Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 6, 9 February 1910, Page 14

Music and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS. Subject to Alteration.) AUCKLAND—HIS MAJESTY’S. Jan. 24 to Feb. 14 — J. C. Williamson. February 21 to March 12—Carter the Magician. March 14 to 24 — Harry Rickards’ Company. March 26 (Easter Saturday) to April 16 — - Marlow Dramatic Company. •April 18 to 23—Amy Castles. April 28 to Mav 14—J. C» Williamson. May 16 to 29—Allan Hamilton. May 30 to June 18—Meynell and Gunn. June 20 to July 6—J. C. Williamson. July 7 to 16— Meynell and Gunn. July 18 to 31 Hugh J. Ward. August 1 to 13- J. C. Williamson. September I to 3 — Auckland Boxing Association. September 5 to 24—J. C. Williamson. September 26 to October 19 —Allan Hamilton. October 20 to November 4—Fred Graham. THE OPERA HOUSEIn Season —Fuller’s Pictures. ROYAL ALBERT HALL. Season- Hayward's Pictures. W E LT. INGTO X .—OP ERA II OUS E. Jan. 29 to Feb. 19.—J. C. Williamson. Feb. 21 to Feb. 25.—Black Family. Feb. 26 to March s.—Harry Rickards. March 26 to Apr il 16.—J. (’. Williamson. April 19 to April 27. Clarke and Meynell. April 28 to May 18. J. C. Williamson. May 19 to Juno 3.—J. C. Williamson. June 4 to June 18. —Allan Hamilton. July 4 to July 23.—Clarke and Meynell. August I to August 13.—Hugh Ward. Sept. 1 to Sept. 14. —J. C. Williamson. Oct. 7to Oct. 26. J. C. Williamson. Oct. 27 to November 5.- Allan Hamilton. Noe. 12 to November 24. Fred 11. Graham. December 24, six weeks’ season. J. C. Williamson. THEATRE ROYAL. Vaudeville (permanent). TOWN HALL. M »i< h 17. 18. 19.—Besses o’ th’ Barn Band. Feb. 19 to 26—Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Revival of *’ Sherlock Holmes.'’ HERLOCK HO’LMES” was an interesting revival that punctuated J two evening* of the J. C. Williamson New Dramatic Company’s season at His Majesty’s, Auckland, last week, it drew large audiences ooth nights. It is a matter of conjecture had Sir Conan Doyle never written itis remarkable series of short stories, •whether the play itself would have stood On its own merits or its undoubted popularity run to revivals. Holmes was in the first place a creation of the literary and not the dramatic imagination. In the pages of a book he was* infallible, mystic ami impenetrable. lie never •wholly emerged from the shadowland of liirt greatness. It was the imagination of the reader fired by the skill and originality of the author, that made Sherlock Holmes a famous character. He hovered on the borderland of reality veiled in the shadowy mystic atmosphere that his literary creator delighted to present him. His secrets were never laid bare, the phenomena of his mind never subjected to searching analysis Over all the acuteness of his observation and deduct ion, his fearlessness and power of intellect, there was the mystic personality that held the reader fascinated. Plunged into the glare of the footlights, and personified amid the realities of the stage, one sees only the man and misses the mystic. He lives in a world of stirring incident it is true. The vigour and daring of his personality when presented Iby ft great actor are inspiring. The dramatic conception of the man is big. Hut the greater half is gone He refuses to be drawn from the literary seclusion of the original. Sherlock Holmes, the mystic vanishes before the footlights. | The characterisation of the play apart from the dominating figure does not always appear strong even though it is not lacking in merit and skill. Dr. Watson pliers no vigour of personality nor wide range of human qualities such as one might look for in the friend of the remarkable character that Holmes was. Billy, his servant, certainly as he was presented by Mr. Hedge Carey, was easier to identify with caricature than realistic impersonation. Professor Mortality as “lite Napoleon” of crime, suggested more the brutalised criminal, coarse lit craft, and intellect, rather than ti tiiind of superior devilish ingenuity, •lopping at no (crime — a 'brain

