Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 13

Music and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS.

(Dates subject to alteration.*'

HXff MAJESTY’S THEATRE. Now Playing—Marlow Dramatic Company. June 24 to July 9—Pantomime. July 22 to August 3—'The Blue Bird.” September 30 to October 12—Oscar Ascbe, Lily Brayton.

WELLINGTON OPERA HOUSE. April 27 to May IS—Marlow Dramatic Co. May 25 to 28—“Everywoman” Co. July 17 to 30—J. C. Williamson, Ltd., Pantomime Co. August 14 to 27 —“The Blue Bird” Co. September 23 to October 2—Plimmer Denniston Company October 19 to November 2 —Oscar AseheLily Brayton Co. November s—“ Ben. Hur’’- Co.

Puccini’s Italian-American Opera. (c\Y UCH curiosity was felt in AmerNjk ica from the very first to know J how America and the Americans would figure in grand opera, and in California, whose early history furnished the theme, the interest reached the acute stage. Bret Harte immortalised their beginnings in fiction, and now the opera composer of the day has given to those picturesque times a musical setting. So they were keen to know what “The Girl of the Golden West” was like, translated into grand opera. According to Josephine Hart Phelps, the operatic “Girl of the Golden West” is very Italian, very traditional, very Conventional (from operatic standards. She is a pretty, plump, black-haired, black-eyed piece of operatic feminity, who falls in love at first sight and who conducts a Bible class in a saloon. The miners who frequent Minnie’s saloon are Cariy Californian miners in dress only, plus a few antics. Their manners and Sentiments are those of the average operatie ehorus.

The dialogue in the first act at those times when the play Is more closely adhered to has its incongruous aspects. Listen to the “barkeep,” for instance, singing in melodious accents, “There's a stranger outside, who must be from San Francisco, He asks for whisky and water.” A subdued, respectful giggle greeted every recurrence of the phrase "He is from Sae-r-r-ramento” —and it was odd and amusing to hear this brief bit of recitative: Sheriff: Minnie, I'm just crazy about von.

Minnie: You don’t say so. But, to divest ourselves of any preconceived standards of what the Californian atmosphere should be, and just judge “The Girl of the Golden West,” as a music-drama, it is unquestionably a success, continues Miss Phelps. Curiously enough, one has to pass two verdicts upon it, for the vocal and orchestral scores are of very different merits. Puccini shows the same tendency in all his operas to furnish a rich, warmlycoloured highly suggestive, and exceedingly dramatic orchestral background, which invariably eclipses the vocal score. It is thus with “The Girl of the Golden West.” The orchestral score is beautiful and satisfying; yet since opera was more particularly invented for the exploitation of the singing voice, there is something wrong, incongruous, and incomplete in an operatic composition of which the instrumental music casts into the shade the best efforts of the singers. There is a great deal of rather monotonous recitative in “The Girl of the Golden West,” and the arias collectively lack not only melody but beauty. Some of them are actually displeasing. It will be interesting to learn from the future just how much permanence of public favour “The Girl of the Golden West” will enjoy. Puccini is a good selfadvertiser, and something of a sensationalist. One need not detract from his talent in saying that. He has caught the American public with this opera, and his other works are swinging along high in favour. Success, universal success, stifles but the musical authorities, while they appreciate hie abilities, and recognise that he has pronounced Individuality, do not feel that his genius is of the towering order. Nor is there anything in "The Girl of the Golden West” to make us think so. Its great merit as a musical composition lies aL ®ost entirely to the orchestral arore.

The Fuecini Craze. “Puccini, the master of musical melodrama, Is to be the lion and leader of the London musical season, which is now opening,” writes Richard Capell in a London paper. The summer programme at Covent Garden amounts to an apotheosis of Puccini. The nights when he himself is not played one may nearly always hear someone as nearly approaching him as may be. Mozart and Gluck, Wagner and Richard Strauss—all are wraiths, the romantics and classics alike, vanishing before the effulgence of this rising sun.

