Farringdon, Mr F. W. Shallcross; Achille Blond, Mr J. Brown; Isidore, Mr A. Aldershaw; Mr Wormington, Mr C. Hamilton; Inspector Messiter, Mr G. Mackay; Sergeant Lugg, Mr D. Watt; Constable Harris, Mr F, Washbourne; Wyke, Mr L. Levien; Agatha Posket, Mrs Roger Kingdon; Charlotte (her sister), Miss Legatt; Beatie Tomlinson, Miss Gribben; and Popham, Miss N. Sealy. On Friday evening the Nelson Harmonic Society performed Handel’s oratorio ‘Samson’ in the Theatre Poyal, when in spite of the rain there was a large audience. The Society was undoubtedly ambitious to' attempt to render so great and heavy an oratorio as ‘Samson,’ and though the production was by no means perfect, and would have been much improved by longer rehearsals, the efforts cf so small a society were good, some of the choruses being particularly well rendered. Mrs Percy Adams took the difficult soli of Dalilah, and was seldom heard in better voice; her notes were clear and sweet, and the manjdifficult passages were taken with the greatest ease. Her rendering of ‘ln Plaintive Notes’ was charming. The solo of Manoah was taken by Mr H. Kidson, whose loyely voice was heard to great advantage, especially in the air ‘How Willing My Paternal Love,’ which, interpreted with much feeling and beauty, won him an encore. Miss Hayter took the part of Micah, the Rev. F. W. Chatterton essayed the soli of Harapha, and the Rev. J. P. Kempthorne and Mr Last Harris jointly shared the part of Samson. The orchestra was under the baton of Herr Handke, and led by Miss Ethel Crump, with Miss Duff at the piano and Miss F. G. Sealy at the organ. The Henry Dramatic Company is due in Auckland on the 20th (Saturday), and will play for a week at the Opera House. Messrs Williamson and Musgrove’s Opera Company opens its Auckland season on the 29th.