Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 14, 2 April 1913, Page 14

Music and Drama.

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BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS. (Dates subject to alteration.) H.M. THEATRE, AUCKLAND, .larch f 4 to April 12— J. C. Williamson. Ltd.. ' ' "• • .. May 9 to 21 —Branscombe Co. May 22 to June 7—J. C. Williamson. Ltd. June 9 to June 25 —Geo. Marlow, Ltd. Juno 26 to July 5—J. C. Williamson, Ltd. July 7 to 19—Allen Doone. August 4to 16—J. C. Williamson, Ltd. August 28 to September 27 —Branscombe Co. October Ito 11—J. C. Williamson, Ltd. AUCKLAND PICTCRE SHOWS. Globe Theatre, Queen Street—Continuous. Music and English. HGOOD deal of interest lias been aroused in the Old Country by the decision of a prominent firm of music publishers to employ only English expression marks in the songs which 'they publish. In a noiig called -‘Dust of the Desert,” recently published, the instructions were given, ‘-Don’t drag.” At first sight the Idea of putting English marks into English songs seems very attractive, says a (Vocalist, and sotiie of the younger composers have taken to it very keenly. For instance, Mr Cyril Scott and Mr Percy Grainger in their larger choral and orchestral works have avoided foreign words; similarly Mr Rutland Boughton, in a choral work produced at the Birmingham Festival three years ago. German composers., of course, have led the way in this, and French composers have long .adopted the same theory: but it lias been the habit of these responsible for the English editions of French and German works to translate the instructions into Italian, and, after all, there is something to be said for that .point of view; Universal Marks. The accepted Italian terms have after all in the course of generations become part bf the merit I’.il'ity of {musicians. Everybody all over the world knows, for instance, the meaning of Allegro, Andante, tranquillol Ritardando. If. the fust is translated into “Schnell" or ‘Quickly" and the second into "Ruing gehend,” or “With a gentle motion as of walking,’.’.the interpreter, who reads it would probably think that it means something slightly different, and a good many of the expression marks printed in wpt-ks like “Pelleas et Melisande” in French are slightly puzzling to foreigners who would have no difficulty in tinderstandif g the ordinary Italian equivalents. If music, is supposed to be the most cosmopolitan of the arts, putting such difficulties in the' way of interpreters surely has Jts disadvantages. Morever, it is difficult to know where do draw the line. If every country is to claim the right to use its own language exclusively what is there to prevent a composer in Bucharest using Rumanian, or one in Budapest using the Magyar language, or a patriotic Irishman using Erse, and also the type belonging to that language? These who follow Russian compositions with the full scores are frequently brought face to face with a direction printed in Russian, which i.s quite unintelligible. Some Contretemps. A good "instance of tlte disadvantage of the innovation :» to be found in a story which was current some lime ago of an eminent German conductor who was conducting a choir in the North of England, and came aero- » a pa sage marked "Breiter.” which, of course, means "Broader." He called out to the singers "Breiter. ladies and gentlemen, breiter.” and could not unde; stand why the result was the exact opposite to what he wished ■p-t lie. reason of course being that they understood him fo mean "brighter.” . , The'other day I came acrriM in a German compi sitioti the instruction "Mit edlem Auadrm-k.” which is not easily intelligible to the average Englishman. ..It >4, however, the exact eqjjjp'it.lent of Sir Edgar Elgar’s favourite <1 irection ’ ‘‘No bilmenta.” It » difficult to see how it would have been to the eom-

