CHORAL HALL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 894, 25 April 1907, Page 17

CHORAL HALL.

TE RANGI PAL „ This evening the famous contralto, Te Rangi Pai, will give a concert at the Ghoral Hall, when a choice programme will be . submitted. She will be supported by Madame Wielaert, Miss Daisy Evans, Mr Abel Rowe, Mr Victor Bagnall, Mr T. E.. Midgley, and the ■ Unique Quartette.

The numerous admirers of Mr Harry Linden and Miss Ida Berridge will genuinely regret their departure this week for Wellington. As a charming serio, Miss Berridge is a veritable “darling of the gods,” while Mr Linden is a born comedian. Last week they were the recipients of a neat little presentation, Mr Linden receiving a silver-mounted case of pipes, with a note “To Harry; from the, boys,” and Miss Berridge a handsome manicure set. , * * * * “Can actresses be Christians?” That, is a matter of controversy in Melbourne at ' present. Some extraordinary stater ments were made in the Melbourne “Argus” by a high-minded female with rigid ideas of the sins and iniquities of' this wicked world. Miss Tittel- Brune has taken the cudgels up in defence of her profession, and in a spirited reply scores heavily. The popular tragedienne points out that in the ordinary run of plays virtue always triumphs over vice, and claims that some of the best men and women she has known are exponents of the histrionic. * * * * Brinn, the wonderful juggler, who pushes men, and cannons, and things about with his face, and who toured .New. Zealand last winter, is making his final appearance, at the Sydney Tivoli this week. * * * * “One of my pleasantest stage experiences in having been “Flavia” to Mr Harcourt Beatty’s Rudolph in “The Prisoner of Zenda.” “You like Mr Beatty in Australia, don’t you? Yes, of course, everybody likes him wherever he appears,” thus Miss Marion Gray, leading lady of the Knight-Williamson Company, in a recent interview. * * * > My Christchurch correspondent writes : On Saturday Mr Chas. Verner opened at the T.R. under the auspices of the Macmahons, and supported by their Co. in “Shamus O’Brien,” a story of the troublous times of ’9B, in Ould Oireland, and made an immediate hit. Mr Verner’s acting in the star part was commendably free from mannerisms and “staginess,” and the immense audieince testified by frequent applause to their appreciation of the performance, which was a very fine one throughout. To-morrow is to witness a change of bill, when Boucicault’s famous piece, “Arrah Na Pogue,” is to be put on, and this will be followed by “Robert Emmet.” . . Fred. A. Graham and Nellie Dent are gathering fresh laurels at Fuller’s, while Lieut.McDonald, “the king of sharpshooters,” Clarence Tisdale, Sam Wilson, and a heap of others are also contributing most acceptable turns to a capital bill. . . The ill-luck which appeared to attach to Canterbury Hall as a place of entertainment appears to have changed altogether since the house was to some extent re-modelled, and “His Majesty’s” seems to attract large audiences whenever a good company holds the boards there and witness the packed condition of this theatre at the opening performance of Meynell and Gunn’s “Midnight Wedding” Co. this week. This attractively-named production is what it purports to be—“a romantic military drama,” and contains a number of powerful situations. But it would be improved by “boiling down” a bit.

As “Paul Valmar,” the gallant swordmaster of the Red Hussars, who sacrifices ambition and riches to the domestic affections, Mr Harcourt Beatty has never been seen to better advantage. The part, which might have been written to order for him, is a favourite one of' his own, and certainly he does it justice. The house fairly rose at him on two or three occasions, and his success was pronounced. Deserving also, of honorable mention, was the “Captain Von Scarsbinch” (a villain of the deepest dye) of Mr Jas. Lindsay. The hoots and groans of a virtuous pit were a testimony of the most convincing kind to the acting of Mr Lindsay. Mr Stanford (well remembered here and a capable artist) gave a good performance as “Father Gerrard.” Miss May Congdon, as the “Princess Astrea,” played with much sweetness and power, and enlisted the sympathies of the whole house. This fine piece is to be followed bv a brief revival of “The Fatal -Wedding,” in which the famous “tin-can band” of juveniles appears. The season will be very short. . . Tom Pollard, I hear, is about to take over the management of His Majesty’s. . . The new Theatre Royal is making rapid progress towards completion. The building is all but finished, but of course the carpenters, painters and decorators will be busy inside the walls for some time to come. The shops beneath do not by any means improve the appearance of the new house from the street. . . We are likely to have,a dearth of shows here (after the present companies leave us), for some time to come. The Exhibition is over and (presumably) showmen think it’ s as well to give the Cathedral city a rest after its six months’ of excitement. I suppose we shall soon be fast asleep again.

