Music and Drama

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 22, 25 November 1908, Page 16

Music and Drama

To inuair lovers all over New Zealand who care for good music interpreted by a thoroughly good baud, the ‘‘Graphic” can warmly recommend ‘The Kilties,” who have just concluded an enormously successful season in Auckland, and who /Parted their tour of the Dominion (travelling southwards) on Monday. The band itself is, in our opinion, more pleasing than the famous Bosses o’ the Barn combination, and in addition to the band you have here sword dancing, a first-rate choir, and the really admirable Johnstone Troupe with their splendid performances ' of Irish and Scotch national dances, together with the sailors’ hornpipe. The solo playing of individual instrumentalists is alone worth attending the concerts to hear. Mr Culley, on the clarion-et-te. is particularly fine. In brief, the ‘‘Kilties” should not Imj missed by anyone who has a chance of hearing them, even, as is the case sometimes, many miles have to be ridden or driven into the nearest town for the purpose. Napier, according to a high authority, is one of the very best paying towns to visit in the North Island. The people don’t care what they sjamd, providing the show is worth it. and they are as discriminating a laxly of ’play and concert goers as yo i will find in Australasia. Such praise from a magnate of Bert Boyle’s salibrc is praise indeed. Bravo, Napier! Maskelyne and Devant will continue their tour of New Zealand next week. Up to the present they have been most successful, and are, at the time of writ-* ing, in the middle of their third week in Auckland. A? Napier Operatic Society can congratulate itself <m -The Gondoliers.” It was a very conspicuous success, ami the demand was so great that a final performance was arranged for Saturday last, for which the booking from Hastings was particularly strong. The next production by Napier amateurs will be eagerly looked forward to in Hawke’s Bay. The Orchestral Society (Auckland) give their fourth concert on Thursday, November 2»>th. 'the very heavy booking ensures a packed house. Hiving pictures, or cinematograph, shows have nm\ been brought as near perfection as seems humanly possible, so far as the films themselves are concerned, but on the manner in which these are reproduced patrons of this form of entertainment are still dependent on those to whom the said films are sold. The careless handling of the best of a Pathe Freres picture will render it a horror of Scratches, and, therefore, Hashes of light, while on tin* evenness and excellence of the lighting medium (‘verything depends to whether one spends a pleasant evening or acquires a splitting headache from partially blinded eyes. The World wide Pictures now at Puller’s, in Auckland, and presumably shortly to tour New Zealand, are the best yet exhibited in the dominion, and appear to the writer as alxmt the “last word” yet uttered in moving pictures in New Zealand. A greater proportion of travel and semieducative films could with advantage replace .Home of the comics, but there is Bo denying the latter “go” with the gods. Judging by the list of engagements that made up the programme tor the day on which I was fortuimtc enuiigh to meet Madame Crossley (writes a Wellington lady who interviewed the great contralto) the life of an artist is no mere sinecure. Two hours uaily *he spends with her .accompanist, learning new songs and practising old ones. On this particular day that amount of time was given to rehearsing concerted music with the memborn of her company, who attended nt 9 ofidoek in the rooming. At 11 o’clock visitors were iiahored into the room, and while entertaining tliese Madame C’ro-m--ley incidentally remarked that she was

going io a ball in the evening. An hour later she was listening to a couple of favoured girls singing, giving them her undivided attention, encouraging them, and freely offering advice. J» Jt “I am eagerly looking forward to my trip to New Zealand,” Madame Ada Crossley said, when she heard that I was a New Zealander, writes Miss Moran in the “Dominion.” "1 have not forgotten the warm welcome the people over there gave nie nn my last visit. Why, 1 was almost nervous about the choice of my songs, for I had no idea what kind of music would be preferred, but 1 found the musical taste there as cultured as that of any audience to which I have ever sung. Indeed, the general opinion is, that in matters of Art your country is thoroughly appreciative of high-class work." J» J» Madame Crossley is to be in Wellington in the middle of January. Dunedin is to be the first town visited in the Dominion, then Invercargill, with Oamaru and Timaru to follow. This time the New Zealand tour is to lie the most comprehensive one, including such towns as xishburton, Huwcra, "and Stratford. J* Jt Mr. Henry W. Norris, of Invercargill, who gained one of the exhibitions offered by the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music at last year’s examinations, left for London by the Rippinghani Grange. Mr. Norris will take up his studies in violin playing at the Royal Academy of Music, where he '.' ill receive a free course of tuition of two or three years’ duration. He is the first New Zealand student who lias gone to London as the result of the Associated Board’s free exhibitions, three of which are offered annually t<> candidates in Australasia. j» J* On a population basis, the play-going public of N.Z. is enormous, says Mr. Bert Royle. Take, for example, Dunedin, witfl a population of .>6,000. Any good company can play here profitably for two or three weeks. Compare this with Ballarat, with a population of 48,000, and the issue is decidedly in favour of the Otago capital. In Ballarat, with the same attraction, four or five nights at the outside would be a long enough stay. Again, the same sized towns as Dunedin in England would be enough for six nights only. This is attributable in a great measure to the better distribution of wealth, to the fact that there are no really poor people in the Dominion, and. further, to the artistic tastes of the public. Jt New theatres are not likely to be built in Christchurch or Dunedin for some considerable time to eorae, says Mr. Bert Royle, but in Auckland or Wellington a large new house will prubabjy be erected within the next two years. J» J» “Much curiosity exists amongst the-atre-goers all over New Zealand as to the personality off the stage of Miss Helen Raymond, who plays Mrs. Eicliorn —she of the spare, angular figure and strident voice. It will come as a delight, and possibly a surprise, to the public to know that Misa Raymond is an extremely pretty girl.” says the “Otago Daily Times,” "but so engrossed is she in her profession that she does not mind sacrificing her good looks for the sake of art, and no one wilt deny that, she succeeds to a remarkable degree. Miss Raymond has Iwen eight years on the stage, and was for some time with that prince of producers, Augustin Daly.” J* Mr. John Webber, who makes such a HiiceesH of the desperately idle and profoundly philosophical Stubbins in “Mrs. Wiggs," was for a long time associated with David Belasco. playing a leading character part in "The Girl from the Golden West.’’ a play which will be seen