pceer’s patriotism to have followed Sir Edward’s example. The whole question is one on which it would be interesting to know th-o opinions of musicians in general. J» JI The Divine Mozart. 7 Mr. E. J. Dent has issued a volume, “ Mozart’s Operas—A Critical Study,” being an elaboration of a pamphlet he wrote for the Cambridge performances of “ Die Zauberflote ’’ a year or so since. No one can easily surpass Mr. Dent in the pursuit of his main argument. He knows all that is really 'worth knowing about his subject, and his enthusiasm will assuredly not prove unwelcome to a generation which is rediscovering Mozart with refreshing eagerness. Superior persons, who affect to think that music begins with Wagner, and are bored to tears by Beethoven, may not like him, and even those who endorse Haydn’s estimate of his hero must make ari'effort to get'at Mr. Dent's point of view. It is not easy to put aside all that has happened since 1791, and to approach "Don Giovanni” from the standpoint of a contemporary.. But the effort is worth making,.and until it is made the only operas that can stand comparison with those of Verdi and Wagner are likely to be neglected in England, where, as Mr. Dent says, *’ Die Zauberflote ” has been presented to Metropolitan audiences only twice in twenty years. He is eminently right, says a contemporary, in his view that we are lucky in being unhampered by tradition, and his advice as to the steps to be taken before Mozart ean be restored to our stage is so necessary as to be almost pathetic. First and foremost, he demands an instant improvement in the art of singing—a substitution of the bel canto for the modern declamation. His ' next point is that performances should be given in the vernacular,' and his last that producers should learn from Wagner that an opera is a musical whole, in which orchestra, voices, ■ and '.stage effects combine to form one. uninterrupted symplioiiy. -Tlie conclusion of the whole/-, matter, as far‘ : as iF.haa'been carried at', present, is happily stated by Mr Dent, when he says—and who shall contradict him? —that from Mozart more than from any other composer we may most easily learn to understand operatic ideals at their best. J* The Insidious Ragtime. There is no escape from rag-time. It took the Atlantic at a bound, and has found no difficulty in making the short stride over the English Channel. It is heard everywhere now in Paris. At all the favourite tea rendezvous—the Elysee Palace, the Carlton, at the Pavilion Bleu at St. Cloud, at all the.cafes, where there is a band, in the last ■’revue” at the Olympia Music Hail, wherever one goes, in fact, there are sure to be found th’ strains of this maltreated music.’ It iu quite a sight to see the tiddlers frowning in the attempt to master the weird and subtle syncopations. Ragtime is a different thing in the hands of a cafe orchestra from what it is in London: but it io still ragtime. There is no difficulty in ■recognising "Everybody’s Doing It." "Ob, You Beautiful Doll," "Ragging the Baby to Sleep.” and all the rest. "There’s a Girl in Havannah” is another great favourite, but they all "go down” very well; they all induce the same tapping of feet and wagging of heads that they produced in Lohdon ami in the country of their birth. It is difficult To say exactly how ragtime got to Paris. There are so many English “turro" on the music-halls that it seems likely that the infection was brought over by one of them. Jt *' The Pretenders " —A Great Drama The genius of Ibsen as a dramatist stands high, and the production of ”Tli'" Pretenders" in London last month adds another success to' his credit- This drama posses-os intense power, exuberant variety and absorbing interest. Of it a foremost English eritic aaya: —During the long performance! had been living 'with : those virile, tempestuous 'nien of thirteenth-century Norway, and not only living with them, but understanding them. Moreover, linen was no dealer in the sham antique. His