“London’s guests, flocking this year from the four quarters of the globe, may well marvel in mute wonder at the great Opera—where hardly an English singer is to be heard, and not a word of English sung —dedicated to the aggrandisement of so wholly alien an art. Here is young Italy’s triumph! The age-long ferment of Italian art is still working. Puccini stands with Paolo Tosti —‘a star by a star’-—as its representative. And they have crowned the centuries’ and their fatherland’s record with that which not Dante or Vinci or Leopardi knew—success, chinking, glittering success. “Were it not for - the New York Opera House Covent Garden could well claim to be the central shrine of Puccini worship; but to New York —metropolis of that terrifying nation for whom nothing not successful really counts —the pride of place. An Italian Tradition.

“In explaining the vogue of ths meretricious music one must reeognis? that a special tradition lingers, unshaken by the Wagnerian assaults of twenty years, among the operatic public. It is an Italian tradition, dating from the time when practically all opera was Italian. The typical Co vent Garden audience hangs breathless, se panic with ecstasy over - the fantastic agility of a prima donna with high notes like a steam whistle, the crocodile sobs in the tenor’s voice, and Neapolitan orgies of vibrato and portamento. This is the typical Covent Garden publie, and in so far as the audience departs from this standard it is misrepresentative—if there is any audience at all. Thus it is hardly curious that this audience should have little in common with the London concert publie. The enthusiast who, putting up with acute physical discomfort, stands for hours on the floor of Queen’s Hall on a hot August night listening to Wagnerian excerpts can hardly ever be lured to Covent Garden. He has learned to breathe the Alpine air of the ‘Heroic Symphony,’ to savour Schubert’s Hymettian honey, to rejoice in the varied gorge.ousness of Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss. Who ean expect him to have anything but contempt for ’La Sonnambula' i

“The ancient attitude towards operatic singers was to regard them in a class with circus acrobats, and an interesting survival of this is the inclusion of ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ in this year’s programme at Covent Garden —the last retreat for the shrill gho.-,t of this dead music. But the very futility of Donizetti and his like renders them practically innocuous. Compared with Puccini, they are like an ancient, thin-toned hurdygurdy by the side of an up-to-date bar-rel-organ in all its frenzying ferocity. Pucinni never moves outside the old Italian shallowness of thought, but he strikes a personal tone—a tone at once trivial, sensual, and cloying, remote from all the fine things of life, emotionally degraded. Puccini never wrote a bar to disturb the digestion of the fashionable, never uttered a musical thought beyond the intelligence of his dullest hearer. Hence his eminent fitness for an opera which is practically a simple postprandial social function.

Fnecini, the Slick. “Puccini’s gift is a supreme slickness, lie knows just what he wants and how io get it. He is not much interested in the orchestra. His treatment of it has advanced little beyond the ‘big guitar’ stage with which Wagner taunted the Italians of seventy years ago. His main eare is to give everyone chances for the production of smooth vocal tone. He takes a keen pleasure in exciting melodramatic situations, and ean undeniably carry through a brutal scene such aa

that in ‘La Tosca’ with a certain vigour ami crude effect. But it is scarcely more music than Sardou’s play is literature. Music is denaturalised and degraded in touching such unbeautiful horror. Puccini’s virtue is that he has no pretentions. He writes musical melodramas and they are extremely successful. If opera in London were a permanent institution, as at Paris, Vienna, or Berlin, one could not object to the performance of his works. At a permanent operahouse the widest eclecticism must, of course, be practised. No one asks for a surfeit of the sublime. One’s complaint is that the Covent Garden Syndicate, who receive a great revenue from people who subscribe through custom and fashion, regardless of what music is played, should swamp a brief season of three months with the works of a composer who incontestably stands outside the ranks of even the twenty foremost musicians of the day. And by Puccini’s side, Massenet!—whose music has almost all the vices of the young Italians and not (for the most part) their vitality. Beyond Puccini’s ‘Girl of the Golden West’ the only novelty of the season is Massenet’s ‘Thais.’