here shortly, Air. Webber also supported. Miss Blanche Bates, a welt known American star actress, for severs] seasons. J» Jt ‘■Jack and Jill" is to !>e Mr Williamson’* new pantomime, which is to wipe the floor with both "Mother Goose” and "Humpty-Dumpty.” Written by J. Hickory Wood, the author of both its predecessors, and the uncrowned king of pantomime librettists, "Jack and Jill" .was last year the most successful of alt the English pantomimes. Australians will, of course, get a revised, enlarged and improved edition of it for Mr Wood himself has been commissioned to write it up specially for its new issue, and in addition a crowd of new ideas, novelties of all sorts and conditions amt new people collected by Mr J. C. Williamson and Miss Jennie Brenan during their respective tours of the world are to be introduced and worked into shape by that master hand at stage direction, Mr Gerard Coventry. J* J» "The Duchess of Dantzie," one of the finest examples of a genuine light opera, written by an English composer during this century, has been added to the Royal Comic Opera Company’s repertoire and rehearsals are already in progress under the direction of Mr Wybert Stamford. When it wxis first produced in London it was welcomed effusively by the public, who saw in Ivan Caryll’s music and Henry Hamilton's interesting and exciting book a change for the better in the lyric stage, which came to its full fruition with the advent of ‘ The Merry Widow.” j* je The Australasian rights of “Tbe King of Cadonia,” the musical comedy success of this year in .Loudon, have been secured by Mr J. C. Williamson. It has a book by Frederick Lonsdale with lyrics by Adrian Rose and Arthur Wimperis, while the fact that the score is by Sidney Jones guarantees melodic qualities. J* J« “Jack Straw,” the play by Somerset Maugham (the rights of which for Australia are the property of Mr J. C. Williamson). has just made a huge hit in New York, where John Drew in the s«ni>e part has made the success of his lite, according to late American files. Jt J» The chief a ini and object of many present-day teachers of voice production appears to be to instruct (!) their pupils in the art of singing in foreign languages (says an Australian writer). Students eagerly grasp at anything which will give them the appearance of having “studied," which will impress the uneducated, it matters not how imperfect their own knowledge of the language may be, or how crude their vocal qualifications. The results are often disastrous. Bonci. the greatest of living lyric tenors, says on this subject: — “It is injurious to the voice for young singers to study in more than one language. The essentials of artistic singing are purity of tone, purity' of style, and purity of diction.’’ JI jjt Australia’s well-known contralto, Kate Rooney, will most likely visit her native land next year. J» J» It is reported that tire municipal authorities of Vienna have acquired the house in which Franz Schubert, the past master of two movement pianoforte pieces, was bom, viz., “Nussdoferstrasse, No. 54, at. the sign of the Red Crab.” They intended opening a Schubert museum there last month, presumably on the lines of the Shakespeare museum at Stratford-on-Avon. J* It is asserted that singing is a corrective or the too common tendency to lung complaints- An eminent physician has observed that Germans are seldom afflicted with consumption, and this he attributes partly to the strength that their lungs acquire by exercise in vocal music, which constitutes an essential branch of their education. The East End of London has once more furnished a romance —thia time

one of song. . From strpet singing for pennies to the liriitiant palaces of pleasure and the salary of a Minister of the Crown in a few weeks is an unusual achievement, and the jump is all the more astounding, as it is made by an alien boy only 13 years of age, and scarcely able to speak our language. The story of little Mirzka Gynt and of his rescue from the East End gutters is certainly very remarkable. Miss Alice Lloyd was passing, and was struck with a voice in Petticoat Lane. She at once made inquiries about the boy, with an amazingly good result. He has since been in the provinces, and charmed every one. This week he sailed with his father to- New York, where he appears for the first of 2® weeks in America at a salary of £4O a week.