characters are real, and are not est-enti-ally of any period. It is usual in writing of Ibsen to separate his creative life into periodo, and the impression is given that there were at least three distinct 'lbsens. “'The Pretenders,” according to that view, belongs to the middle period, which gave the world "Emperor and Galilean,” “Love’s Comedy,” “Brand,” and “Peer Gynt,” but these divisions are arbitrary. From the first Ibsen’s power was that he dealt with the human soul. In the early dramas he was still trammelled by conventions, theatrical and other, but always he tried to dramatise the soul-life of mankind. In “The Pretenders” that attempt had become an achievement, and a very great achievement. The Genins of Ibsen. Frankly, I do not know where to place Ibsen if it be not at the side of .Shakespeare, in his keen insight into the hearts and minds of men. Where in the whole range of drama can you find such a well-drawn, consistent character as Bishop Nicholas in this play, unless you go to Shakespeare? Where is there another Earl Skule, ambitious and yet torn with doubt of himself, cunning and yet wise, egotistical and yet capable of a great self-sacrifice, doomed to lonelineas by his nature and yet passionately longing for love and faith? And, then, by way of contrast, there is the simple, genial, King Ilakon, the “unfortunate’ man who achieves, by his very nature, almost without an effort, what Earl Skule has always seen slip from his grasp. • ‘ It has been said that Ibsen meant Ilakon to stand for Bjornson, and Skule for himself, but we need not inquire into the origin of a dramatist’s inspiration. He must; of course, draw on his own experiences, unless he is a barren, objective playwright. Moreover, these two characters have a world-wide significance, They represent the two struggling forces of men’s souls; the geniality and simplicity of faith and and the long and bitter struggle towards the light of the more - complex and darker nature—“ God’s stepchild on earth.” , In clearness of 'significance, however, “The Pretenders’.’ is compared .with the -best of the social dramas- This play is, indeed, ajkind of inverted sketch book for Ibsen's later plays. Thus it is Bishop Nicholas, too, weak and cowardly to hold Iris own in a world of turbulent passiotw,’ and' corroded with implacable jealousy; who 'eimneiates the later doctrine of self. -King Ilakon begins Ids reign by banishing his mother and his friends. A king must stand alone. But lie needs the love of his wife and his mother in the' moment of crisis. Earl Skule stands alone and fights for himself, but he, too, learns that he must have faith and love, and he finds himself through them and through the beauty of Halcon's great King's Thought, "Norway has been a kingdom, it shall become a people .... all shall be one hereafter, and al! shall feel and know that they are one.” Panacea For World’s Ills. Ibsen's panacea for the ills of the world in “The Pretenders” is the Christian doctrine of self-sacrifice and love. That, one would say, is the ultimate trend of the play, but here and there in the speeches of Earl Skule we can note the beginnings of others ideas. I do not think one should look for a definite meaning in "The Pretenders.” It is, above all, a .stirring drama, and although it deals with psychological as much as with physical action, it must not be judged as a “tendency play." Perhaps it i<s all the greater because it does not seek to prove anything- One can deduce as many meanings from its scenes and characters as one can from a contemplatic.n of life itself. And what great drama rsome of those scenes are! The death of the Bishop is borrowed from the conventional stage, of course, but with -what subtle irony and humo ir and with what tense psychological interest it i.» treated! I can well understand that the character of the Bishop is a favourite with actors in Norway and Germany. For quiet, restrained drama I know of no scene more thrilling than that •in which Ilakon bears down the rebellious Skule by sheer force of kingly temperament, and none that reaches a higher plane of pathos and poetry than that other in which Skule seeks to drag from the Scald the Secret of his. scald-hip. None but a poet and a great poet could have written such a scene. ■ >' ir • 1

Final!v, passing over many a pa-.,age of beauty and pathos, there U the si-s---tained grandeur of Earl Skule’# renuncia

tion, when. to save his daughter'.} child from the anger of the mob, and to establish peace, he breaks sanctuary and thrown himself on his enemies’ thirsting weapons: •‘There are men born to live, and men born to die. My derive was ever thitherward where God’s finger pointed out the way for me; therefore, I never saw my path clear, till now. ... I must into the mighty church. roof-ed-with the vault of stars, and ’tis the King of Kings I must implore for gta.ce and mercy over all my life-work." Jt Jl Repertory Theatres and Drama as. an Art. It is stated that steadily the repertory theatre is taking root in the provinces of the Old Country. Birmingham recently opened such a theatre, Sheffield is due to follow, and .Leeds -contemplates a repertory season as an experiment. At present there are repertory

