Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 10, 6 September 1911, Page 14

Music and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS.

(Dates subject to alteration.) AUCKLAND HIS MAJESTY’S. September 11 Nhir Miss Gibbs.” October i> ‘The Woman in the Case” Collidin'ember 25 ‘ The Gay Gordons ” WELLINGTON OPERA HOUSE. September 1130 Clarke and Meyneli’e ‘ Gay Gordon’s’* Company. (Uctubef II ”5 J. C Williamson, ‘ Our Miss • • Gibbs'* Company. November 3-16 Clarke and Meynell December 23, January 16—J. C.’ WUHatnson.

Bernhardt, the Evergreen. THERE is no greater marvel of endurance and vitality on the stage of the world ’today than Madame Sarah Bernhardt -not own Ellen Terry. She re cnitly concluded a big tour of ‘■Amei tea, stretching from New York to San I 1 ran ■cisco. Jeannette 1.. Gilder, a well known dramatic writer in America, sums up for ‘•The Argonaut” of San I ranciseo the ■concluding hours of the great French /woman’s latest achievement. Wilting [from New York she says: —"Sarah, ’the ‘C ver ix reen,* has sailed away. -It was lumotired that she was coming back 'for a few nights on her way home, but rwe all had our doubts. But sure enough,, (back she came. And notwithstanding Jthe fact that the thermometer was well lip in the eighties she drew packed houses to the Glol»e Theatre, and on the last might, the night before .she sailed, not even standing room could 'be had at a 'preiliiurrt. The house was packed to the fire limit : people pleaded with her manager for a place to rest the soles of their feat, but he only shook his head mud staid fhat if he let one more person inside the doors he would get in trouble with the fur department. Even'in the galleries people were standing back against the wall, from which -coign of vantage they might see with 'the aid of glasses, but could scarcely hear. Bernhardt is a wonderful woman; she confesses to sixty-seven years, and a woman as not likely to say that she is older ’than she is. so she certainly as no younger. There are those who are mean enough to say that .she is seventy; but there are always people mOAn enough to say anything, and there is nothing about which more -untruths are spoken 'than the age of actresses. They—'the actresses usually underestimate their lige, while the public usually overestimates it. Never has 'Bernhardt been more affable than on this return trip. 0 Not only has Mme. Bernhardt been Acting every day and night since she left New York, but she has done other things. She has gone down into copper mines; she has climbed mountain tops; she has hunted lords! and. according to her manager. done everything but go up in a ■flying machine. Uh is shows that Mme. Sarahs courage is not what it was ft quarter of a century ago; for then, if you will remember, she attained some of her widest advertising by going up in fi balJoon. Iler manager has given ou'i some of the figures of Mme. Bernhardt’s earnings with -m-uch frankness; in fus-t-. they have been posted on the hoardings. In the thirty-three weeks of »her engagement she appeared at 285 pvrformauceft, the gros-% receipts of which amount t<> . dollars, and tliis has been brought up to a million very nearly by fi few days’ farewell performances in New York. Nail Francisco alone paid 37.000 dollar* for a week of ten perform nnces. She tells us that she is coming back in 1015. That is three years from now, and in three years Mine. Sarah will be seventy a< •voiding to her own counting, ami seventy-three according to the counting of the sceptic*. But no matter what age she may be. ahe will always Im* a great actress. Wind her alio Will have the suicress in this c«.untry in B>ls that she had in 1010 and Bill, who sltall One can never bet with any certainty in these matters. Thousand* of people wore disappointed. in not fteetjig . her during her last engagements in New York, and they will probably rajly around the box office If she come* in three years from now. The night after her farewell performher manager gave her a supper at

