GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1151, 2 May 1912, Page 17

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

A Tribute to New Zealand. In my work as Colonial examiner to Trinity College, London (writes Henry Saint-George in ‘’The Musical Standard,” London), I have . been brought into close touch with the musical activities of New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia during the last four years. Ou my first introduction to New Zealand I was astonished to the excellence of the work brought before me. And this not merely, as might well be imagined, at the comparative excellence, but at the actual high order of artistic merit. I had expected to say “Now really, this is very good, considering,” but when it came to the point there was no “considering” about it at all. I have heard slips of Australasian girls in the “flapper” stage’ playing the “Appassionata,” the “Waldstein’ and other giant works, together with Chopin, Liszt, etc., galore. And playing them with temperament—deep perception and refined emotional qualities that at times have aroused my highest admiration. This feeling of admiration changing to wonderment when I found that few, if any, had ever heard such works played by really great players. * * * * J. and N. Tait’s New Concert Hall. The foundations for J. and N. Tait’s new concert hall in Collins-street, Melbourne, are now being laid down, and it is expected that the whole edifice will be completed in time for

Madame Clara Butt’s reappearance in Meloourne at Easter, 1913. The i.uifiling will comprise eight floors, will seat 2500 people, distributed over iiie stalls, grand tier, and upper balcony. In its interior arrangements altogether the hall will closely resemble the Queen’s Hall, London, which is regarded as the ideal type of place for such amusements as J. and Tait provide. The entire building when completed will cost between £35,000 and £40,000.

M ss Margaret Cooper. Miss Margaret Cooper is scoring a brilliant triumph at the Athenaeum, Melbourne. Exercising an extraordinary fascination over all her hearers, she grips her audiences and holds them rapt and intent all the time she is on the platform. Her songs are not great in the classical sense, but she has the art of singing them as, it is claimed, no other woman or man has sung them in Melbourne before. She imparts to them an almost incredible magic and charm, and when they are humorous, as they generally are, their effect is instantly, seen in the responsive laughter of the audience. Undoubtedly Margaret Cooper’s art is near to genius. Miss Cooper will be heard in the Dominion shortly under J. and N. Tait’s direction.

Detail in “Kismet.” A visitor “behind the scenes” at Melbourne Theatre Royal one night, who was keenly interested in the many varied phases of “Kismet,” wondered at the fact that all the men and women in the play, whether principals or members of the “crowd,” had their eyelids blackened. The puzzled visitor made bold to ask Mr Asche the reason, and the actor-man-ager’s reply gave an indication of the marvellous study that has been given to every detail in this play. “It is the custom to blacken the eyelid,” said Mr Asche, “to protect the eyes from the heat and glare of the sun. For this reason you will find that everybody in the play has his or her eyelids pa’nted black.” « * * * Ada Ward in Vaudeville. It is tolerably certain that Miss Ada Ward, who decided to return to the stage, her original means of obtaining a living, will do so by means of the vaudeville route (says Sydney “Sun”). Mr Fuller, head of the Bren-nan-Fuller circuit, says that the directors of the firm feel sure of getting Miss Ward for their show. “The lady,’ he states, “wishes to appear with someone as a support in a Russian sketch. We think, however, that this would be too ‘solid’ for variety audiences, so we are seeing if she can be induced to give short lectures on matters such as “Why I Left the Wowsers.’ That would draw all Sydney, I know, because the public are anxious to have in full her reasons for quitting the evangelist camp.”