THE DRAMA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XVII, 27 October 1900, Page 769

THE DRAMA.

Ill.tiid Holt finishes his Sydney season on Oct. and opens iu Melbourne on Nov. -3. He intends to remain there for a year, and during the time will play a number of new pieces, including "The Price of Peaee.” which is the latest Drury Lane sensation. Miss Nance O’Neil is now playing in Sydney. After her New Zealand tour she goes to India. Mr Rickards has taken up the Georgia Magnet, and with her aud other attractions is drawing big houses at the Tivoli. Miss Hilda Spong is playing with Daniel Frohnian’s Company iu <hi •ago. The Emperor of Austria has confer red on Mme. Melba the title of Irn perial Royal Kifniinersangrein, which implies the liability of being asked t<> sing singly or at concerts in the Imperial private apartments. The Biograph Company. which has been touring New Zealand, opens in Auckland this (Wednesday) evening. Tin - Crane-Power Company start their New Zealand tour at Dunedin on Friday nexf. Among the pieces to be staged during their stay here arc “The Royal Divorce," "The King’s Musketeer.” “The Only Way." ami "The Sign of the Cross."

The Rev. Haskett Smith. M.A . who is touring Australia with lantern pictures ami lectures, is now in Melbourne. where he opened recentlv with his new lecture. "The Paris Exhibition."

It iji reported in Sydney that Mr •Lis. I‘hilp, once of the "Auckland Star," but more recently editing the “Chinese Herald.” in Sydney, is writing a melodrama for Bland Holt, founded on the Pekin trouble. Mr Philp is qlso said to be writing the book of a pantomime for Harrv Rickards to produce at the Tivoli (his Christmas, with the English burlesque actress, Millie Barlow, as the principal boy.

Sydney is promised three Christmas pantomimes this year one at tire Lyceum, another at the Royal, and third at the Tivoli. Nellie Stewart as'.Tack the Giant Killer, will b< the great at.traetiion nt the Lyceum.

The .first pr oduction of the “Yeomen of the Guard" by the Auckland Amu teur Opera Club takes place to-morrow week, ami the chorus, principals and orchestra, are n.jw bolding three rehearsals. a week in older that this Sullivan s finest, work may be produced in the finest possible manner. The opera, which is Sullivan's chef d’oeuvre and his own favourite. approaches grand opera more nearly than any comic opera hitherto written, and is considered to be the high water mark of this class .of composition, many fine critics preferring it even to “Ivanhoe." from a musical point of view. The east chosen reads like a very strong .one, and competent judges say the production will suifuiss anything by, amateurs yet produced in ' Auckland. The dresses will he fresh, and Herr Dittmer has painted tvva scenes which are said to be admirable. Mr Arthur Towsey is conductor, and Mr Archdale Tayler stage manager, and both have had the cordial co-operation of all concerned in working hard to make the opera a sterling success.

Last week the Sydney University Dramatic Society produced Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People."

“Australian playgoers." says the Sydney “Morning Herald." "anticipate twelve months at least of unusual brightness and activity due to the magnitude of projected theatrical operations. The excitement has already begun in Melbourne. Mr. .1. C. Wiilianison is “now improving Her Majesty’s Theatre in that city at a cost of thousands of pouuds. Similarly Mr. George Musgrove has bad the Princess Theatre expensively redecorated. The; seats in the dress circle and stalls have been reupholstered in electric blue silk plush, the whole place lias been recarpeted, and the delicate scheme of colour has been carried out from designs by Mr. Phil. Goatcher." At the Princess Theatre grand opera prices have la-en introduced -dress circle 7/6; front stalls 6/, middle stalls ,S/, and back stalls 3/, with proportionate charges elsewhere.