“And this exasperating programme (inadequately leavenedi by the way, with ‘Pelleas,’ ‘Louise,’ ‘Otello,’ and the Petersburg dancers) is planned at a moment when there was never less reason to despair for opera in London. Mr. Beecham, by his admirable enterprise last year, stirred the curiosity of those who are not attracted by the ordinary summer season at Covent Garden, with its fatal heritage of vicious tradition. His effort was not sufficiently prolonged to win the success it merited, but he sowed good seed which cannot be wasted. Who shall reap the harvest?”

Ethel Irving. An Australian writer was thus impressed by the charming impression of “Lady Frederick”: —“Ethel Irving has taught oui- theatres and our audiences many things—from her artist way of walking straight info her character in disdain of welcoming applause meant for herself, to her repose, her naturalness, her interpretation of character, her warm sense of emotion, her sense of tragedy,

her grasp of the eternal womanly. She has taught us much, moreover, by charm of manner and by grace of an all-envel-oping sincerity. But most of all, perhaps, she has taught us that the stage may interpret life, vividly, truly, overwhelmingly. For al! these things we should be and we are grateful to Ethel Irving, not only because she is a great artist, but also because, 'being that, she is a wonderful exponent of our dumb selves.” The Stage Irishman.

The Irish-American must be getting touehy. He objects to a piece, “Playboy of the Western World.” Eleven Irish actors and actresses appeared in Court at Philadelphia just before the last mail left to answer a charge of producing a play which was sacrilegious, obscene, and lascivious.

Priests of the Roman Catholic Chureli appeared to press the charge, testifying that the “Playboy of the Western World” held Irish chastity in ridicule; but the Director' of Public Saftey, who went to the play with his wife, declared that it was most interesting. The players displayed much merriment during "the hearing.

Judge Carr declared himself unable to decide the question off-hand, and announced that he would take the charge under advertisement. Meanwhile the players were released under bail of £lo<j each. ,

New Sutro Comedy on Old Theme. Mr. Alfred Sutro's new comedy “The Fire Screen,” produced last month at the Garrick Theatre, London, is a light, airy, and intermittently entertaining reshuffling of very old theatrical cards. There is first the unworldly hueband, Oliver Hadden, who has spent twelve years discovering, a serum that will curd meningitis, serious, tireless, knowing tii>' evil, with a profound ignorance of life never attained outside a stage plaV 1 . There is his wife, Martha, practical, Ipv 1 . ing, devoted to her husband and ner babies. I T<> them comes the “adventuress, 1 ? Angela Verrinder is brilliant and amuiing, but utterly worthless, the “World;