theatres in Manchester. Liverpool, and Dublin, all on a sound footing. At Glasgow- the. venture- was not a financial. success, and : the performances have been suspended meanwhile. This repertory movement, it, is claimed, should have, a lasting effect on drama as an art. In the first place, it provides a neu - market for the dramatist. "The London standard is ’hopeless.' No manager cares to mount a play unless he can be sure of its bating a long run. A run of .50 nights is a comparative failure for an ordinary commercial theatre, and, indeed, in the ease of an elaborate production, it hardly pays expenses. This seriously limits the kind of drama that can be accepted by a manager. If there was an English Ibsen, whose ideas were :as unknown as Ibsen's twenty years ago, no manager would produce his plays. Possibly the Stage Society might give him a couple of performances, but a literary man cannot be expected to turn his attention to drama in Such conditions. Apart altogether from a financial reward for his work, he is not content -with such a barren result of much thought and contrivance. A play that is not performed is dead as art. If published, it may appeal to a small circle of readers, but that is not the kind of appeal a dramatist wishes to make. These considerations have, prevented- foremost literary men from looking on the stage as a natural medium for their expression of life. Consequently the writing of plays has been left to men who who have been content to take the theatre as. it exists in London. Some of them have done good work, but, unfit recently, the . stage did not claim the attention of first-class minds. With numerous repertory theatres in the provinces, the conditions are changed. A play which could not be mounted for an ordinary London theatre may be just the kind of drama which will suit a repertory theatre. (Supposing, for instance, a drama of an exceptional kind could be played for, say, ten performances at each repertory theatre during the season, it would be given quite a respectable total of representations, to say nothing •of subsequent revivals. And then there is the question of the influence of the repertory theatre on acting. The movement opens up a new field of work for clever young actors and actresses. Already in London there liavq been seen the result of the Manchester theatre, both in plays and players. JSC J* “ Begatting.” The Scotch practice of Bible-reading was the subject of a story which Harry Lauder, the famous comedian, recently recalled to a party of friends. “It was a fine September night," said Lauder, “and as the harvest was nearly in, the guid farmer decided to finish operations after the usual wee bit 'of supper and Biblereading. As it happened, the lesson for the day was inconveniently long: in fact, it was one of those guid Old Testament chapters telling how one begat another and another begat another in about eighty or iqfiety verses. The farmer paused at such a task when the harvest was waiting, so, deciding that business was before pleasure, he announced solemnly to the assembled company: ‘Men, I have here a chapter of 81 verses, telling how one begat anither. and, as the harvest is waiting, I'll just read the first verse and leave them to their begatting while we get in the harvest.’ ” Hugard's Mysteries. Hugard and his company of entertainers, including Chung Sung Loo, the great Chinese magician, will open a six nights’ season at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, on Monday, April 7. The great Oriental Act, “A Night in n Chinese. Palace,’’ takes up the whole of the second part of- the programme, during which the stage is a blaze of Oriental grandeur and effect, and not a word is spoken, yet the magician and his assistant flit about performing wonder after wonder in a most amazing fashion, holding the audience spellbound with the effects producedThis act is spoken of as being weird, fascinating, spectacular,and has had remarkable runs throughout Europe, America, and Australia. Hugard, as a sleight-of-band performer, is said to be superb, and his great rifle act is the talk of Australia. In this act Hugard allows three local riflemen to bring their own rifles and cartridges, load them, also mark

the bullets ami shells. A committee selected from the audience examines the rifles and cartridges. The cartridges are handed over to the audience for inspection. The riflemen then ■ load up. and from the rear of the stalls fire at Hugard's heart. When picked up the bullets are hot, marked with grooves of the rifle, and during the act, which is of ten minutes’ duration, Hugard never leaves the stage, and is in full view throughout. An American musical aet of note is included in the first part of the programme by Miss Myra Errington, also humorous items by Geo. Carman, the English comedian. The box plan is at Wildman and Arey’s. JX jX Miss Bosworth's Concert. A grand complimentary concert, to be held at the Auckland Town Hall on Thursday, April 10, will be tendered by the citizens to Miss Ina Bosworth, the young Auckland violinist in whose playing Lord and Lady Islington have taken sueli an interest. The following artists will assist:—Madame Donienica Martinengo (mezzo-soprano), Miss Stella McLean ( soprano), Miss Annie Lyons' (elocutionist), Messrs Maughan Barnett (city organist?, ' Walter Gray (tenor), Arthur Colledge (baritone), Harold Piper (pianist), and Thomas Harris (elocutionist). The concert will be under the patronage of His Excellency the Governor and Lady Liverpool.

