Music, and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 8, 23 August 1911, Page 14

Music, and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS. (Dates subject to alteration.) AUCKLAND -HIS MAJESTY’S. August 14 to September 2—“ The Arcadians.’’ September 4 "Our Miss Gibbs.” October *.» "The Woman in the Case’’ Company. November 25 The Gay Gordons." OPERA HOUSE. Aug 23 to 31 Sousa’s Band. WELLINGTON OPERA HOUSE. August 17 -26 J. C. Wiliamson. Pantomime. "Jack and the Beanstalk." August 28. September 4 -Florence Baine Comedy Company. September 1130 Clarke and Meynell’s “Gay Gordon’s" Company. October 11 25 J. C. Williamson, “Our Miss Gibbs" Company. November 3-16 Clarke and Meynell. December 23, January 16—J. U. Williamson. T-eiting Down New Zealand—A Protest. / y'Y J Til the successful promotion <■ I of a big dramatic trust in Australasia and the memory of "Jack and the Beanstalk” fresh in mind, a few words are due this week about the system in vogue of "letting down” the cast of productions in 'Australia when it comes to sending them to New Zealand. New Zealanders are asked to pay the same prices for productions as Sydney and Mellxuirne are, and it is therefore only fair that the public should *ee the various pieces which come along a* they are cast in Sydney or Melbourne. Unfortunately, dramatic management in Australia discriminate-, between the New Zealand public and those of the Australian cities. Their action is readily construed to mean (hat the standard of intelligence is lower in this country than Australia, and therefore it is only a wa-te to semi all the leading artists specially imported to make the sufee>-. of the Australian production. This view, if not altogether unmerited, is barely fair to the management. Their stock reply is that first-class artists engaged’ in England can only be brought out for a limited time ay. six months —as they have already booked engagements at Home which mu.-J be filled. The result i-., in the case of success, that Australia absorbs the whole of their time, whilst New Zealand has to put up with more or les> mediocre “underFtudie--.’’ or >oine stag? - worn "popular favourite” utterly unsuited to the part. The glaring part of the whole business is that New Zealand has to pay full rates—artist or no artist. Tin* pretext put forward by the management is rather thin. J he reason wh\ New' Zealand is made the dumping ground for the understudy is pimply one of the immediate results of debasing the theatre wholly and solely to commercial profit, which means, T gather, anything from twenty to forty per cent. Sending a company to New Zealand means a certain loss of time and expense which is readily repaid if tin* tour is in any way a success. But there the risk, and. therefore, if a company i- doing only moderately well on ‘the other side”—that is to say— making ‘’satisfactory profit”-—no well-paid artist is going to l»e sent to New -Zealand. We apparently can only expert to see the original cast when .a company is not "making good” in Sydney or Melbourne. The whole chance of this country seeing 11. B. Irving depends entirely upon that xystem. which, whilst admirably adapted to the demands of the managerial pocket, is but small comfort to the New Zealand public. It is time, therefore, w h direct competition in process ot Iwing strangled, a protest was made throughout this country against the theatre going public being treated at a different level to the public of Melbourne *or Sydney. Way *o Protest. A mere word of pro Test means nothing mile** it ran be backed up by public action. There are (wo way in which it can be brought home to the theatre magnates of Australasia that thw country runnot go on living exploited in this fashion. The first method lies in tlm bauds of the Newspaper ors’ j\s soeiation themselves. Joint action by the newspa|>erii in making something

like adequate and at the same time intelligent criticism of "TriisTt methods” will speedily give, the public an unmistakable indication whether to give or withhold their support. There is a.second method yvhich has been forced upon the American populace by the utterly commercialised Theatrical Trust that has polluted the drama in the States. An .association of 'citizens is formed in leading centres, and they appoint several good judges to attend otginal productions. The report of these judges—usually men and women of good standing and culture —is immediately communicated to the members by post, both in the city where the play is produced, and other centres where sister organisations have been formed. By this means any attempt to let down a production or to foist a poor piece on to the public by strenuous advertising is speeolly made public. There is always a method of effectively combating monopolies, but its success depends entirely on the public making use of it. Monopolies—or rather the individuals who organise them for the sake of increased gain and satisfac-