Woman in Mayfair.” Of course she sets her cap at Oliver, though he would bore her to death in a fortnight, just to spite the blameless Martha, and, of course, Oliver thinks she is unhappy, and misunderstood. and is really hurt when Martha objects to his spending a week with the enchantress at La Valliere. Oh, the innocence of scientists—on the stage! To save Oliver from the fire, Martha brings in the fire screen. Horace Travers, a rich idler, who spends his time in loving and being loved. He is under an obligation to her, and she persuades him to bring his fascination to bear on Angela, to lure her from the pursuit of Oliver, and to be the human red hering acoss the trail. So they all’ go to the country, Oliver and Martha to cure a sick child, Angela after Oliver, and Horace after Angela. Unfortunately Angela is insatiable. She likes Horace, but she wants Oliver, too, and when Martha puts down her foot she is exceedingly abusive, and poor, deluded Oliver, whose heart, by the way, is all the time in the right: place, believes more th’an ever that she is an ill-used innocent. Then Martha, derides that Oliver must catch Angela red-handed or he will never be convinced. Angela has promised the amorous Horace to visit him at his London flat, and Martha induces him, after some hesitation, to let her know the time. She and her husband arrive, and Oliver at once, with the smallest evidence, believes the worst. Husband and wife depart sententioysly happy. Angela atill laughs (nothing can ever stay the laughter of a “stage" adventuress) and expresses her opinion of Horace with admirable restraint and temper. And “The Fire Screen” is over. Marie Hall’s Double. Miss Marie Hall, whose romantic rise to fame as a violinist is well known, has found her double in America. This is how she made the discovery : “They eay everyone has a double. I have, and jshe also plays the violin. She is an American, and we met once under very unusual circumstances. My ’first appearance’ had been well advertised in a particular town, and my photograph had appeared in the papers. The hall was packed and when the advertised time of the commencement came without any signs of me my manager began to grow uneasy, fearing that something serious had detained me. (Sending a messenger off post-haste to see what had become of me, he was on the point of going on to the platform to try and calm the people down, when the local manager of the hall came to him and assured him that I was sitting in the front y>w of the stalls. Not knowing what to think, my manager went to see for himself, arid could hardly believe his own eyes, for the girl referred to was so like me in everv feature that he had to look several times Isefore he was satisfied that it was not indeed myself. And, moreover, she was evidently a violinist. She occupied the end seat of the front row and beside her was a violin in its ease. She was, in fact, a teacher of the instrument at a school in the town and had come to my recital on her way home, as it Was a half holiday. Fearing that it might still be some time before I arrived, my manager went quietly into the l>ody of the hall, and. approaching the girl, whispered that ‘Miss Hall would like to speak to her.’ He could not say more there, but this proved enough to ‘draw’ her, and when she . was behind he explained the situation, which was becoming each moment more desperate, and begged her to go on in my place and play something, anything, to satisfy the audience, which by this time was getting exceedingly angry at the delay. Site did it. She played the very piece that T was to have played! When I arrived, in the middle of the applause, I could not think what was happening, and when I met my ‘doulde’ as she came off. (dashing hut proud. I began to think I ’nuet be dreaming. When I went on myself next time the Audieme seemed a ittlc surprised at the rapidity with which I had changed my costume, but they never knew of the deception that had been practised upon Ihcpi, .and never will, for I am glad to say that my manager was able to obtain for my. obliging double a good position in a much larger town very many miles, a way, where she has remained ever since, pledged to secrecy, but very proud of her only experience M an impersonator.**

Filling a Theatre. The palm for advertising has generally been conceded to America, but a Berlin theatre manager can claim that he is facile prineeps. Recently the following advertisement appeared in the newspapers in the German capital just at a time when a new piece was to be pro-

duced : — “Young Lady’, Orphan, with £lO,OOO at her disposal and proprietress of one of the most important retail businesses in Prussia, wishes to meet a young man capable of managing her business, with a view to matrimony; No special business training necessary, nor need he be possessed of means. Write M.W.8., guardian. No agents.” On the morning of the representation each of those who replied to the advertisement received a beautifully lithographed note in these terms: — Sir, —It is a most important matter to know whether my niece w ill please you. This evening she will be with me at Theatre in box No. —. M.W.B. The theatre was crowded with young men, and during the -play the lorgnettes were all turned on box No. —, but it was empty'. “ Gee Gee.” Mr. George Grossmith, actor and entertainer, who died in London a few days ago, aged 65 years, when 19 years of age left school to assist his father, who was a police court reporter on the staff of “The Times.” Developing ability' as an entertainer, he forsook journalism for the stage, and Was soon a publie favourite. He played leading parts during the height- of the Savoy Theatre comic opera successes, and in 1889 began a 17 years’ tour with single-handed humorous and musical recitals. During this time he wrote “A Society Clown,” “Piano and I,” ‘‘The Diary’ of a Nobody” (in conjunction with his brother, Mr. Weedon Grossmith), “Haste to the Wedding” (the libretto of which was composed by Sir W. S. Gilbert), and more than 600 humorous and satirical songs and sketches. He retired from the stage and platform in 1908, His son, who is a popular comk-opera artist in London to-day, is part author of “The Girls of Gottenburg,” “The Spring Chicken,” and “Havana.”