Harcourt Beatty, now playing the leading character of “Paul Valmar” in “The Midnight Wedding” on its initial performance in Dunedin, caused a sensation. Several ladies among the audience were quite carried away with excitement when Mr ; Beatty, after being shot in the right wrist, by the adventuress, declares his intention of fighting the coming .duel with his . left hand, and a feminine voice was heard from the audience emphatically exclaiming, “You shan’t! You shan’t!”

. The 30 famous kiddies of the Tin Can Band in “The Fatal Wedding” are still with the Company, and have manifested a keen joy in their return to New Zealand. Misses Queenie Williams, Maggie Dickenson, Daisy Mendoza, Flossie DicVenson, Beryl Jackson, all appear in the new children’s scene, which contains a number of new and up-to-date novelties. Little Maisie Posner will again be seen as the precocious little mother.

In an interesting budget, Messrs J. and N. Tait write that among the many instances of abounding popularity of the Besses o’ th’ Barn Band in New Zealand, one in particular is worthy of mention. During its tour of that colony it visited Auckland just at the time of the Easter Racing Carnival there, and the Auckland Racing Club promptly offered Messrs J. and N. Tait the sum of _ £5OO if they would allow the band to play on their course during the racing on Easter Monday and Tuesday. This offer alone is strong enough evidence of how the institution regarded the drawing power of the band, but the fact that Messrs J. and N. Tait declined the offer makes the evidence still more striking, for it indicates a confidence, subsequently proved well founded, that the directors of the tour considered that they could achieve better results in another way. The whole New Zealand tour has indeed been a remarkable one, both in enthusiasm and the amount of work done. When they leave New Zealand on the 6th May after a sojourn of four months, the band will have given a

total of 200 performances, which averages out at two a day for the working days of the week —and every one of these performances was a success.

A whole novel might be written round the early years of Miss Marie Hall, the brilliant young violiniste whom Messrs J. and N. Tait will introduce to Australia in June next. With a musical father from whom she inherited her artistic genius, Miss Hall began life as a poor little street player in Bristol. Even then her talent was so striking that Sir Edward Elgar and Wilhelmij both gave her lessons free, and under them she succeeded in winning a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. That scholarship, however, she had to abandon, lacking the means to take up her studies in London. After this gleam of sunshine she went back to the old dreary toil of a street musician, until a Bristol philanthropist charmed and touched by the pathos of her lot, took her future in hand and succeeded in securing for her a course of lessons, first from Johann Kruse in London, and then under the famous Sevoik in Prague. Less than two years after she went to him he told her he could teach her nothing more, and sent her out to erobark upon that career of conquest which has continued to the present day.

Large and thoroughly enthusiastic audiences are still attending Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne (writes Mr George Tallis), where “Parsifal” continues to excite the warmest admiration for the elaborate way in which Mr J. C. Williamson has staged it as well as for the sterling fashion in which it is interpreted by Miss Titte'l Brune and the rest of the cast. Owing to the fact of this being Miss Brune’s final farewell to Melbourne however, it is possible that the run will not last much longer. Under the circumstances it is Mr J. C. Williamson's intention to devote the last few weeks to a number of revivals, in order that her

thousands of admirers may have as last remembrances of Miss Brune all her best parts. As they are numerous —“Sunday,” “L’Aiglon, ” “Dorothy Vernon,” and “Leah Kleschna,” not to mention others, it will require some time to get through them.

Everything points to Mr J. C. Williamson being facea with the same problem with the pantomime in Sydney as he was in Melbourne —that is as to how, in view of its enormous popularity he can so manipulate his arrangements as to secure for it an extended season there.