tion of human g: d —exist by public support. and if only a lair part of the public withdraw their support the diminished profits thereby speedily bring home to the promoters the fact they cannot ruthlessly exploit all classes of the public. The system is working very satisfactorily in tffe State*, chiefly in the cities between Chicago and New York. It is, of course, hoped that the present Theatrical Trust of Australasia will not pass into hands or be run on methods necessitating the public protecting, not only themselves, but the minds of their children. At the same time it cannot be expected that the New' Zealand public i* going to continue paying out top prices and accept second-rate artists simply because the management will not make contracts long enough with loading actors or actresses to permit of their coming on to this country. The reputation of Australian productions is built up, of course, by the original cast and if the advance notices ami the usual devices for making the claims (spurious or otherwise) of a piece known are to be based on the original success, it is only right and fair we should have all the cast to justify the piece. If the Australasian magnates are going to continue the practice, and igriore the claims of the public, then trouble will of a surety come home to roost with them. It is understood that the Williamson Clarke combine will in future be known as "J. (’. Williamson, Lt<T.” The name of Clarke and Meynell disappears from the concern altogether.

Great Greek Drama on a Magnificent Scale in London. In January, 1912, London is to see a magnificent production of Sophocles* “Oedipus the King.” Mr. sMartin Harvey has made arrangements to bring over to England the wonderfully successful stage-presentation of the play, which is due to the dramatic and spectacular genius <»f Professor Max Reinhardt. This production has been one of the great successes of the present lime in all the large cities of Germany. Great audiences of 4000 and 5000 people have witnessed each performance. St. Petersburg, a city always quick to receive new artistic impressions, has already extended it a cordial welcome, and there can be little doubt that when “Oedipus the King”goes to London it wJI be as favourably received in the British capital as it has already been in Beilin and elsewhere. As staged by Professor Alax Reinhardt, the play is full of curiously striking and grandiose effects. The Cireek drama requires two stages—one built above the other. On the upper stage the drama shows in clear light the leading figures of the piece—Oedious, King of Thebes; Joeasta, his unhappy Queen; Creon, who has to take the reins of power when they drop from the nerveless hands of the fallen Sovereign; Tiresias, the Prophet of III; to say nothing of those instruments of destiny, the herdsmen, who help in the evolu-

tion of the plot. Then below in semidarkness on the lower stage are dimly revealed the figures of the chorus, that is to say. the citizens of Thebes, and the large body of suppliants, who, under their priest, come to ask of their monarch some alleviation of the ills from which their city suffers. Indeed, one of the most striking points in the stage management is the fact that the chorus enters, not from the side of the stage, but the back of the audience, passing through the body of spectators in a sort of mysterious, half-lit mist, to take their places in the space allotted to them. So weird and original are the effects, so striking are some of the stage appliances which Max Reinhardt has used to produce the impression he desires, that in Berlin, where the play, with GOO performers, was presented in a circus, crowds packed the entire building from floor to ceiling, and an average of £l5OO. we are told, was the nightly return. London has already had some foretaste of the extraordinary skill of presentment belonging to Professor Max Reinhardt, in the beautiful “Sumiinin,” recently played at the Coliseum with great success. Scenic Arrangements. In order to produce a Greek play at all, considerable modifications have to I>e made in the ordinary structural arrangement of a theatre. A Greek play consists of a series of speeches, broken by chorio odes. Hardly any event is actually transacted on the upper stage. Events are, for the most part, narrated by messengers, who come to bear the

tiding? either of good or evil fortune. The lower stage has to provide a space for stately movements or evolutions on the part of the chorus. In the centra usually stands an altar dedicated to Dionysus, the patron god of those rural festivals out of which Greek drama was first developed. To take any ordinary theatre, therefore, for a purjmse of this kind is difficult, because it involves th® sacrifice of a great number of the front rows of the stalls. When first the idea was mooted of bringing io London the Max Reinhardt production, it was thought that the Albert Hall would be a suitable home. For some time, however, previous to this, Mr. Martin Harvey had been absorbed in the great Greek drama, and was busHy engaged in making his own arrangements for a suitable performance. To him, too. appealed the idea of bringing the magnificent Max Reinhardt production over to England; and the final result of a good many different suggestions and schemes is that Mr. Martin Harvey- now’ sees his way’ to a performance of the tragedy in January next. The scene will he laid in Co vent Garden, m which, thanks to the courtesy of Mr. Frank Rendle and his fellow-directors the construction of the house as used for the famous Covent Garden balls can, yvith some alterations, fulfil the desired purpose. No better choice could be made, For there ample space is available, and