The Superstitious Limit. Miss Hilda Spong says:—“My own pet mascot is an apron 1 bought from a Alaori girl when touring as little more than a child with my father’s company in New’ Zealand.: I have never been without it, and have worn it in many pai'ts. I wore it as Lady Huntingdon in “Lady' Huntingdon’s Experiment.” I doubt if there is an actor or actress who •doesn’t possess a mascot,or who would appear without it, particularly on a first night. This is probably due to ’the gamble we all have for success. Sarah Bernhardt has a little jewelled skull. It was formerly the property of Rachel. Without this mascot she would refuse to go on the stage. I can see the superior smile of many at hearing this, but if the possession of some grotesque figure, a bit of ribbon, or a glove that once belonged to somebody- else, a coin, a charm can be made to help us reach our respective goals in life, why- should they’ not be cherished?'*

A Distiller's Hobby. The Stradivari us collector will have a chance to enrich his stock, for, by the death of Mr. Robert Crawford, of Edinburgh, the well-known whisky distiller, a genuine “Strad” which he possessed will probably come into the market. Mr. Crawford bought the instrument for £2OOO, and it will probably fetch anything now from three to four thousand. “Bob” Crawford was always a musical enthusiast and had a dip in many a theatrical and musical lucky- bag. He made a fortune in whisky and financed many a theatrical venture—his last coup being a deal in “The Arcadians.” He lately settled in London, but on his previous visits he delighted to take a few friends to lunch and dinner and had a peculiarity that during Hie meal he passed you from a huge pocket a cigarette every other minute. Cigars would vary this monotony, and on conclusion he would ■ask for your address, with the result that in the coprse of a few days you received « dozen of very old whisky, a dozen of very nice ginger wine - and. if a married man, a quart of pure lavender water. Thia was his stock present to a select .coterie of acquaintance* within a week of. their lunching with him, write* J. M. Clover

The Censor's Duty. It is curious how superstitions linger and refuse to be abolished, observes the San Franciseq “Argonaut.” The English censor of plays has just resigned, and of course there is a clamour for the appointment of a woman in his place. A woman, we are told, is a much better judge of stage improprieties than a man, and with a woman in the seat of the mighty’ there would Jbe no fear of the presentation of any play to which women would object. Probably not. That is just where the trouble comes in. That is why a woman should not be a dramatic censor. The object of a dramatic censor is, presumably, to keep the stage pure and not to fill' it with plays acceptable to women. That is just the kind of play’ that we do not want. When the English censor banns a play’ upon the ground of indecency he is consulting the preferences of men, not of women. Jt is the man who objects to.puriency, not his maiden aunt, The problem play that pretends to map and chart the viee of a big city is sustained by’ women, not by, men. The-English-speak-ing stage is low enough in all conscience arid it can never be redeemed, by a censorship of any kind. But if we want to see it imitate the Gadarene swine and run down a steep place into the sea. by all means appoint a woman censor.. But it will not be done in England. They will draw the line somewhere. “ Among the Gods.”

. It was.a sweet-, sad play, and-there was hardly a dry handkerchief in the house. But one man in the gallery, “among the gods,” irritated Iris companions excessively- by refusing to take the performance in the proper spirit. Instead of weeping he laughed. While others were mopping their eyes and endeavouring to stifle their sobs 'his own eyes brimmed with merriment, and he Ipirst into inappropriate guffaws. At last the lady by his side turned upon him indignantly. “I d-don't know what brought you h-here,” she sobbed, with streaming eyes, and pressing her hand against her aching heart; “but if y-you don’t like the p-play you might 1-let other p-people enjoy- it.” “Every woman.” On Easter Monday at His Majesty’s Theatre. Auckland, we are to have a quite uncommon play, “Every woman,” which has been talked about a lot in