Mr J. C. Williamson’s newest dramatic company is meeting with most cordial support at the Theatre Royal Sydney, where “Raffles” has been drawing we.l ever . since the opening -night. One of the prime features of the production is the fine way in which Mr Julius Knight has staged managed it, the evenness of the whole performance and the general merit of the representation reflecting the greatest credit of his powers in this fresh place of his theatrical talent. Just as gratifying is the favourable impression made by the two leading ladies, Miss Marion Grey and Miss Katherine Elbert Orton, both of whom appear to the utmost advantage, the one as an ingenue and the other as a scheming widow. The next piece to follow “Raffles” will be “Brigadier Gerard,” and after that again “Claudian. ”

The season of the Royal Comic Opera Company in Adelaide, originally limited to three weeks, has been so successful that Mr J. C. Williamson has decided to extend it a few days, and the company will therefore remain in that city until the 27th instant and play “The’ Little Michus” in addition to “The Orchid,” and “The. Belle of New York,” which were to have formed the balance of their repertoire. After leaving Adelaide they go to Ballarat for four nights (from the 29th to Ist May inclusive), and thereafter they will be transferred north to Brisbane opening there on the 6th May for a short season—the first for some considerab’e time.

On the 23 rd April the Waldron Company left for the East after playing at Goulbourn and Albury on their way through from Brisbane. It will be a flying visit only to Perth, however, for they must be back in Adelaide on the 25th May for a week’s season of revivals, before travelling on to Melbourne for their arewell season, which they commence at Her Majesty’s Theatre there on the Ist June.

The school children of Huddersfield turned out 3000 strong last month to welcome Madame Clara Butt, when she visited that town in fulfilment of a promise to sing to them. • They cheered her tumultuously, a choir of them sang a programme of excellent music for her delectation, and when she told them she was going away to Australia ; under engagement to Messrs J. and N. Tait, they bade her with one voice, “God be with you till we meet again.” A tremendous ovation met her when she left the hall, thousands having assembled outside to do the prima donna honour.

The principal members of that once well-known combination, the Pollard Opera Company, are somewhat scattered. For instance, Maud Beatty is in ’Frisco with Sandford’s American Opera Company ; May Beatty is touring in England in musical comedy; Marion Mitchell in Auckland; Cissy Stephens in Christchurch; Nellie Wilson and Zoe Karkeek in South Africa; Wilmot Karkeek, after touring South America with an opera company, sailed for England; W. S. Percy with the Royal Comics in Adelaide; Alf Stephens and Dave O’Connor touring India with Bandmann s Opera Company ; Eddie Nable with MacMahon s Dramatic Company ; and Harry Quealy in Auckland at the Opera House. Writing of the Grand Opera Company in Melbourne the “Australasian” says:— Formerly when an operatic tenor met his beloved he put her in a corner, and, turning his back on her, told the audience in dulcet tones how much he adored her. When he had finished, he' went to the corner, and she in her turn came to the footlights to make a similar confession, with disaster to the natural exigencies of the action. Thanks largely to the con-vention-upsetting ideas of Wagner, this lovers’ puppet-show has become a thing of the past. Herr Oeser, the principal tenor of the company, makes quite the ideal stage lover. His gestures are invariably appropriate, he moves with the ease of one born on the stage, and, best of all,, he abjures utterly the fetish of the “top note. ” # * * ♦ There was an exciting finish to a performance of “The Belle of Mayfair” at Daly’s Theatre, New York, the other night. Miss Surratt, the principal Gibson girl in the piece, was so enraged because Miss Horton, a new show girl, wore a dress of similar cut to her own, that she attacked the girl, ripped the dress off her, and tore it into ribbons. The curtain was quickly lowered, but the fight continued to the accompaniment of shrieks from the remainder of the company. The stage-manager was only able to restore peace with much difficulty. “Maritana” is to be put on to-night by the Dunedin Choral Society. The following is the cast :—Miss Amy Murphy, Maritana; Mrs Forbe« Williams, Lazarillo; Mr F. Graham (Christchurch, late of the Royal Carl Rosa Grand Opera Company), Don Caesar ; Mr James Jago, Don Jose; Mr P. J. Blackman, King of Spain; Mr W. Thomson, Alcade; Mr S. Thomson, Captain of the Guard. • • • • Miss Eugenie Duggan has had some notable experiences as a heroine in melodrama. The other week she had a bad fall from the spirited horse. This accident was caused by a faulty adjustment to the girths, and when the horse cantered on to the stage briskly, the aud-

ience was alarmed to see Miss Duggan and the saddle precipitated violently into the wings. On one occasion the actress was accidently stabbed by the villain, fortunately without any serious result. Still another mishap occurred in a play into which a real tree was introduced. This toppled over and fell in the direction of Miss Duggan, the top branches striking her, and bearing her to the stage, twigs tearing strips of skin off her face.