her hotel, to which all the members of her company were invited. You must know that a supper after the theatre is likely to be in full blast in the small hours. Mme. Sarah and her company could hardly have gotten to the hotel from the theatre before twelve, and they muA have been an hour or more at the table; but nevertheless this active and evergreen Frenchwoman was up at five o'clock in the morning and was the first aboard the French liner that took her home. She is going to rest all summer, she says; and she deserves to. Then in the fall she will open her own theatre in Paris. Au Unwelcome First Performance. Massenet’s opera “Thais,” written some seventeen years ago, obtained its first performance in London recently at Covent Garden with rather dispiriting results. It- ds a thousand pities that Strauss did not get hold of, the .story of “Thais” before Massenet. It is just the theme for him. It calls aloud for the same treatment as 'Salome’' and "Elektra”— Unflinching realism and unbridled musical expression. At any rate it. is no subject for a -composer whose intensive note of passion usually rises no higher than the pruma ballerina’s high leap, and whose chief artistic aim seems to be to lull the.senses with sweetly flowing melodies and earcatching rhythms. Tlie London notices justify this opinion. ■ “England saw, Massenet’s opera at Covent Garden for the first time last night,” writes a critic, “seventeen years after its production in Paris, and, therefore, little discredit attaches by its shortcomings to the composer of that inspired little..fn.-ilure of a later date: 'Le Jongleur do Notre Dame.’ For . operatic taste, like battleship types, changes rapidly nowadays. What is new one season is obsolete the next. “In ’Thais’ the drama is filtered slowly out till no action is left, and the tragedy as honeyed with blithesome, cheerful strains that unconsciously bear out (ho opera's misnomer, ‘lyric comedy.' ...“But what a chance there is in Anatole France’s story of the monk and the courtesan for the modern lyric dramatist! Richard .Strauss would have wrung the last drop of passion from the great conflict of emotions that follows the. assignation made by Thais with Athanaei —Thais on the one hand fighting for love, the monk on the other battling for a soul. The man wins. The woman renounces al! the vanities of her former life, and the world in general, and retires to a convent. “But apparently there was only enough goodness between the two for one person. For no sooner is the one redeemed than the other feels the virtue has gone out of him. The gospel of Venus had not been preached in vain. The man is now all for love, but, breaking into the convent and declaring his passion to the dying Thais, finds she is al! for Heaven, spiritually and actually.” Beautiful Music. There is much beautiful music in “Thais,” however, and one can only marvel at Massenet's boundless melodic resources. But it is the music of a good ballet (there is a fine one in the opera), always spontaneous, often sensuous, bitt never passionate or dramatic, never even devotional. Other critics describe the music as “colourless” and “dull." and . altogether Massenet’s inept handling of a powerful libretto met with a rough handling by the London journals. Dollar-niaking Indecency v. Problem Play. Writing from New York, a correspondent to a London daily lias something to say about a production that is regarded as being frankly indecent. “Apropos of the ‘lid being ofl" in this town, there is a performance now going on here (I will not say where because 1 do not care to advertise it) that for indecency outdoes anything that has ever bAen seen in New York in my tiino. People from other countries who have seen this performance, aay that it exceeds in indecency anything that, has ever been seen across the water. And yet it is going on; I am happy to aay, not attracting very large audiences; but no complaint is made; no Anthony Comstock has raided U>e place; it is all done openly and above board. The mana-