Australia, where it had a very succeedful run. The leading actress is M:se Hilda Spong. said to be remarkably fine in the’ role of “Everywoman.’” Describing the piece,' Walter Browne, the author,‘says:—“While every character in ‘Everywoman’ is symbolic of various abstract virtues, vices, and conditions, 1 have' endeavoured to make them also concrete types of actual men and women of the present day. It was my’ object to present an allegory, in the shape of a stage play, sufficiently dramatic and soulstirring in its story and action to form an attractive entertainment, quite apart from its psychological significance. ‘Everywoman’ is intended to afford pleasure and entertainment to all classes of intelligent playgoers, hence the music, the songs, the choruses, the dances, the spectacular and scenic effects, and the realism of everyday life. It is not a sermon in disguise. To every woman who nowadays listens to flattery, goes in quest of love, and openly lays siege to the hearts of men, this play may provide a kindly warning. To every man it may’ suggest an admonition, the text of which is contained -in the epilogue to the play: ‘Be merciful, be just, be fair. To Everywoman. everywhere. Her faults are many. Nobody’s the blame.’” “In ‘Everywoman’ there is enough Comedy to give you rest; enough by-play to thrown open the window and let in the fresh air; enough witchery’ of girls so the curtains are parted and the sun streams in from the east carrying the perfume of life’s morning,” writes Elbert Hubbard. “‘Everywoman’ is a play’ that makes us think, makes us feel, sounds our heartstrings, and then makes us laugh, sending us away happy. And we feel all the better for it. The whole thing how looms large in my memory, and I feel that the witnessing of this play was an event, an epoch, a great white milestone in my life's little journey.” l . • . ’ ; The Marlow Season. There is nothing like a good rousing melodrama to draw the crowd, as the Marlow management has found out, and last week's season in Auckland, with that very vivid story’ “A Girl’s Temptation,” was an excellent one from the standpoint of the box office. The harrowing hardships which , the good and innocent girl has to bear at the hands of everybody in

tne play were revelled In by full houses nightly. This evening the company will stage an exciting piece called “The Luck of Roaring Camp,’’ full of the glitter and glamour of the mining days when there was much sin, but also much virtue. The dramatist has boiFed down the thrill of the wild life in a most realistic manner, which cannot fail to win the heartiest approval from the devotee of the melodrama.

Liedertafel Concert. The Auckland Town Hal] was packed on Monday night when the Liedertafel gave an open concert. Now that the society can secure the municipal hall they can extend their subscribers’ list considerably (previously they were limited by the smallness of the Choral Hall) and there will no doubt be a large demand for tickets. It is certainly the besttrained body of singers we have in Auckland, and Monday night’s audience derived the greatest pleasure from the pro-

gramme. The part singing was, a revelation to those who have not been privileged to hear the society before. Particularly good were Adam’s “Comrades in Arms,” Storch’s “Hattie Prayer,” and Gibson’s “Summer Lullaby.” The Lyrie Four were encored several times after each item, and others assisting in the programme were Mr. A. H. Ripley and Mr. T. B. Rowe. Dr. W. E. Thomas, conductor of the. Liedertafel, who is to be complimented on the excellent performance of the society under his baton, also played two selections on the organ.

Stray Notes. The programme of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra .fpr the coming season Is an attractive one. It includes several works new to Sydney. For example, Berlioz's “Harold in Italy,” Dvorak’s “Fourth Symphony,” Tschaikow sky's “Francesca da Rimini, Fantasia, and the

piquant "L’Apprenti Sorcier” of Duke's, an example of modern French music, the appeal of which has the saving grace of being on the surface as well as below it.