A six weeks’ revival of Mr Bernard Shaw’s fantasy, “You Never Can Tell,” was commenced at the Court Theatre, London, on the nth February. The following artists who are well known in New Zealand were in the cast: Miss Henrietta Watson, Miss Lillah McCarthy, Mr Norman Page, and Mr AttioT Forde.

The MacCallum family of musicians and vocalists will shortly visit New Zealand. They are five in number, these being Mr H. Scott MacCallum, violinist, recently with Andrew Black’s Concert Company in Australia; Mr L. Herbert MacCallum, flautist; Miss Ruby MacCallum, accompanist and soprano; Miss Emiline MacCallum, contralto; and Mr A. Hopkin MacCallum, baritone. Mr H. Scott MacCallum is the talented young violinist in whom Mr Hugo Herrmann, the world famed violinist, took such great interest. On hearing Mr L. Herbert MacCallum, flautist, play, Herr D. E. Chaneot, the well known 'composer and musician, said —Mr MacCallum’s interpretation of the work left nothing to be desired. The ringing, resonat tone which he obtains from his silver flute is superb. His phrasing is artistic and hii execution is what I call brilliant. Summed up it was a masterly performance. Miss Ruby MacCallum, soprano, has been very successful in competition work in Australia, and has several times won prizes at the South Street competitions in Ballarat. The Company are expected in Auckland early in October. Mr R. Robertson is the advance manager.

The Misses Amy and Dulcie Murphy, of Dunedin, have accepted engagements with Mr J. C. Williamson, and will be appointed to one of the Australian manager’s opera companies. It is just possible the Misses Murphy will be members of the new musical comedy company which Mr Williamson is at present organising to play “The Blue Moon,” “My Lady Madcap,” and other pieces. The new company will commence the season in Melbourne in June next.

Ellen Terry is still a name to charm with in the United States. She appeared lately in a three-weeks’ season at the Empire Theatre, New York, and for one week of seven performances the takings were nearly £7OOO.

Miss Kitty Gordon, a London actress, has succeeded in an action for the recovery of from an insurance company. This was the amount for which a sable coat lost in crossing the Atlantic was insured.

The morning performance which was given at Drury Lane on Tuesday, March 5, by permission of Mr Arthur Collins and the directors of the theatre, on behalf of the Lord Mayor’s Cripples’ Fund, presented some features of particular interest to playgoers. Lady Bancroft made a short speech, and Miss Winifred Emery recited an address. The last act from “Macbeth” was rendered by Mr Arthur Bourchier and Miss Violet Vanbrugh ; the trial scene of Barbell v. Pickwick, by Mr Edward Terry and company; the second act from “Beauty and the Barge,” by Mr Cyril Maude and company; a “Pot Pourri” from the Pantomime “Sinbad” ; and leaders of the musical comedy world in “A Prehistoric Lord Mayor’s Show,” by Mr E. T. Reed, of “Punch.” Others who promised to appear were Mr H. Beerbohm Tree, Mr Lewis Waller, Mr H. B. Irving, Mr George Grossmith, junior, Miss Gertie Millar, Miss Denise Orme, and Miss Queenie Leighton.

The we’l known English actress, Miss Maud Hillyard, and a first-class dramatic company with a repertoire of four or five pieces, will arrive from England in Australia about the end of July, and after playing a season in Sydney, will come on to New Zealand, under the direction of Mr Allan Hamilton, in conjunction with Messrs Meynell and Gunn. The tour will take about three months, and will open in Her Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, on Monday, 16th September, for three weeks, all the principal towns being afterwards visited. The principal pieces in the company’s repertoire will be “A Beautiful Fiend,” and “The Great Awakening.”