The Triumph of Romance and Illusion.

never at a loss for genius and daring to conduct the largest criminal organisation in Europe, much less plan the defeat and destruction of Holmes. Larabee and his wife are types more conventional than original. In fact it may be said without detrimental intent that practically all the characters wore upon them the unmistakably literary impress of the author. Some of them appear vivid -sketches from life between the covers of a novel, but on the stage as human beings they are neither convincing nor profound. The staging was excellent, the dark curtain both at the beginning and close of the acts being a distinctly artistic innovation Of the casts, Mr. Thomas Kingston as Holmes, and Miss Ethel Warwick as Madge Larabee, were readily conspicuous. Mr. Kingston’s interpretation on (he whole was very good as colonial standards go. Occasionally ho sacrifices restraint to theatricality, but none the less his talents are consistent, vigorous and intelligent. Miss Warwick made the most of a part where neither dialogue nor character are strongly drawn. She is vivacious and pretty, 'whilst her impersonation was full of quality. Mr. Harry Plimmer as Laraibee verged on the melodramatic at times, ibut lie was restricted by the limitations of the dialogue. Mr. Gregan McMahon invested the personality of Professor Moriarity with individuality and strength, but it was more than probae ibility that had Mr. Titheradge appeared in the part the representation would have been more human than melodramatic. The impersonation of Alice Faulkner by Miss Ethel Gordon had its meritorious moments, but was capable of more sympathetic treatment.

Setting the current of one’s ideas directly against what circumstance and custom fix in us as habitual modes of thought, is in everyday affairs a dangerous practice. It stamps a man as revolutionary, sometimes catastrophic. But when the process is applied to the comedy stage and an inverse order of things takes place behind the footlights in diametric opposition to the accepted and conventional, we are convulsed with laughter. The ease in point is “ Brewster’s Millions,” which the J. C. Williamson New Dramatic Company revived to a delighted and tickled audience at His Majesty’s, Auckland, on Saturday. The spectacle of any sane mortal cursing his luck because an outside horse he has backed heavily wins on an outside price, or demanding to know what' the classic realm is wrong that stocks into which he lias plunged badly’ should go leaping up point upon point, is grotesquely inhuman. Those who live in the world and work and do not, perchance, own shares in the Wailii got d mine, the Auckland Tramways, dr sundry gas companies, get a very bad habit of thinking about accumulating cash. ' It dominates the life of the million the wide world over. We of that million are vassals to the great monster of necessity. It puts forth its tentacles, and we are surrounded by economic problems of rent, food, firing, employment, and all that. The bulk of the million do not want to bother their heads one bit about such commonplace realities. Life was surely made for better things than that. So to the theatre, into the radiance and glitter of the footlights. The beautiful women and the handsome sonorous voiced men lure them kindly away from problems personified in unctuous landlords and greedy gas collectors. They gleefully embark in pursuit of illusion instead. What is the reality of any bony faced milkman demanding cash on the fifth of the month to the glamour of youth and maid reclining on an imaginary yacht in a limelit Mediterranean, talking of love and marriage like the author of “John Halifax. Gentleman?” What matters the ease-hardened rate chaser, beside such a fantastic creation as Brewster spending at the rate of £7OO a day. and becoming tragically desperate in the necessity of knocking down '£250,000 in less than twelve months? Marie Corelli and with her others, frequently bewail the destruction of roinaifce and illusion in this age of men, machines, materialism, mothers, landlords, and bookmakers. Many of our

fair spinsters are reputed to no longer sigh for an age of vanished chivalry, with its real lace sleeves instead of imitation lace curtains. Many of our youths are said to discard Shelly and. the Florentine Beatrice for football, and mixed bathing. Yet where is romance and illusion more keenly sought, more eagerly demanded, than on the stage and the animated picture sheet. All our turgid realities are engulfed in such a night, when the delirium of “Brewster’s Millions” stalks from the wings and shakes the multitude with laughter, or the romance of its lovemaking is left to tell its own sweet tale above the soft' sympathetic throbs of a hidden orchestra.