Mr. Julius Knight has been engaged as leading man for the Repertory Theatre, Manchester, England. Ovid Musin, the violinist who many years ago visited New Zealand, has been made an officer of the Order of Leopold, a Belgian distinction. He was made a chevalier off the order ten years ago, and his promotion came to him as something of a surprise, as he had left Belgium for some years now, and governments, like kings, and for that matter democracies, have a way of forgetting. Miss Elsie Hall, the Australian musician, has returned to Melbourne after ten years’ absence She won the Mendelssohn State prize at Berlin, and was pianoforte teacher to Princess Mary at Buckingham Palace The Auckland Amateur Opera Club

have'booked dates April 29 to May 4 for a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera “Pinafore.”. The cast, I understand, ■ will be a strong one, and will include Messrs. Laurie Abrahams, Abel Rowe, A. Warbrick, J. ,W. Atkinson, F. Marshall, F. Adeane, Mrs. Abel Rowe, and Miss Ruby Burke. . The following is the population of Tiny Town, at present in Australia, and shortly to be in Auckland:—Miss Hansi Andre, aged. 34, 38in. high, born in Hungary; Miss. Ilonka IJla.sphek, aged 24, Mr. John Farrell, who was advance agent for the JI; B. Irving Company throughout the recent record tour in New Zealand, was presented by Mr. Irving with a solid silver cigarette case, suitably inscribed, as a token of esteem, and of his appreciation of Mr. Farrell’r good work “on the road.” before the company left Wellington for Sydney.

34in. high, born in Austria; Arthur, aged

23, 34in. high, born in Germany, Morello, aged 20, 36in. high, born in Northern Italy; Alfonzo, aged 26, 36in. high” born in Austria; Miss Isabel, aged 21, 33iu. high, born in Austria; Hayati Haesid, aged 57, 30in. high, born in Turkey; Pompeo, aged 29, 35in. h’gh, born in Austria; Miss Anita, aged 27, 30in. high, born in Austria; Miss Paola, aged 25, 31in. high, born in Austria; Armstrong, aged 54, 36in. high, born in Australia.

The Oscar Asche season opens in Melbourne on April 6th with "Kismet,” the very Eastern play which had a good run in England. Williamson’s are bringing the Quinlan Opera Company to Australia. There are said to be over 200 people in the combination. They arrive in the first week of June.

Miss Rosina- Buckman is to sing the solos in Bach's Passion music, under engagement to the Sydney Philharmonic Society. She will subsequently go to Mel-

bourne to rehearse for the production of Marshall Hall's opera "Stella,” in which she takes the title role. At the conclusion of this engagement she returns to Auckland to sing Sullivan's Golden Legend at the Auckland Musical Union’s performance. Possibly afterwards she will go on to. Wellington and Cliristchurch to sing in “Cavalleria Rustieana” for the musical societies of those towns. When these engagements are over she will give a few concerts in New Zealand, and a farewell one in New Plymouth during May, prior to leaving for Europe. Miss Clarice Buckman accompanies her sister as far as Melbourne, where she is going to study at Marshall Hall’s Conservatoire. Another attractive programme at the Ly lie Picture Theatre in Symonds-street was responsible for full houses every evening last week. The best picture was “The Freshet,” portraying the incidauta

of human interest of a flood. This week's programme will include “Our Soldiers in the Making,” a particularly good local film of the camp at Papatoetoe last week.

Some time ago natives were refuses access to the dress circle at a Napier theatre. The matter was referred to the municipal authorities, who obtained a legal opinion as to whether a license could be cancelled if certain persons were refused admission to any part of the building. The opinion is to the effect that 'there were certain conditions affecting the license, but those conditions do not in any way purport to control the authority of 'the theatreowner in regard to regulating the class of persons he shall admit to the various parts of the theatre. Moreover, if the Council should decline to issue a license, the theatre-owner has his remedy in the Supreme Court. What*'V(:r I’emetV 1 ’ emet V the excluded persons may have jn any other direction, it is not within tbe power of the Council to interfere on tu«ii- behalf.