Globe Theatre. The management of the Globe Continuous Pictures, Queen supplying their patrons with first-class film programmes, in which nothing senrational or inferior is to 'be found. The theatre, which is most attractive'y fitted up and al wave perfectly ventilated, appears to be steadily growing in favour with the publie. JX 3 “ The Butterflies.'’ Mr. Jack Wallers merry company of entertainers, "The Butterflies,” who are now well into their second week in the Auckland Town Hall concert chamber and have already made themselves favourites with Auckland theatre-goers, present a bright and original programme, with plenty of good humour and some really good music. jX JX Berlin Amateurs. According to an Australian student who is now in Germany, the Berliners are not altogether above reproach in their behaviour at the opera. It is quite a common practice, he says, for the people in the front rows to stand up from their seats when the curtain rises, and thus obscure the view of those behind. These latter vent their feelings by hisses and “sitzen” (sit down) —■ which in itself sounds very much like a hiss—and other forms of objurgation. But it appears to be of no use, and eventually those who are prevented from seeing have to stand up too. With the Wagnerian operas, lasting in some casts five hours, music under such con-

ditions becomes, even to enthusiasts, something of a trial. Speaking of Wagner, the same correspondent remarks that in Vienna it is quite a common occurrence for people to be taken out of the theatre suffering from hysterics. On three different occasions this happened, and, as our informant, who is of the fair sex, remarks with some significance, "on each occasion the subject was a man.” Whether this is meant as a hint that women have greater nerve control in musical matters than men is not made clear. But it may. be remarked that the neurotic student abounds on the Continent. He it is one sees in the Prater at Vienna with his hair a la Beethoven ; in Buda Pest aping the manners of Liszt, and. in other art centres exhibiting similar imitative characteristics. And it is probably from such that the hysterical outbursts commonly come. Stray Notes. “The Confession,” the new drama which Mr. William Anderson recently purchased from America, is, according to recent advices, being played by no less than sixteen djTereqt companies, and is everywhere attaining great popularity. Mr. Anderson hopes to stage this play within the next few months, and it is just possible that the first presentation in Australia will be simultaneous with the initial production of the play in England.

In a recent interview with Theodore Kremer, in America, the popular playwright is credited with stating that his recent drama, “The Evil Men Do,” had proved an even more distinctive success than "The Fatal Wedding.” Everywhere it has been produced crowded audiences have proclaimed its popularity. Mr. Kremer is said to have infused all that knowledge of stagecraft for which he has been noted into the construction of his play, and this fact is probably partly responsible for the large measure of success that has attended it. The Criterion Theatre. Sydney, at present leased by J. ('. Williamson, Ltd., has been sold, the purchaser being Mr. John Wren, of Melbourne. The price paid for the property, which comprises, in addition to the theatre, an hotel and three shops, was £•><),000. Mr. Wren intends shortly to proceed with the erection in Melbourne cf a new theatre. It is to- be built in a central position and on the most modern lines. Mr. Reynolds Denniston, who was seriously ill last year, returned to the stage when the Little Theatre, in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, was opened on Saturday last. With his health completely restored, Mr. Dennistou played a part in “The Mau on the Box.” lie is also tho business manager of tho company. William F. Hnwtrey, who for several years was associated with the J. C. Williamson Dramatic Company, and whose Colonel Sapt in “Tire Prisoner of Zenda” is likely to .be remembered, is now in America. Ho was to appear last month in tho Harris Theatre, New York, in a whimai-al comedy called "The OM Firm.*

I'nder the heading “Coloured Light’s Symphony,” in a recent London newspaper, appears a reference to "Prometheus. a Poem of Fire,’.’ by Alexander Scriabin, a young Russian.composer, in the printed score a line of notation is placed-above the flute music and allotted to "Light.” This notation is to produce with a suitable instrument varying colour effects on a screen during the progress of the music. . ,•