gers probably know that nothing will be said. Not even the newspapers, so far as 1 have seen, have made any adverse criticisms of it; and yet people tell me that it is the most disgusting and indecent show that they have ever seen, or ever expect to see. 1 have not seen it, and I do not intend to. But I leave heard of it from those who were unfortunate enough to attend the performance without knowing what was before them. It makes one smile to remember the plays that have been suppressed by the police; and then to think that this hideous exhibition of immorality is allowed to flaunt itself in the Face of the’ public.” New York is usually Puritanical in such matters. It timed down “Salome,” Richard Strauss’ famous opera, on the ground of being a disgusting performance. It held up its hands in sanctimonious hypocrisy when Bernard Shaw endeavoured seriously to elucidate a ■world wide social and moral evil in “Mr* Warren’s Profession," and yet—the play written to make dollars by deliberate trafficking in filth is allowed to go on night after night. Anything that makes dirty dollars is permissible, but when genius endeavours to make people think, the process is disastrous. Men are curious bipeds. Auckland v. Fousouby—A Protest. This week will see two readings of Sheridan’s comedy “The Rivals” at the Y.M.C.A-, one by the Auckland Shaksper-e Society on Tuesday and the other by the I’onsonby Shakespeare and Rhetoric Club on Wednesday. The first reading will be over before these lines can reach the reader. It seems a pity that the two Auckland societies, who seem bent upon ignoring both the interests 1 and existence of each other, Cannot avoid this unnecessary clash. It, can only provoke misun derstanding. and both hinder and dis- , credit the good work that is being done in amateur circles to popularise tiie legitimate drama. It is not the duty of any critic to enter into the question whether either one or both are to blame, but it can only be regretted that there seems to be at present not any hope of promoting more cordiality and understanding between the file, if not the rank, of both institutions. I’nder the circumstances I do not propose.to enter into -the relative merits of the two performances, but ignore both as a protest against what the intelligent public (who are not members of either society) can only regard as j being a foolish and unnecessary proeeed- - i'ig. . The Auckland Shakspere Society is due in Wellington the week the New Zealand competitions arrive for the first time, when it is intended ut. present to give readings of “Twelfth Night,” and either "Captain Brassbound’s Conver--sion” . (Shaw) or “Much Ado About Nothing.” New Zealand Competitions at Wellington. Everything points to the New Zealand Competition Society’s first annual festival at Wellington being a phenomenal success, far eclipsing all previous efforts hitherto made in -this direction -wthin the Dominion. The secretary, Mr. Dykes, reports -that he is daily receiving entries and inquiries from all parts of the Dominion, thus undoubtedly justifying the society in its claim to be recognised as a Dominion, rather than a parochial, institution. The slight opposition which was at first shown by a few professional musicians has apparently faded away, whilst, on the contrary, the society numbers among its most enthusiastic members several leading teachers of music and elocution, who, realising the impetus that these competitions must give to their Art, are doing all that lays in their power to help the society to make its first festival one that will long 'be remembered by lovers of -the arts throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. All who possess talent in any shape or- form should obtain a copy of the -official text book from the secretary, Mr. James Dykes, at his office, 14b, Featherston-street. Wellington. “ Our Miss Gibbs.” “Our Miss Gibbs,” the money-making musical play of the firm of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., will be presented in Auckland on Monday, September 11th. It is officially announced that the play 'will >l»e eent to the Dominion cast, staged, mounted, and costumed in precisely -the same manner as has -been the case in Australia. No musical comedy presented to the Australian stage has so easily ■won in the race for popularity a* ‘‘Our Miss Gibbs." It started with a record run in Sydney of eight and a-half month*

to the greatest business ever known at His Majesty’s Theatre in that city. It is sard that fully 516,800 people paid for admission during that -period, boms months ago it was presented at His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, for the first time, and was lately withdrawn. We have yet to know whether “Our Mias Gibbs” is the most attractive, .of the comic operas that have, recently been heard out here in respect to its -music. The names of Ivan Caryl!; who has for some time past figured in -the bulk of latter-day musical successes, and Lionel Monck-ton. who first sprang into favour with his “Soldiers in the Park,” appear in connection with the new musical attraction. Years ago Mr. Caryll was a music teacher, and Mr. Monckton was struggling to get a footing as a lawyer—■the former was lifted out of his drudgery wlien he composed his first light opera, “The Lily of Leoville,” and the latter ■took the first step on the ladder of mod ern notoriety when he became musical critic on. the London •'Daily Telegraph.” With “Our Miss Gibbs" will come Miss Blanche Browne. Miss Browne played the part of "Alary Gibbs" in London two years ago in the production. The cast will also include Alessrs; Leslie Holland Andrew Higginson, Fsed. Leslie, 0. 11'

Bantock, ami Bertie Wright, Misses Fitzaiauriee Gill, Connie Milne, Nellie Wilson Ivy Schilling, and- Nellie Calvin. ' - The Auckland season "will be for 12 nights with the usual matinees. The box plans will be opened for the first six nights on Thursday, September 7th, at Wildman and Arey’s. With “Miss Gibbs” will commence the system of •'First-nighters* ” tickets, a scheme which has l>een in vogue for years on the Australian side. The management have evidently pinned their faith on the drawing power of the well-advertised musical play as a test for the proposed change. The Gay Gordons.” The Highland girls are a pleasant feature of “The Gay Gordons,” which opens in Wellington on September 15th, under the Clarke and Meynell management. In London they were called the "gun girls.” An English visitor who saw the production in Australia wrote to the firm complimenting them upon the fine performance of the Seymour Hick’s play, and added:—“l think your 'gun girls’ are some of the prettiest I have ever seen on the stage or off. It seems to me that th P prettiest Australian girls are on the stage, and ‘The Gay Gordons’ seems to have captured some of the best.” Pipers and soldiers figure largely in the new piece. The uniforms of the Gordon Highlanders make an effective note of colour, and the music of the pipers thrills with its wild sweetness. Drama and musical comedy are represented by their most attractive features in the piece, whioh had a phenomenally successful run in all th e Australian tours in which it WAS jirofluced. it added yet another success to the long list already standing to the credit of the Clarke and Meynell management.