the general dimensions suitable for a stage play in which the crowds will number at least 500 persons, and where the lighting and scenic effects of Professor Reinhardt can be utilised with the greatest advantage. Professor Gilbert Murray’s translation will be used. An influential committee will also be formed, in order that the scheme may have the support of all the leading universities and schools. A Censored Play. “CEdipus the King” has attracted t’l- - of many theatrical managers during the past few' years. Sir Herbert Tree had the play in his mind some time ago, and since then Mr. Herbert Tr -.ch, of the Haymarket Theatre, and producer of “The Blue Bird,” has thought oi itBut it is only quite recently that it ’ as been licensed for production at all- 1 ° r a long time consent was refused bv the I>>rd Chancellor’s Ofiice, and the various versions submitted- to the British (amsor yvere one and all condemned. Since the formation, hoyvever, of a committee t<J help the work of the Censor, the oflicial ban has been removed, and one. of th® greatest of Greek tragedies, which ha® been witnessed in Paris —Mounet SunJ enacting the part of “(Edipe Roi”--aiid in most of the capitals of Europe, will at last be seen in London, yvhere its popularity is likely to lie as great as thut which it has enjoyed yvlumever it ha« been played. For, indeed, this is a cowsummate drama, alike in the inajc-'t* o conception of its plot, the tragic import* auce of ite characters, and the curiotfi

perfection of the dramatist’s constructive skill. Aristotle selected it as the most perfect of Greek tragedies, and the language he uses on the subject suggests that this was a recognised opinion in Greece. The hero is one of those characters dear to tragedy, because his many noble characteristics are marred by certain obvious defects of impulsiveness, anger, and so forth; and because, in spite of his failings, he remains throughout a personage appealing to our sympathies. (Kdipus had done great things for Thebes at a time when it was under the cruel domination of the Sphinx, whose riddles no men could guess. Arriving as a voting man. a stranger from Corinth, after the death of King Laius, he satisfactorily solved the Sphinx's problem, and was naturally elected as sovereign, with the privilege accorded to him of marrying the widowed Queen Jocasta. Fate s Ordinance. A dark fate, however, overhung Thebes, dependent on some gloomy and terrible prophecies, uttered in Apollo’s shrine at Delphi. It was said) of Laius, the original king, that he should be murdered by his own son, and that that son should further be guilty of the terrible crime of marrying his mother. In order to avoid a destiny like this, the infant son of Laius and Joeasta was sent out in the care of a shepherd, with Lis feet cruelly mangled by iron bars, to be exposed on the heights of Mount Citlueron. The pity of the shepherd saved the hapless infant, for, instead of allowing him to die, he gave him into the handis of a Corinthian shepherd, who took him to his own city, where, in due process of time, he became the adopted son of Polybus and Merope, King and Queen of Corinth. Of couse, the boy in question was no ther than CEdipus himself, who, on hearing, on one occasion, doubts east on his paternity, went off in high dudgeon to consult the shrine of Apollo in order to discover what his origin really was. He got no satisfactory answer from the oracle, and his failure only stirred him to still greater wrath. As ill-luck would have it, he met on the road a chariot containing King Laius and a herald. A violent altercation ensued, and CEdipus accomplished the first part of the oracle in slaying his father. The second part of the oracle was also speedily fulfilled, for, as we have seen, CEdipus went to Thebes, saved tile city from the exactions of the Sphinx, became King of the Thebes, and married his own mother, Jocasta. The whole import of the tragedy is that tEdipus was an absolutely innocent and unwitting sinner. He had no reason for knowing that the old man in a chariot whom he slew was his father, Laius, for no true story of his birth had ever rea. hed his ears, nor yet could he know that the queen he was invited to marry in Thebes was his mother. The Final Tragedy. When the play of "Oedipus the King opens, we see the monarch apparently securely enthroned at the highest pinna.le of his power and greatness. But there are signs of trouble ahead. Tlrtfre is pestilence in the city; the flocks 'are dying; the crops wither in the ground. Thebes seems to be under the spell of some curse from Heaven. And when the oracle is consulted, the dread message is received that Thebes is harbouring a parricide, and that unless she expels the guilty man no further prosperity is in store for her. Then, step by step, we o e the predestined doom, closing in narrowing circles round the unhappy hero. Every step he takes brings more surely upon himself the fate originally •h-ignej by Heaven. Tiresias, without hesitation, points to the king as the guiliy man. But Oedipus, in order to w 1 iter informed, sends for the Theban shepherd. It was his own idea that he was really a son of Polybus. the King fj f • "rinth; but he is speedily disillusioned v. hen a messenger from Corinth informs him that he was merely an adopted -on. Then enters the Theban shepherd who had carried the babe out to the iieigh'ts of Cithaeron. And so, slowly, one by one, the proofs accumulate, until fi t last the whole hideousness of the position is revealed. Oedipus is the man seeuised by Heaven, who, through no guilt of his own, except possibly through • certain rash impulsiveness of nature, silled his own father and married his own mother. Jocasta, on learning the initli, commits suicide. Oedipus, sternly ’"bmitting himself to the decrees of ate, tears out his eyes with his own and, and confronts his people, waiting "J. 'he inevitable decree of banishment bch is t 0 drive him from the State.

