Music and Drama

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 10, 2 September 1908, Page 16

Music and Drama

: Tho welcome which awaits Bland Holt •nd his ever charming wife all over New Eoaland will roar round the heads of the actor manager and his company on this evening week In Auckland, when they Open at His Majesty’s Theatre with “The Qreat Millionaire.’’ That the ovation will transcend anything dreamed of in the history of the stage in New Zealand, tie? writer has not the “slightest possible doubt,” for “the Holts” are the idols of the entire community of theatregoers, and their name and the splendour of their productions has been a tradition amongst New Zealanders for twenty-five years or more. The Holts have, moreover, in the opinion of New Zealanders, sot the standard for spectacular melodrama, and in speaking of other fine shows one has always heard the comparison, “something in tho style of Bland Holt, but”—and then a most expressive silence. Yes, certainly the "Graphic” expects to be thrilled by the welcome, to which, by the way, it adds its own. <5» Mr. Chas. Saunders immensely benefitted by tho rest and change of air ho enjoyed at Rotorua, and his concerts in Auckland were as triumphant a success artistically as they were financially satisfactory. Tho famous tenor was in splendid voice, and aroused such scenes of enthusiasm as have probably rarely been experienced at any concerts, save those at which he sang some twelve or thirteen years since, and at the everinemorable recitals of Madame Dolores. Tho choral concert, when Mr. Saunders took the title role of “Samson,” was attended by an enormous audience, who were worked up into a state of extraordinary excitement. Of the ballad concerts the same story has to be told, and • violent endeavour was made to keep Mr. Saunders on th-e stage till “the wee ema’ ’ours.” He obliged with many encores till close on eleven on both occasions, and when at last he did “strike,” did so with such good humour that the audience departed enraptured. .« d* Margaret Anglin has a sister in her company who plays under the name of Eileen Warren. Strangely enough, she had an invitation to visit Australia with tho William Collier Company some time back, but engagements ahead would not permit of an acceptance, which would have meant her earlier acquaintance with colonial audiences than her more famous sister. The scenes of “Ski-Hi,” a musical comedy by Charles Alphin, are laid on a mythical planet, reached by balloons, and much of the fun is caused by the exchange of “undesirable citizens” beta ■een the earth and other planets. J* Jt A small playhouse, noted for the bloodcurdling pieces performed there, has received a work wherein Parisians are promised am execution so true to life that the audience will see the head of the condemned man full into the basket of the guillotine. It is not probable that the work will ever see the footlights, for the manager has received a letter threatening him with an unpleasant demonstration if he goes too far in his attempts to please the degenerate and hysterical portion of the Paris publie. J* “The serious playgoers,” .says Georga Alexander, “are represented by about oneeighth of the general playgoers, and the other seven-eighths want only frivolous entertainments.* I wish I could afford always to cater for the saints.” J* M Once more Sir William Gilbert hashad to bow his thanks from the stage of the Savoy for the enthusiastic reception accorded to a revival of “H.M.S. Pinafore," and the last welcome was as warm as ever. The audience, very many of whom were unborn when this delightful Gilbert and Sullivan work was first given to the world just thirty years ago, ■bowed their delight throughout.