Wagner's Operas in London. I be season of German opera at Covent Garden, London, next October and November will be under the direction of Dr. Hans Richter, and the repertoire will inelude Wagner’s “Der King des Nibelungen,” “Tristan and Isolde,” "Lohengrin,” "Der Fliegende Hollander,” “Tannhauser,” and Humperdinck's new opera "Konigskinder.” New works have achieved popularity since Wagner’s death, but his reputation has not suffered. Only one opera of his, the early “Rienzi,” has fallen into the shade, but that is not surprising-seeing that when he wrote i-t he was trying to imitate Meyerbeer’s style. The real Wagner only commenced with “The Flying Dutchman,” and London audiences still 110-.-k to hear performances whenever announced. A lot of interest appears to be centred in Humperdinck’s new opera “Konigskinder.” This work, like “Hansel and Gretel,” is based on an old folk story. The ex- < teinent over “The Girl of the Golden West” when Konigskinder was produced at the Metropolitan Opera House last D< ember may have prevented full recog-

nition of its merits: anyhow, one writer expressed the belief that in time its popularity would become nearly as great as that of the composer’s first venture. It is fifteen years since "Hansel and Gretel” was produced, yet it still sounds as fresh and attractive as it did at first. Story of a Lost Symphony. The story of Wagner's Symphony in C, which was lost, but recovered after many years, was recently told in these ■ olumns. An account is now given of .mother discovery. After Wagner had ‘imposed his Symphony, in 1832, he went o Prague, and there lie sketched and ’ersifiedan operatic text of tragic, import, based oil an old mediaeval subject. It told of a frantic lover who climbed to the window of the sleeping chamber - of his friend’s bride, and of her struggling with him, finally hurling him into the courtyard below. At his funeral the Imide was to sink lifeless on the corpse. Wagner only wrote an introduction, a horns, and a septet for the first act. He showed the libretto to his favourite ••inter, Rosalie, ten years older than himself. An accomplished actress with, rousequently, practical knowledge of the stage, she was not pleased with the book, ■i nd Wagner destroyed the poem. The music,, however, remained in his hands for many years, but was evidently left in Dresden when, in 1849, he had to leave that-eity. Thirty,years later he heard of its "being announced for sale. He offered to buy his own work from the music dealer who possessed it, but the price’ demanded, £250, he thought exorbitant. Wagner went to law, claimed that the manuseriipt was his, or rather Rs contents,. But he lost his case and had to pay the costs bf the suit. The manuscript is said to have been recently found by an English collector in a eur-

iosity shop in Berlin and bought by him for the suxm.of £ 1750. All Abont Dogs. Mr. Arthur Bourchier, the well known English actor, delivered himself of some funny observations concerning “dogs” in London recently. “The collection,” he said, “embraces dogs of every kind; so, I am told, do some of the exhibitors. Many varieties are here shown; many variety, ladies are ‘terriers’ themselves. The Isle of .Dogs and Barking have been ransacked for specimens, and we have actually gone as far afield as the Dogger Bank, which produces the dogfish and the water spaniel, whose sole diet is naturally ‘Spratt’s.’ (Applause.) We have here, or, if not, we can get them for you, the mastiff, or yard dog, and the dachshund, or yard and a half dog. Dogs are, 1 believe, still of some value in medicine; for a cold we take horehound, for fever Peruvian bark, and young gentlemen with bad morning heads are in the habit, it is said, of taking a hair of the dog that bit them by way of remedy —another ‘nip,’ in fact. Dogs have naturally made a great noise in history. Mother Hubbard is the first person re-

corded who trained a dog, although the ancient Egyptians used to tell the time by their watchdogs. The Vikings in their ships abolished the watch-dog and substituted the dog-watch. Canute first brought danes to England. Macbeth has a kind thought, in his rough way, for dogs; he threw - physic to them; Chaucer wrote the first English doggerel in the reign of Edward the Third, and Henry the Eighth was, as you know, the dog of English history. The only dog that doesn’t bark is the ‘fire-dog,’ or terrier del Fuego.” Whiskers Are Off.