On Thursday last (Karies Arnold concluded his Sydney scasop at the Palace Theatre, ami'the entire company were to have started humediatvly for Tasmania and New Zealand. “What Happened to Jones" lias

been an unprecedented success. The Sydney “Morning Herald" innocently speaks of Miss Aunie May Abbott’s otherwise tin- Georgia Magnet mysterious aud inexplicable exliiliition of a strength that is ap|iareuly herculean. Mr A. B. Patterson, the special war a-orrespondent of the Sydney “Herald." is now in Melliouriie. lecturing ou his war e*|s-rienees. Fitzgerald Brothers’ Circus opened its Melbourne seasou last week. On Saturday last .Miss Nance O’Neill made her first appearance in the nanif part of Sardou’s famous drama. "La Tosca,” at Her Majesty’s, Sydney. This tragedy of a human life was told in his own simple words by Verdi himself in a conversation with Giulio Ricordi. of the famous publishing house. which the latter faithfully pre wrved:—“But now terrible misfor tunes crowded upon me. At the beginning of April my child falls ill, the doctors cannot understand what is the mutter, and the dear little creature goes off quickly in his desperate mother's arms. Moreover, a few days after, the other child is taken ill. too. ami she. too. dies, and in June my young wife is taken from me by a most violent inflammation of the brain, so that on June 19 1 saw the third coffin carried out of my house In a very little over two months three |m rsons so very dear to me had disappeared for ever! 1 was alone, alone. My family had been destroyed; and in the very midst of these trials I hail to fulfil my engagement and write a comic opera! ‘Un giorno di Regno’ proved a dead failure: the music was, of course, to blame, but the interpretation hail a considerable share in the fiasco. In a sudden moment of despondency, eiuhitterd by the failure of my opera. 1 despaired of finding any comfort in my art. and resolved to give up composition." Thus Verdi himself describes this unparalleled affliction.

Mme. Fitlis was the victim of a very serious accident at Blackpool (Eng') recentlv. During the performance of “Savage South Africa” her horse caught its foot in a rope., came down heavily, and threw the lady, who severely hurt her spine.

A minister of the Free Kirk, Glasgow (says “Footlights") once availed himself of the occasion of Beerbohm Tree’s presence with his company in that city to fulminate Against the playhouse and all its works; but Mr Tree, in his farewell speech, scored off the reverend gentleman very neatly. “Last year,” said he. “1 found myself in the Highlands, and was escorted up the mountain by a singularly pleasant but plain-spoken guide. With the familiarity bred of solitude, he in quired, ‘What might you do for a living?’ ’Oh,' I replied. ‘I am on the stage.’ ‘Oh, ay!’ He paused, examined me again, and asked, ‘ls it the circus or the handbell ringers?' ‘No,’ I said; ‘ours is a much more serious business: we educate the classes and elevate the masses—Shakespeare and all that.’ ‘Oh. ay.’ he answerd; ‘Oh, ay! It seems to me ye’re leetle better than a meenister.’ ’’

When the “Belle of New York" was first played in New Zealand by the combined Bollard and Royal Comic Opera Companies, it was generally •oneeded that three parts stood prominently out. First there was I name them in the order of merit, not of importance in the cast —the Mamie Clancy of Miss Woodlock, a simply perfect piece of work unique in its conception of character and grace■fiil abandon. Next. May Beatty’s Violet - a singularly capable and versatile bit of work. Third. Whelan's Ichabod Bronson: compact of humour, of thought, and of infinite care to de tail. It was, however, obvious to the practiced eye that this was a replica. A casual question settled the point so far as this writer requirevl it. and it is satisfactory to note that Whelan has been pronounced by the Mel bourne critics the most perfect iniliiie yet seen in Australasia. That is what Whelan is. Aud a good mimic is worth u heap of monev uow-a-days. Whelan, il may be remembered, imitated Brough with success. Why he diil not imitate Holt jiasscs understanding (lie may have done it, but not when the writer saw him), for of all theatrical men Holt, with his giggling laugh and his skip, lays himself most open to obvious imitation.

Mi J F. Sheridsui concludes hi* .Melbourne weasoti on Saturday next wad then makes for Sydney, where il® opens a season iu the Koyal.