Music and Drama

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 1, 6 January 1909, Page 16

Music and Drama

At the time of going to press, ‘‘Miss Lan<iishire. Ltd.,” is still filling the Opera House to the very doors with audiences who laugh themselves well nigh into hysterics with Miss Baines and her contagious cachinnation. It is a most marvellous performance, and should certainly not lx? missed by anyone who has a chance seeing it. The new repertoire of songs introduced by Miss Baines is all excellent, and. as we said, last week, the farce is one of the very liest—owing to Miss Baines—that has ever come to the Dominion. & In a criticism of the Royal Welsh Male Choir, which is to open its New Zealand tour with a six nights' season at His Majesty's. Auckland, on Monday, 18th inst., the "Toowoomba Chronicle” (Queensland) of the 17th September heading the critique with ”A Really Regal Combination.” says: —“If anything to which the api»ellation royal is applied were as worthy <• the title the Royal Welsh Male Choir last evening proved themselves to be. the star of monarchy would certainly be in the ascendant. As the marvellous melody representing the united efforts of the party of 21 Cambrians from Treorchy, in South Wales, circulated and floated around the auditorium at the Town Ila*, it was perfectly easy to perceive why the Welsh so frequently i ime their boys David. For the Cymri are indeed a nation of sweet singers.’ ami are wonderfully ‘skilled with the harp.' It is not necessary to here recapitulate the splendid successes achieved by this choir in the United Kingdom and in the United States during the decade in which they have l»een performing abroad from their own loved land. The choral admirer’s bete noir— lack of newspaperspace —precludes a detailed description of the various items so keenly enjoyed; but the purity, the exquisite harmony. the menowness. the fluid facility, the delicacy of the gradation, the accuracy of the attack the eclat of the enunciation. and the robus* ami reverberating resonance of the company under the absolutely precise command of their conductor. Mr \V. Thomas, simply surpass the conception of the average Australian citizen. The part-singing was at times ethereal m its plaintiveness, and the excellent ensemble in voluminous choral was truly majestic. There was rhythm, ano tempo, ami expression which occasioned a pleasure that memory oft will restore. Those Welsh voices will long linger, and gently echo and re-echo in the listeners' ears, even after the singers arc again among their native vales and hills.’’ A tour of the Waikato dis-

triet is announced to follow Auckland dates, after which comes the South. The stars aside, the most interesting performance in “11 Trovatore’’ (the final production) says the “Bulletin’’was that of Florence Quinn, a young Aucklander who plays Azucena. She possesses a sweet mezzo. which has been carefully trained. She sings accurately and with feeling, though her voice is over light for the role. Her acting is far above the average grand opera standard. Ji The “Musical Courier" of New York says that the total receipts for “The Merry Widow” during the first year’s run in that city amounted to 812,000 dels. With the excess tribute delivered to sidewalk and hotel speculators,” runs the paragraph, “our publie paid about 1,000,000 dots, to hear the work. Ijehar and his librettists received 130.000 dot-, in royalties from New York. Over 3.000,000 copies of the famous waltz have been sold, and, together with other selections from the opera, brought 200,000d015. to the coffers of the publishers.” Henry W. Savage, it is added, believes that “The Merry Widow” will run four seasons in America, and that the various companies he has sent out on tour will earn a grand total .st Jt In the more humble walks of the songwriting or instrumental-scoring business, the fees paid for work are often incredibly low, says the "London Daily Telegraph.” Cases have been known in which the tee paid for scoring a song for an orchestra of fifteen instruments has been exactly 3 G. It is difficult to understand how expert service of this nature should reap such a meagre reward, but there the fact remains. The rapidity with which men occupying a good position in the profession can score a song for a full orchestra is quite wonderful. It is no uncommon thing for a skilled hand to turn out full band parts—opening symphony, interludes, and all—in less than a couple of hours. More surprising still, perhaps, is the rapidity with which new songs can be turned out under pressure. “Within a few hours,” said a music-hall star. “I could procure a topical song—words and music—on any subject you could mention. There would be the words, the melody, and the pianoforte accompaniment; and t couple of hours more, at the outside, would suffice for the orchestral arrangement and the copying out of all the band parts.”

Johnny Sheridan was just entering on a season at Newcastle with a reorganised company when he died sc suddenly. Miss Heba Barlow would have been leading lady, and the pieces tire familiar “Earl and the Girl*' and "The Lady Slavey.” Ji J* The Misses Amy and Dulcie Murphy have concluded their engagement with J ,C. Williamson. “The Melbourne Argus ” is enthusiastic over the pantomime “Jack and Jill.” Ji Jt “ There has never been a pantomime packed so full of clever, amusing, entertaining and beautiful things, so exquisitely done, as this year’s ‘Jack and Jill’ at Her Majesty's,” says the paper. “ The first performance on Saturday night was accepted by a house packed from floor to roof with an audience that grew more and more enthusiastic as the evening rolled on, to culminate in the final Palace of Jewels and bejewelled coryphees in evolution. The old nursery rhyme has not been lost sight of, but the embroideries and happenings, specialities and fripperies, that surround it. serve to fill out a Christmas show that will make the strongest appeal to juvenlie and adult eyes and senses alike. The music, too, is admirably adapted to the libretto, and carries it along from start to finish with a verve and swing that is all important in extravaganza, for that is what this year’s pantomime at Her Majesty’s really is.” An association has been formed, which includes some of the best-known names of the French stage. Thousands of pounds have been spent by them in the erection of a theatre equipped with every possible stage requirement, for the purpose of securing the most perfect cinematographic records of their performances. A series of dramatic pictures are to be prepared with the assistance of Sarah Bernhardt, Rejane, Coquelin, Le Barwy. Severin. Lambert and others, leading 'artists of the Comedie Francaise and Odeon Theatre. The sum of £2OOO has been paid by the enterprising Mr. West for the right of presenting these unique subjects in Australasia —the films to be shown in the chief centres and returned to Paris within the space of six months. X Ji Mr. William Anderson's attraction for Christmas in Melbourne is “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” Mr. Ernest Fitts, the wellknown baritone, is Uncle Tom. the piece being produced with all its musical features. Little Baby Watson, whose ability on the stage is already recognised, is Eva.

In regard to the cabled news of the destruction by fire of the Herald Square Theatre, New York, Mr. Henry Kolker, the American actor with the Williamson Star Dramatic Company, now in season in Wellington, stated that the building was over twenty years old, and one of the oldest on Broadway. It was held to be out of date by the authorities, who would only license it from year by date, instead of for an extended period, so that it was a theatre marked out for demolition in the near future. Mr. Kolker says that when he was in the States last, the theatre was in the hands of the Schuberts, a firm of managers who have several Broadway theatres under their control. “The Merry Widow” attained its 100th performance in Sydney before its season closed. The management issued a souvenir programme to mark the event, as this constitutes a record rum for Australia.