Such is the grim tragedy which the genius uf Sophocles has presented to us in, perhaps, his 1 greatest play. He makes no comment on the story he has to tell; and, indeed, the story was one of the ancient myths and legends. He is strictly impersonal, both as to the events and the characters of his drama. At most he seems to tell us that men could not in the mythological and classic age escape the lot ordained for them by a Heaven whose decrees were so cloaked in mystery that they seem arbitrary and unjust. Aeschylus, an older dramatist, did his best to console mankind by vindicating the enactments of Heaven on moral anti religious grounds. Sophocles is no moralist; he is pure artist, ami nothing else. He draws with firm, dramatic touches his characters. He reveals the cloud of Fate under which they have to pass their lives. He shows us their miserable end. But this very impartiality and aloofness make his work all the more impressive. It stands before us like a perfect statue of Phidias, beyonu all example, clear, pure, and refined. Subtlety of composition, purity of line, delicacy of modelling—these are the characteristics of his work. And so this tragedy remains unique in character, bnly to be equalled by masterpieces such as “Macbeth,” “Othello.” and “Lear.” coming from the hand of Shakespeare himself. Sousa in New Zealand. After Sousa comes the band. That is typically American, although the excellence and fame of the organisation is

due entirely to the combination of both. It is unfortunate that the famous band comes to New Zealand at a time when so much is doing and there are so many things clamouring for support from the pockets of the public. The opportunity is really exceptional, and the public do not seem to have grasped the fact. Sousa has made a speciality of marches and superficial American sketches, it is true, but that cannot hide the fact he and the band are a splendid body of musicians in every way. finer in fact than the much vaunted “Besses.” Their programmes are particularly strong in Wagner numbers, and other truly musical works. The opening in Auckland to-night (Wednesday) at the Opera House will see the performance of the famous overture to “Tannhauser” ami the still more famous “Ride of the Valkyries.” Included in the season's programmes also will be such things as the gorgeous introduction to Act 111 of “Lohengrin”—a reigning masterpiece in the concert halls of Britain to-day. and the wonderful funeral march and death scene from “The Dusk of the Gods” —the last of the four grand operas which compose the famous cycle known as “The Ring.*’ Other Wagnerian numbers on the programmes are prominent, but in addition the band. with all its superb accompaniment of reed instruments. plays such masterpieces as Humperdinck's prelude to the opera “Hansel and Gretel,” the overture to “Oberon’’ (Weber), Sibelius Tone Poem, “Finlandia, ’’ familiar to the members of the Auckland Orchestral Society; overture to “Poet and Peasant’’ (Suppe) • Tschalkowsky’s famous overture “Soleiudle 1812;*’ “Invitation a La Valse” (Weber); Edward German’s “Welsh” Rhapsody; and the lovely prelude by Rachmaninoff entitled “The Bells of Moscow.’’ It will be seen that altogether apart from the exceptional interest the visitors hold for local bandsmen, Souea and his men have