All this in passing to demonstrate that a public whose conception of the stage is based on flimsy and garish sex motives, interwoven in an unending succession of comedies and farce, have been denied the opportunity of grasping the deeper side of the stage. So long as opportunity is denied, realisation is impossible. There were moments in “Sherlock Holmes,” for instance, intended to be profound and serious, that sections of ths audience considered it' the proper thing to laugh at as tho’ a moment of shrieks in -comedy had arrived. There were a number of people who, on the other hand, understood the reality of those moments and endeavoured in a burst of remonstrance to silence the loud laugh, but it was no good. Empty vessels truly make the most sound. The theatrical public of New Zealand have yet to realise that all plays are not comedies and that sometimes from laughable and grotesquely amusing productions like “Brewster’s Millions,” it is impossible to avoid a very different set of observations than what ordinary journalistic custom dictates. With this apology, the rest can pass.

The Future of the Music Hall. Mr. Arthur Bourchier, who is the latest actor of distinction in London to respond to the call of the variety theatre or music hall, is delighted with the result of his experiment. The Palace audience recently greeted Mr. Bourehier, at the production of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones’ tragedy, “The Knife,” with a welcome that his own audiences at the Garrick Theatre would find hard to equal.

“My debut at the Palace,” said Mr. Bourchier subsequently, “was altogether a delightful experience for me, and the enthusiasm of the audience on Monday night I take as a happy omen for my future appearances on the music hall stage.

“There was only one thing which at first rather disconcerted me, and that was the glow of hundreds of cigarettes and cigars, which showed up plainly in the auditorium. It gave the impression that I was playing to a vast concourse of glowworms.” Mr. Bourchier takes an interesting and suggestive view with regard to the steady encroachment of the music halls into what has hitherto been the sphe.se of legitimate drama. “The audience,” he said, “struck me as being very similar to the audiences that attend the plays produced on the ‘legitimate’ stage. I am convinced that the people who visit the halls appreciate the merits of Serious drama, a-nd that the influx of ‘legitimate’ actors to the West End vaudeville theatres is greatly due to the growing demand of the public for really good crystallised drama.

“In past years managers were under the false impression that the audiences of music halls were inferior to those who attended the drama. In many eases, too, actors who have crossed over laboured under this idea, with the result that comparatively few plays on the music hall stage have achieved really great success. “The West End public want good stuff and good acting, whether it be in the music hall or the theatre.” The music hall engagement will not affect Mr. Bourchier in his capacity as an actor-manager. The story of “The Knife” is the tragedy of Sir Mark Ridgway, surgeon. Sir Mark is about to perform a perilous operation on his friend Archie Kingsway, and a few minutes before the operation he discovers that Kingsway is his wife’s lover. Yet he uses all his skill and saves the man’s life. That is all, hut in twenty minutes nre packed emotions sufficient for three hours. The difficulties of compression are ev idenl, and Mr. .Tonet has been forced to the use of obvious stage arti-

fice to hurry the situations, but the characterisation is excellent, and there is no false sentimentality.

