AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1125, 2 November 1911, Page 18

AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

(From Our Sydney and Melbourne Correspondents ) A unique position was created in connection with the booking for the opening night of the Melba Grand/ Opera Company’s season at Melbourne in Her Majesty’s. Every seat in the dress circle and stalls having been booked, there was no box

plan to open. Hundreds of letters were received by the management asking for seats, to be reserved in the' gallery. This it was decided to do, the booked seats being sold at half a guinea. As soon as the announcement was made the management was inundated with applications.

“The Chocolate Soldier” opened at Her Majesty’s, Sydney, on Saturday night. So keen was the interest being taken in ~the production in that city and so heavy Was the booking, equalling that of the record breaking “Our Miss Gibbs,” that it is anticipated the Bulgarian Comic Opera will put up as long a run in the harbour city as the d'ainty musical play mentioned.

The programme for the first week of the Melba Grand Opera season in Melbourne embraces “La Traviata,” “Sansone E Dalila,” “Madame Butterfly,” “La Boheme,” and “Madame Butterfly.”

uscar (Straus hastened from Vienna to London to be present at the anniversary performances of “The Chocolate Soldier,” at the Lyric Theatre. Tne occasion was a notable one in other respects also, and the London newspapers, in commenting upon the successful conclusion of the first twelve months of the play, predicted that it would see a run equalling, if not exceeding that attained by any other musical play bn the stage. The success of “The Chocolate Soldier” in Australia has been assured by the magnificent run 'at the Melbourne Theatre Royal.

A strong company has been brought out by Williamson, Clarke and Meynell for “The Swiss Express,” including the following well-known London artists: —Oliver Russell, Billie Moran, Robert Whyte, junr., Haydn Scott, Geo. F- Storey, Harwood Cooper, ' Cecil Barrett, Stephen Asher, Cnarles. Leoville, Ruby De Morley, Connie

Emerald, and John A. Howitt. A number of these have already appeared in “The Swiss Express,” in Lon-

don, the Provinces, and on the Continent.

A recent cable reported that Maeterlinck, the famous Belgian dramatist and 'author, had been awarded the Nobel prize of £BOOO for . literature. Maeterlinck’s remarkable allegorical play, “The Blue Bird,” will be staged in Australia next year by rhe J. C. Williamson, Clarke and Meynell firm. The play has been booked for a long English provincial tour, after which the complete company comes to Australia.

Connie Emerald, the dainty soubrette and dancer of “The Swiss Express” Company, which opens at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on November 4, has alre'ady appeared in this unique pantomime-comedy-drama in England, though prior to leaving for Australia she was one of the principals in “The Kings’s Bride,” in London. “It is screamingly funny,” she says. “However familiar one gets with the piece you, cannot help laughing at it. We had !be*i i fore' we sailed for Australia, and we tittered from..beginning. t .. ! tp. ! .pnd until the stage manager got quite annoyed. It was rather funny that at the rehearsal a well-known musical comedy star was present, and he was so taken with the play that he said he would give his head to be going with it to Australia. I was told in Paris that “The Swiss Express” had been welcomed there during the past thirty year*.”