Greenroom Gossip.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVIII, Issue 1060, 30 June 1910, Page 18

Greenroom Gossip.

THE ELLWOOD TRIO. The Elliwood trio, assisted by Miss Winnie Nixon and Mr. John Prouse, gave their farewell concert in the Wellington Town Hall on Tuesday of last week. The concert was (“ The Dominion” says) in a way a test as far as local opinion was concerned. When first heard in Wellington, the children came fresh from their home in Christchurch, strung up to a high point of endeavour by the glowing accounts of their capacity to charm as instrumentalists. They came, were heard, and conquered—Wellington was quite satisfied that these children, who do not assume anything other than what nature and their simple home-training has given them, were genuine prodigies, who deserved advancing. They came back to the Empire City after a somewhat tiresome tour of the North Island, and last evening played with the same freshness, finish, and magnetism which earned them such golden opinions a few weeks ago. They are now to wing their way to Europe to study the atmosphere of the highest musical culture, and learn something of the inspiring traditions of the music they already play with such intuitive grace and intelligent comprehension, and they may rest assured that a great number of music-lovers in Wellington will watch their careers

with interest, feeling sure that they have that within them which will carry them far along the stony road to artistic success in the great world beyond Pencarrow Head.

MISS AMY CASTLES. Miss Amy Castles, who has been appearing with so much popular acceptance in the role of Cho-Cho-San in “ Madam Butterfly,” is expected to tour New Zealand and Australia at the close of her engagement with Mr. J. C. Williamson. Miss Castles was under engagement with Messrs. J. and N. Tait, the well-known musical entrepeneurs, when Mr- Williamson was looking around for the principals for his grand opera company, and it was only through the courtesy of these gentlemen that it became possible for Miss Castles to appear on the present occasion. The three divas comprising the prima donnas of Mr. Williamson’s company—Mdlle. Bel Sorel, Miss Amy Castles and Signorina Maria Pampari—appear on alternate nights, Mdlle. Bel Sorel and Miss Castles as Cho-Cho-San in “ Madam Butterfly,” and Signorina Pampari in “ La Boheme” and “ Carmen,” Mdlle. Bel Sorel also appearing in the latter opera. The notion that either singer acts as a “ substitute” for the other is a mistaken one, the three artistes having been engaged as principals on practically the same terms and conditions, the idea in alternating them in the respective roles they assume being to avoid over-taxing

their strength and impairing their efficiency as singers. LEARNING HER FIRST FART. “ How I learned my first Grand Opera part” would make an interesting chapter in her autobiography shou’d Miss Amy Castles ever undertake such a work. The Australian soprano was completing a series of concerts in Melbourne when the J. C. Williamson management arranged with Messrs- J. and N. Tait that she should alternate the prima donna role of “ Madam Butterfly” with Mddle. Be! Sore!- Miss Castles had the score of Puccini’s opera forwarded to her, and has worked upon it as she travelled in railway carriages and at odd moments of the day. At one Victorian town she mistook the time of the train, and was on the platform nearly two hours too soon. Out came the score, and she began to pore over it. The local policeman asked her to his cottage near by, saying his wife would provide tea. Miss Castles gratefully accepted, as the sun was warm and the station shelterless, and a little later she was playing “Butterfly” over on the piano of which the constable’s cottage boasted-

the grand ofera comfanw. At the close of their Auckland season Mr. J. C. Williamson’s Grand Opera Company proceed straight to Dunedin for a season of six nights. They return thence to Christchurch for ten nights, and then go back to Wellington, where they close their

New Zealand engagements with a sr.ort four-night season, proceeding thence to Melbourne, via Sydney. The business they have done thus far in New Zealand is far and away in advance of expectations, the “ bookings” being everywhere phenomenal. MADAME CALVE. Messrs. J- and N. Tait, managers for Mdme- Calve in Australia, announce that at the conclusion of her special Melbourne concerts the distinguished singer will pay her longcontemplated visit to the Queensland metropolis. The date of her first appearance in Brisbane is set down for the 7th or Bth July, and it is suggested that she will subsequently be heard in Rockhampton, Newcastle, and Albury, should there be time available for these performances. As regards her further movements, the (brilliant lady hopes to be singing in Adelaide during the last week in July, and to be touring New Zealand in the month of August. Her New Zealand season, it is understood, will be limited to ten or a dozen recitals, as the diva has early engagements to fulfil in India, China and on the Continent of Europe.