programmes of extraordinary value to musical people. Through them, though the public do not seem to have realised yet, they have a -splendid opportunity of hearing an adequate interpretation of what are the fine things so often spoken of, and so lit th played in this country. The Wagner selections are very comprehensive, and it will be a loss to the music lovers of this country if they are allowed to pass unheard. After ** The Arcadians.” ‘‘The Arcadians” has been having a “boom” in Auckland, as was to be expected from the excellent impression the piece produced on the first night of production. On Monday next “The Belle of Brittany” is to be put on to conclude the last six nights of the season. Hubert, of the Lyttelton “Times.” who is a well tried and sincere critic, writes of it as follows: — “The programme very judiciously neglects ‘to take the responsibility of classifying /r l he Belle of Brittany,’ fhe second production of the Clarke and Meynell opera season, and it is left for a discriminating audience to decide for itself whether it is comic opera, musical comedy, pantomime or vaudeville. It is none of them and all of them, for i’t is a delicious mixture of a frankly irresponsible nature, of almost everything that has been done along these lines. It would probably have been more subtle had it been christened ‘Reminiscences.’ for there were continual suggestions of old favourites right through the two acts, more in the

action than in the music. But there Ts no throwing of bricks’ in this recognition of old friends, for the play is delightfully fresh and delightfully sparkling. It riots through a chaos of incongruities with a seriousness that is impertinent enough to suggest that they are posibilities. People apparently come into the most aristocratic houses in Brittany and dance Spanish dances, kick hats, throw’ somersaults, and say “damn” as part of the ordinary procedure at a genlpe.l ‘At home.’ Since they do them something more than well, they are hereby forgiven. The alleged play has not even the skeleton of a plot outside its title. It is all about a girl who did not want to marry a man, and so far it is human. After that folks play at being nice, and there is a lost mortgage, and wheels go round, and people sing songs about the kingdom of woman’s heart and the long night wears on to an accompaniment of a musical frivolity that is always bright and cheery. The features of the play are its pretty music and its graceful and clever dancing. The choruses are delightfully harmonised, and there arc quite a number of ‘star’ solos of an exceptionally happy character.” “The Gay Gordons.’’ The next company to visit New Zealand under the Clarke and Meynell management will be “The Gay Gordons,” who open in Wellington on September 15th, subsequently visiting Christchurch. Dunedin, Invercargill, Oamaru, Palmerston North. Wanganui, and Auckland. The firm’s “Woman in the Case*’ company, which will open its New Zealand tour early in October has been highly successful in Australia. The piece now being staged in the principal centres in the West, where crowded and enthusiastic audiences are being met with.

Stray Notes. The principals of the Clarke and Meynell nyw light ojiera company, which are to appear in “The Chocolate Soldier,” have arrived in Melbourne from London. Mme. Clara Butt and Mr Kennerley Rumford commence their South African tour iu September. They also contemplate a visit to America, and after that will pay a second visit to Australia After much delay and disappointment, Mascagni's latest opera. “Isa beau,” was produced under the composer’s direction at Buenos Ayres recently. Performances of Sir Edward Elgar’s new Symphony in E flat are to be given in Berlin and Hamburg under the direction of Herr Nikisch. The work is also to be produced at Vienna and Munich. A German paper has recently given particulars concerning a new work on which Dr. Richard Strauss is at present engaged. It is a “Nature Symphony,” and it is to be in two movements. The first describes a lonely wanderer who with difficulty gains the summit of lofty peak, and there Nature appears to him alone worthy of adoration. Tn the second he is descending to earth, and there is a struggle going on in his mind against unbelief, but the Symphony ends with a stately hymn, so that faith seems to have conquered. Mr 11. C. Colles lias been appointed musical critic of the London “Times,” in succession to Mr J. A. Fuller Maitland, lately resigned.