The Coming Opera Season. Signor Hazon, who is to be the musical director of the J. C. Williamson Italian Grand Opera tour, that is due in New Zealand about Easter-tide, is expected to arrive at Fremantle next Sunday, while the principals are due to leave Genoa next week. The company gives promise of being an interesting and attractive one. Mdlle. Bel. Sorel and Mdlle. Eily Barnato, the two leading sopranos, have both a wide experience in their profession. The former is a young Frenchwoman, who has appeared in grand opera in leading centres in Europe, and the latter has to her credit an undoubted success which she achieved at the Metropolitan Opera House >ll New York about a year or so ago. Another member of the company will be Mdlle. Maria Pampari, whose reputation as a singer in Italy is established. Of the tenors, Signor Zerga has earned for himself a place of high standing in Berlin, as well as in Italy, while Mr. E. 11. Blayney is a young Englishman well known and appreciated in the Italian world of music. Of the baritone. Signor Zanelli, Signor Hazon speaks in very high terms, saying that he is a singer of delightful poise, breadth, and sensibility. The chorus is already well advanced, and by the time Signor Hazon arrives they should be quite familiar with their work. The operas will include Puccini’s “La Boheme” and “Madame Butterfly”—two of the greatest Covent Garden successes in recent yerirs. They are quite modern, and both very charming.

A Child’s Romance. A thirteen-year-old composer of European fame. Master Moritz Lutzen, lifts been so delighted with the dancing of Miss Mary Glynne. a child actress at the Strand Theatre, London, that he has written the music of a new pantomime specially for her. Master Moritz Lutzen told an inter viewer recently- how he came to write the music of this new rendering of “Cinderella.”'

“I went to see Miss Mary Glynne—tha lit’tle girl who dances and acts so prettily- in ‘The Merry Peasant’—arid at onee I wanted to compose something to match her dancing,” said the young composer.

“I was in a box with Mr. Austin Fryers, the author, and 1 told him what I wanted to do. He said he would write the ‘book’ of a pantomime if 1 would write the music. “So I went home and did it. Then 1 brought the music to the manager of the Strand Theatre here, and told him Miss Mary Glynne would make it very real and good. And he smiled. “When he heard the music, however, he agreed, and I am proud to have been able to write for my girl friend.

“That is all there is to tell,” said tha boy-composer simply. “I have been writing music since I was five years old and it is great fun.’’ The pantomime was to have been given three Special matinees a few days after the mail left.

Master Lutzen was born in Birmingham, and has been educated in England He is the son of Hungarian parents, an< has in his brief experience been commanded to play before several crowned heads, and onee, at Professor Loubet's request, conducted the band of the National Guard.

“ Fallen Fairies”—The GilbertGerman “ Success.” For some inexplicable reason, the cable man in London informed us that the Gilbert-German opera, “Fallen Fairies’ 1 at the time it was produced at the Savoy- Theatre, London, was a great success. The critic of the “Musical Standard” puts a very different complexion on the piece. “With every desire to welcome a success at the Savoy,” he says, “it must reluctantly be confessed that this new opera, written by W. S. Gilbert, and composed by Edward German, makes entertainment which is very far from brilliant. Expectancy ran high last Wednesday night, for it is a long time since a new production was so extensively paragraphed and boomed beforehand as this was, and, in addition, the names of Gilbert and German naturally arouse,! great interest. We were, however. doomed to considerable disappointirienti, and although a certain leading dqily was pleated to head its criticism df the wrtrk, ‘Brilliant success,’ thia

must be taken as an expression of what we all hoped for, rather than a statement of what was actually achieved. ‘Fallen Fairies’ is, indeed, dull, and the credit (or otherwise) for this must be given to the author, for the story is almost completely lacking in interest. The dialogue and the lyrics are well written, of course, being Sir William Gilbert’s, they could scarcely be otherwise— but, at the same time, they are too obviously Gilbertian, and lack originality. Perhaps we have become too familiar with the Gilbertian manner, for, now a days, one certainly is apt to think it old-fashioned and lacking in humour; doubtless its imitators have done much to destroy its novelty. At all events, there is no doubt that it is owing to the lack of interest in ‘the book’ that ‘Fallen Fairies’ falls so flat. The music on the whole is melodious, although it is by no means full of inspiration, and quite frequently it is of a very obvious type, and might have been written by anyone. The fact that Sir William would not sanction a male chorus must have handicapped Mr. German severely, and it does seem to have been a ridiculous stipulation. There is absoutely no reason why a male chorus should not have been introduced, and it would certainly have improved the show. In the circumstances, Mr. German has done extremely well for the chorus, and, moreover, the chorus does extremely well for Mr. German. It is a pretty chorus, and it sings with delightful ease and freshness. During the first act it did not leave the stage, and that was something to be thankful for.”

