AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIX, Issue 1065, 4 August 1910, Page 18

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

(From Our Melbourne and Sydney Correspondents.)

Calve is ably sustaining her reputation for benevolence in Australia. A few days ago in Sydney, she was so touched by the sight: of a poor street singer/ that she took the singer’s place on the edge of the kerb, and was soon raising her glorious voice in an old French melody. By this means she attracted a huge crowd, gathered up a large collection, and presented the whole of the proceeds to the shabby vocalist, At another time, she met a fragile-little woman at a street corner/ and learning of her difficult circumstances, made her a present of five shillings. The following day, she met the unfortunate again, and, on this occasion, gave her a sovereign with her best wishes for a brighter future.

Even now, though the actual date of its staging is still some weeks ahead, that big Drury Lane drama “The Whip” is beginning to pervade Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, for Mr. W. R. Coleman is finishing scene after scene of the huge production, and the completed material has to be staged somewhere. It is doubtful whether, in all his experience, Mr. Coleman has had a heavier task, and those who remember the immense amount of work he and his assistants put in to any one of the four great J. C- Williamson pantomimes will realise what that means. The drama is full of sporting scenes, from a beautiful Yorkshire landscape with the kennels of Falconhurst in the foreground, to the vivid representations of the race for the Two Thousand Guineas, while “ the interiors” range from Madame Tussaud’s waxworks to the delicately decorated drawing-room of a ducal mansion.

The Royal Comic Opera Company to whom Melbourne is bidding a regretful farewell, tempered with the enjoyment their excellent presentation of “The Girls of Gottenberg” always engenders, seems always to be in trouble regarding accommodation, a condition explained by the fact, that wherever “Shows” and “Races” bring a large influx to the cities, the Royal Comic Opera Company is almost always the J. C. Williamson attraction chosen to entertain the pleasure seekers. Brisbane is their destination after Melbourne, whither they go in a non-stop railway journey to open for Show week there, and most of them go in fear and trembling

as to how they are going to find a place to rest their head. In fact so desperate did the case appear that Bertie 1 Wright and Langford Kirby made the proposition to the management that they should borrow the bandstand of “A Waltz Dream” and sleep therein till the congestion abated.

Messrs. J. and N. Tait are now completing arrangements for the forthcoming season in Australia of the brilliant soprano, Madame Mary Conly. Messrs Tait have already engaged the talented tenor, Mr. Walter Kirby, to support the singer in Australia, and it is understood that they are also securing the services of one or two other distinguished musicians. The programmes to be given will be more than usually interesting to music lovers, for it is expected they will include performances of the oratorios of “The Messiah,” “Elijah,” and “Hiawatha.”

Signor Hazon, the conductor of the J. C. Williamson Grand Opera Company, has “oscillated,” so to speak, between Italy and Australia for nearly a quarter of a century. Born in Parma, the future maestro, as a young man, came out to this country in 1886, with Marton Simondsen’s Grand Opera Company. On the conclusion of that tour he liked the country so much that he stayed in it, succeeding the late Henri Knowalski as conductor of the Phiinarmonic Society in Sydney. His next visit to Italy was made in quest of artists for J. C. Williamson’s first Italian Opera Company, which he “conducted” through Australia. Back to Italy about three years ago, Mr. Williamson found him there a willing and enthusiastic co-operator in the task of selecting the present company at the end of last year.

The child-like nature of the Ethopian is quite irresistible when introduced into farce comedy. This is proved in “The Brass Bottle” where a dozen or more full-blooded sons of Ham contribute to the gaiety of the evening. The enjoyment they seem to derive from obeying the Jinnee’s behests is the most infectious expression of delight Sydney playgoers have laughed at for many a day. Oft the stage the dusky attendants on the Jinnee admire the impersonator of the mysterious visitor (Mr. Evelyn Vernon) greatly. When Mr. Vernon failed to get a carrier to take his baggage from a city hotel to a Potts Point flat during last week’s storm he only hade to invoke his black slaves and four of them saw to It.

•Max Moddalkopf in “The Girls of Gottenberg” has been played upwards of three hundred times by Bertie Wright and ranks next, in that comedian’s estimation, to Heakin in “The Orchid.”