“Simple Simon,” one of the new’ plays acquired by Mr. Herbert Flemming, was an event of the Adelaide visit of his company, as earlier announced in this column. The “Simple Simon” of the new piece, which was written by Mr. Murray Carson and Miss Nora Keith, is one Simon Strange, a millionaire, who falls in love with Gladys, the daughter of Lady Caroline Gwyn-Stanley. Gladys has been engaged to Captain Villiers, an amusing ne’er-do-well, but when her mother realises that the millionaire means to propose, she induces her <■ daughter to drop Villiers, and to deny that there was anything more than friendship between them. Simon loves her very much, and when he discovers that he has been deceived he vows to be revenged. Ha marries her, takes her away on an elaborate honeymoon, and makes her love him, and then tells her that all the time he has known that she is a liar, and that he himself has nothing but contempt for her. After this comes the great “scene” of the piece, when the woman, feeling that she has been wronged far more than she has wronged her husband, turns on him and makes him feel that he really is the contemptible cad which most of the audience probably realised he was long before. In the last act reconciliation comes with the fall of the curtain. M J* Alfred Woods and Maud Williamson have been playing “The Arabian Nights,” “Hands Across the Sea,” and similar pieces throughout a South African tour. d* In a country town in Queensland a tough character refused to move away from the canvas tent of Wirth Bros.’ show the other day. He was told one of the big elephants might kick him. He said: “If yer talk to me like that, or one of the elephants kicks me, I’ll wipe out the whole of Wirths’ Show.” The big man that drives the pegs in the ground for the tent took his big wooden mallet to where the impression showed in the canvas. Swinging the mallet round two or three times, he let drive at the part of the shadow. The “rough” shot about 12ft. through the air, and, after alighting, started to run up the street. He told a man he met that “lie thought the elephant must have kicked him.” It was a great laugh for all except the tough man. A lively article on the recent theatrical season in New York appears in the “Munsey- Magazine’’ for July. In it we learn that “Irene Wycherley,” produced by Miss Viola Allen, failed to enjoy’ its London prosperity, that all New York saw of Shakespeare was a few Saturdaynight performances of “Hamlet” by- Mr Sot’nern, and a fortnight of a comparatively- unknown actor named Henry- Ludlowe, in “The Merchant of Venice” and “Richard III.”; that Henry Arthur Jones’s play’, “The Evangelist,” fell flat; that “John Glay’de's Honour” only ran a fortnight, and “then went to the warehouse.” “Its big hit in London, where it ran for months at George Alexander’s theatre, did not make New York accept the disagreeable family relations embodied in the plot.” That Miss Billio Burke at once stepped into the affections of American playgoers as the heroine in “My Wife”; that Mr Charles Rann Kennedy’s play, “The Servant in the House,” throbs with vital force and made the only hit for British-made drama in the New York season; that “The Merry Widow” is still being played to packed houses at the Ne-w Amsterdam, and will go on to Christmas; that “Toddles” was a complete failure; and that “the most noteworthy offering of the Hippodrome’s year was Onaip, whose act is a truly wonderful trick with a piano played by the performer while apparently seated on nothing, himself and instrument meanwhile whirling around at lightning speed.” By way of general statements, the author of the article, Mr Matthew White, jun., informs his readers that “Ne<w Y’ork audiences are not partial to spoken verse at the playhouse"; that a little swagger Is refreshing after “the overwrought emotion and banal chitchat of certain modern examples of playwriting”; and that it was “straying from the beaten path, not hugging it

close, that brought fame and royaltioa to the playwrights who won” during the season. JU Jt Mr. Chari s Saunders has previously visited New Zealand, having been here in the lust decade, when he had not reached his present eminence. He hoed a rough row on his return to London, and for four years had scarcely an engagement. Then came success as great as his ample self (he tips the bea mat something over twenty stone), and with it a plethora of engagements. He began his professional career by singing hymns in his native town for pennies, but it was twenty years after that before he took to the concert platform. He was engaged in an office in London, and one day a colleague who had heard him sing, told his brother that “Charles ought to have his voice trained.” “Hush!” said the brother in subdued tones, “he might hear you, and if he did there would be no saving him.” However, “he” did hear, and as his brother prophesied, there was no saving him. It was, so to express it, “putting the match to the gunpowder.” At the first opportunity Charles Saunders was off to a professor of music, and before long he was practising day and night, until launched upon the concert platform. Miss Rosina Buckmann, tl»e Wairarapa Miss Rosina Buckmann, soprano, left Wellington the other day to join the National Opera Company at Melbourne. J® Gounod's “Faust” is now being produced in Sydney with Madame Slapoffski as Marguerita and Mr. Andrew Black as Mephistophelea. The other members of the Sydney cast will be:—Siebel, Miss Florence Quinn; Faust, Mr. H. Neil; Martha, Miss N. Rosenwax; Valentine, Mr. W. Cox; Wagner, Mr. J. Cruickshank. The city of Vienna has purchased the house in which Frans Schubert was born, and intends to preserve it in its present condition as long as possible. The price paid was £4400. Caruso has appeared in a new role in Paris. Instead of being “ interviewed” he has interviewed himself in the columns of the “ Matin.” The result is an amusing contribution from the pen of a ready writer. “ I thought for an instant, per Bacco, that I wouldl sing this article in the hall of the “ Matin.” It seems that I have a strong voice, and it would have carried far, but, on reflection, it occurs to mo that it will carry still farther if I write the article. And thu 8 Caruso, who has sung so often with a feather in his hat, will sing this time with a goose quill in his hand.” It is in this way that he opens his article, and then, proceeding to talk about liimself as one who knew, as people said, “ how to touch the heart through the ears,” contineus: —■ “ There is only one trouble that I adore; it is that which waylays me on the stage. lam seized with nervousness, and the anguish alone makes my voice what it is. There is no personal merit in it. This fever betrays itself to the public by mysterious effects which move it, but let it be known that Caruso on the boards is not responsible for the pleasure he may give to others, and that everything is the fault of that redoubtable deity called ‘ le trac ’ (stage fright). It may be believed that each evening I suffer from this fright increasingly, for people say to me regularly, ‘ You have never sung so well as to-day. ” Inreminiscent vein Caruso recalls that his old master who taught him the rudiments of his art predicted a brilliant career. “ You will earn 200 francs a month,” he said “ when you have grown a little.” Verdi had less confidence in him. “When I created Feodor at Milan he asked me the name of the artists, and when he heard mine he interrupted, ‘Caruso! They tell me he has a fine voice, but it seems to me that his head is not in its place.’ ”