£2O 000 for Twenty Concerts in Australia Declined. Signor Caruso has declined an offer of £ 20,000 for twenty concerts in Australia. The offer was made him by Mr. Harry Rickards, who controls most of the variety theatres of the Commonwealth, and who has returned to Sydney after a six months’ search for novelties in the northern hemisphere. Mr. Rickards went to Blackpool specially to hear Caruso, and was “petrified with astonishment and delight.” He found that the prince of tenors was tied down by engagements for fully five years ahead. “Chantecler”—The Famous Barnyard Play.' M. Edmond Rostal, the famous poet and playwright, discusses his much-talked-of play, “ Chantecler,” in which the cock is the hero and the other occupants of a farmyard the subsidiary characters. “How did the idea come to me?” said the poet. “By chance, during a stroll in the country. It was a little while after I had issued ‘L’Aiglon.’ I was ill, and had gone to C'ambo to recuperate quietly. Near the house I then occupied was a farm. One day, during a walk, I entered.

“ I can still see that farmyard—joyous, full of light, and peopled by anima's. There were all kinds of them there—a dog, some ducking hens, some rabbits. There was a jackdaw. There was, on the wall, a cage with birds in it. All these creatures seemed occupied in thinking and saying a thousand things, and suddenly the cock entered. General, emotion! One would have said that the entrance of the eock became the subject of fresh conversation. Really, they gossiped about the cock. . . And then, I do not know why, all those animals appeared to me as the characters of a possible drama, a drama of ideas, of feelings, with the farmyard as its setting. I saw the piece before I had begun it. . . “ It is now about five years since I finished ‘ Chantecler.’ I composed and wrote it as quickly as any other of my pieces. (By finishing a piece ‘ quickly ’ I mean finishing it in a year. I was delayed this time by a family bereavement which struck me very sharply seven years ago. For nearly a year ‘Chantecler’ was interrupted, but in the aggregate the work did not, whatever they may say, take me longer than my others. Besides, I should not know how to work very slowly.” Poet’s "State of Grace.”

“ And, of course, you work upon a scenario?” M. Rostand was asked. “ A scenario ? Never ! There never was a scenario of ‘ Chantecler,’ and never in my life have I worked upon a scenario. Draw out a plot, pen in hand! Map out for oneself the programme of a self-im-posed task! That would not be to write a piece; it would be to follow a profession, to do a duty. “1 wait for what I call the ‘state of

grace,’ that is to say, the moment when what I have thought can be written. Then I set myself to work, and I ‘ exe-' cute.’ I ‘ execute ’ quickly, as quickly as I can: I paint with fresh colours, and when it is finished, well, without hurrying any more I begin to wait again for the ‘state of grace.’ ‘‘The long delays in beginning the rehearsals of ‘Chantecler’ were due to the fact that the doctors forbade me to leave Cam bo. “So many unhappy accidents came upon my work that a superstitious fear haunted me. I remember when we were getting ready to leave Cambo I said to my wife: ‘You will see; something is going to happen to us.’ . . . And Coquelin died.” M. Rostand does not make any mention of a definite date for the production of his play, which has achieved the feat of becoming world-famous before it has been produced. “ Brewster’s Millions.”