Little by little the whole truth is leaking out about the rules concern-

ing the shaving of operatic artists in Europe. The conspiracy appears to be widespread, and it is suspected that the directors of the Vienna and the Covent Garden operas are at the head of it. Hans Gregor, of the Vienna Royal Opera, recently issued an edict making a clean sweep, “a clean shave,” suggests a commentator, of every beard and moustache in the company from chorus man to principal. Now it comes out that there exists a similar clause in the contract of every male member of the Chorus at Covent Garden, He must shave or be shaved once a day. For this he has an allowance of eighteenpence weekly. It is lucky he docs not nave to shave In New Zealand. The faces of the Covent Garden chorus men are carefully examined every night, and

if anything more, than a twenty-four hours’ growth is discerned they are docked threepence. We are always doing the wrong thing. Now that baldness is so fashionable, why should not men shave their hair, and let the pent-up whiskers run riot over their features. Variety gives the whole spice to existence. American Venture in London. Mr Oscar Hanunerstein, whose invasion of London with a grand opera venture is being jealously watched by the Royal Covent Garden Syndicate, announced recently that the London Opera House, which has been constructed for him in Kingsway, will open on Saturday, November 11th, for a twenty weeks’ season. The inaugural performance, as already stated, will be one of Nouge and Caan’s “Quo Vadis?” for which Mr Hammerstein possesses the sole English rights of production. Nothing but grand opera is to be presented at the new theatre. Prices for seats range from a guinea to 2/. The operas to be presented are as follows: — Tn French: “Quo Vadis?’ “Don Quichotte,” "Thais,” “Le dongleour de

Notre Dame,” “Herodiadc." “Manon,” “Werther,” "La Navarraise,” “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,*’ “Faust,” "Romeo et Juliette,” “Lakme,” “Le ITophete,” “Les Huguenots,” "Louise,” "Violin Maker of Cremona,” and "Carmeri.” In Italian: "Norma,” “11 Travatore,” “La ■■ Favorita,’ “Siberia,” “Dolores,” “Othellq,” "1 Pagliacci,” “Cavalleria-Rus-tieana,” "Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Rigoletto,” "La Traviata,” "11 Barbiere di Siviglia,” “Aida,” ‘‘Andrea Chenier,” and “Un Ballo in Maschera.” Mr. Alfred Hill's Success. Mr Alfred Hill, whose gifts of melody and originality as a composer have been long recognised in this part of the world, is coming into his own in London as well, for this week’s mail brings copies of the highly-favourable notices written by the London critics concerning his music at the New Zealand concert nt the Crystal Palace. "The Adagio from Mr Alfred Hill’s Symphony in B flat,” says the London “Daily Telegraph,” “i« indeed real music, and not merely a. carcfully-thouglit-out arrangement of notes. There is nothing in it whatever that savors of -the lamp. I't is a lament over the ages vanished, over the tombs of heroes, and over the mighty chieftains which is finely felt, and expressed with dignity and with pathos, and it stamps Mr Hill ns a composer who has not only technique, but also imagination. Au opportunity of hearing tlio symphony in its entirety would be most

welcome. Mr Hill was, as we Uavo said, the first New Zealand composer to be represented ih a London programme by a- work for orchestra ; but, if we may borrow a sporting phrase, he won by only a short head, for a little later in the programme Mr Arnold Trowell, of Wellington, played two movements from his own Ceneerto in D minor for violoncello and orchestra. As a composer, Mr Trowell has hardly Mr Hill's originality, but his music, if rather reminiscent, is very charmingly written, and he played it beautifully.” One pauses here to observe that while Mr Alfred Hill is claimed to be a New Zealand composer, he is so merely by adoption, since by birth he is really an Australian. He was born in Richmond, Victoria, and went to New Zealand when only a child. The recognition which his work is receiving in London will not surprise anyone in "this part of the world, where it has long ago been generally admitted that, given only the opportunity to be heard. Mr Hill would unquestionably gain high distinction as a composer. At the Crystal Palace concert the New Zealand artists also included Miss Audrey Richardson, the talented violinist; Madame Zela, Miss Mabel Manson, Miss Irene Ainsley, and a Maori singer, Rangiuia.