The revival of “Brewster’s Millions” at His Majesty’s, Auckland, by the J. C. Williamson New Dramatic Company, led by Miss Ethel Warwick and Mr. Thomas Kingston, proved a lively and laughable interlude for that section of audience which still delights in comedy. It is an original line to reverse the accepted order of things and put a man under the necessity of spending a fortune in order to become a millionaire. The author has worked it up into four acts of continuous and exceptionally humorous comedy. The company presented it With plenty of vitality and left no moments to drag behind the rest. The staging was capita], the scene representing a yacht in a storm at sea being quite a remarkable and unusual piece of stagecraft. The company follow on Thursday night with “The Silver King,” in which playgoers will once more be given an opportunity of seeing Mr. George Titheradge in his great part as "Wilfred Denver.”

Stray Notes. Under the title of “Der Tapfere Soldat,” “Arms and the Man,” which is to be the next piece at the Sydney Theatre Royal, was set to music, and produced in Vienna some months ago with great success. During the preparation of the lyrical version, Bernard Shaw wrote to a friend, remarking that the progress was as rapid as could be expected, in view of the fact that Oscar Strauss wanted to write all the libretto, and he (Shaw) wanted to compose all the music. The Nellie Stewart’ Company, on their return to Melbourne, will be re-organis-ed, and begin rehearsals of J. M. Barrie’s comedy, “What Every Woman Knows.” The latter is to be produced at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, at Easter, and the probabilities are that it will come to New Zealand later. Says the London “Daily Express”:— “Miss Minnie Tittell-Brune, the young Australian actress, was given a splendid reception last night, when she appeared as Claire Forster in The Woman in the Case’ at the New Theatre. She had not previously played in England. It was not an easy task for a newcomer to take up a part made famous by Miss Violet Vanbrugh, but that Miss TittellBrune accomplished it with complete success was shown by the fact that she was recalled repeatedly after the second and third aets. There is no doubt that her clever rendering of the part will ensure added popularity for the play.”

Mr George Willoughby has now practically completed the selection of the English members of the farcical comedy company which is to tour Australia and New Zealand under the management of Rupert Clarke and Clyde Meynell, presenting "The Night of the Party” and “Mr Preedy and the Countess.” Sir Willoughby has engaged David James as his leading comedian, who is a son of the famous David James, who for years was associated with “Our Boys,” which had the longest run of any play on the stage; Hugh C. Buckler, who played leading part with the B. and F. Wheeler Company in South Africa, and until recently

a member of Sir Herbert Tree’s Company, will be the leading juvenile; Miss Amy Willard, who was with Miss Nellie Stewart when “Sweet Nell of Old Drury” was first staged in Australia; Miss Mab Paul, one of the beautiful actresses rm the London stage: and Miss Violet Paget, who has been leading lady with George Giddens, who played “Are You a Mason” throughout Australia, will also be in the company, in addition to some others. A

comprehensive tour of New Zealand has been arranged. In David James, the leading comedian of the George Willoughby Farcical Comedy Compan * New Zealand playgoers will see an actor whose career has been as varied and interesting as it has been notable for good work. For a considerable period he has been associated with Sir Charles Wyndham at the Criterion Theatre, London, where he created parts by Henry Arthur Jones, Haddon Chambers, R. C. Carton, Sir F. C. Burnand and others. He is not only a clever comedian, but a fine a’ctor in “straight” comedy roles, and is altogether a elever and intellectual actor, with a fine personality that makes itself felt over the footlights immediately he makes his entrance. His very appearance is sufficient to bring a smile, for his keen eyes, with a constant twinkle in them, immediately invite one to assume a receptive spirit which lends itself to a thorough enjoyment of the play. Mr James, it is said, has played more comedy roles on the London stage than any other comedian, with the exception of Mr Grossmith, The only theatre visited by Lord Kitchener during his visit to Australia was the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, which he attended the first night of Clarke and Meynell’s Oscar Asche-Lily Brayton Company, in “Count Hannibal.” The FieldMarshal applauded considerably throughout the play, and at its conclusion asked to be introduced to Oscar Asehe and Lily Brayton, to whom he said: "I have never seen a.finer production in my life. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I could come and see it every night.”