GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1393, 4 January 1917, Page 36

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

TALES OF THE OPERA.

Below are continued reviews 01 forthcoming operas in the Gonsalez Grand Opera Company’s repertoire, which will help patrons to obtain a drift of the happenings: — “FAUST.” This popular opera of Gounod’s is to be presented on Thursday, January 4. Dr. Faust is a student, grown old in the search of the secret of eternal life. Glooming over his failures and the tragedy of old age, he is about to end it all, when an Easter carol is heard, and Satan appears in the guise of Mephistopheles, offering him youth in return for his soul, showing him at the same time a vision of Marguerite, for whom Faust’s whole soul craves. The dread compact is made, and Faust appears as a youth. He meets Marguerite in the “kermesse” revels, where he is urged by Mephistopheles to pursue the girl, but she rejects his advances. In her garden he leaves a casket of jewels, and there she refuses the hand of Seibel, and yields to Faust’s advances. In a street scene Faust kills Valentine (Marguerite’s brother), who has accused him of ruining his sister, and who dies cursing her. There is a scene where Marguerite is in the church abandoned by her friends. Her conscience smites her, and she swoons. Later, she is imprisoned for the murder of her child, and there she becomes sincerely penitent. She dies, and her soul is borne to heaven and Satan claims the soul of Faust. “RIGOLETTO.” The story of “Rigoletto,” which is listed for Friday, is founded upon Victor Hugo’s “Le Roi s’Amuse.” Rigoletto is the Duke of Mantua’s jester, and abettor in his excesses. Count Monterone utters a fearful malediction on the jester, which fills him with foreboding. Rigoletto has a beautiful daughter, Gilda, and to save her from the count he hides her, but the wily duke woos her as a student, and abducts her to the palace, to the horror of the jester. The latter vows vengeance, and hires an assassin, Sparafucile, to kill him. The latter’s sister lures the duke to a lonely inn. Meanwhile, Rigoletto has persuaded his daughter to disguise herself as a cavalier with the object of escaping from the palace, but before she flies he sends her to the door of the inn to prove for herself the duke’s faithlessness. Maddalena, the assassin’s sister, now in love with the duke, begs for his life on condition that he may kill the first person to enter the inn, for the assassin has promised to bring the body of the count to Rigoletto in a sack before claiming his reward. Gilda, overhearing the plot, and still infatuated with the duke, resolves to save his life by sacrificing her own. She knocks for admittance, and is promptly stabbed by Sparafucile. Rigoletto, coming for the body, discovers it to be his daughter, and falls senseless hpon her. Thus is the dread curse of Count Monterone borne out. “CARMEN.” Most playgoers are familiar with Bizet’s “Carmen,” one of the attractions for the third week. The scene is laid in Seville in 1820. There, in front of the guard-house, the gentle Michaela brings a loving message to Don Jose, a corporal, from his mother. At noon the girls from the adjacent cigarette factory troop out, and Carmen, who is one of them, flirts with Jose. In a quarrel, Carmen stabs one of the other girls, and Jose is ordered to arrest her, but he allows her to escape. At the smugglers’ inn Carmen meets Escamillo, the toreador, where there is more love-making. Thither also repairs Jose, now madly in love with Carmen. When the bugle blows, Jose declines to leave, and flies to the mountains with Carmen and the smugglers. Escamillo also follows, and a duel ensues, which Carmen stops, but immediately transfers her affections to the bull-fighter. This drives Jose frantic. Michaela appears, and begs him to return to his dying mother, and he consents. Later, Jose meets Carmen in front of the bull-ring, and begs for the return of her love. She repulses him, and, mad with jealousy, he stabs her to the heart. For Washing Muslins, Silks, Prints, Woollens and Creamery Workers; Overall “No Rubbing Laundry Help is best. Is package does seven weekly washings. Contains nothing injurious to hands or fabrics. £lO guaranteed. Hutchinson Bros., Ltd.

In the Gonsalez Italian Grand Opera Company there are five Gonsalez brothers, descendants of a well-known musical family in Milan. Their father was a leading light in the musical world of Italy, and one of the most important operatic artists there. His sons have inherited his family trait.

“What Happened to Jones” is one of the few farcical comedies that can be successfully revived from time to time. As a laughter machine it is invincible, the doings compelling the most sedate members of the community to hold their sides to prevent hysteria or some other like trouble. Mr. George Willoughby, in the title role, will present it at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, on January 13.

Signorina Ernestina Gonsalez —one of the five prima donnas of the Gonsalez Grand Opera Company had for two years a distinguished employer in the German Emperor, having been engaged by that august personage for the Imperial Opera House in Berlin. The lady describes the Kaiser as a “capable amateur musician, with the professional overbearing of the usual grand opera impressario.”

Professor Ebenezer Goodby in “What Happened to Jones,” had a lot of sport in his youth. He played croquet and went to magic lantern entertainments. “I was a demon,” he says.

Signor Scamuzzi, of the Gonsalez Opera Company, is quite young, and made his first appearance as Rigoletto in the R.oyal Theatre of Oisa in 1913, in which part he scored a great success. Then he joined a leading grand opera company for a tour of Russia, where he stayed for twelve months. He has played the name part in “Rigoletto” in the Scala di Milano, the leading operatic theatre in Italy. In Modena he sang the principal baritone parts in “Faust” and “Aida.” In Pisa’s Royal Theatre, he sang in “11 Trovatore” and “Aida” with the famous Boninsegno, and the equally famous tenor, Scamgnini.

The J. C. Williamson management cabled Eugene Brieux, the author of “Damaged Goods,” upon the success of the play in Australia. “That my humble work has been rereived by the Australian public,” the dramatist cabled back, “pleases my soul. The younger the country to realise the moral lesson I have earnestly sought to convey the greater will be the blessing of future generations.”

The “expectation of a guest is the death warrant of comfort,” according to the henpecked professor in “What Happened to Jones.”

The run of “Common Clay” at the Criterion, Sydney, in which the fam? ous dramatic star, Miss Florence Rockwell, played the leading part, is to be followed by the production of “The Land of Promise.”

“I’m Jones, and I travel for a hymnbook house and sell playing cards as a side line. If the town is dead — hymn books; if it’s alive —playing cards. I catch ’em coming and going.”—“What Happened to Jones.”

There is a real count with the Gonsalez Italian Grand Opera Company. In Italy he is known as Conte Ercole Filippini. He has sung not only in Italy, but toured the Continent of Europe and has sung in the United States and South America with much success. One of his big parts is the title role in “Rigoletto,” a character in which he has appeared no fewer than 400 times.

The old spinster, Alvinia, in “What Happened to Jones’ professes to have in her room 537 letters from the Bishop of Ballarat “just burning with love.”

Mr. Gaston Mervale has come over from America to Australia to produce “Turn to the Right” for Messrs. J. and N. Tait. Mr. Mervale was connected with many productions in Australia prior to the war.

The three gifted Kennedy brothers, Lance, Laurie and Keith, are members of the orchestra in the Gonsalez Grand Opera Company. * * » • It is estimated that it cost over £12,000 to produce J. C. Williamson’s present pantomime, “The House That Jack Built.” * * * * Mr. Paul Dufault concluded his New Zealand tour at Nelson on Boxing Night, and leaves for Sydney en route to Java and the East. sjl * ♦ ♦ The principal girl for this year’s Williamson pantomime is Miss Gertrude Yates, a London actress of experience. Miss Yates’ great grandfather, Fred Yates, acted with David Garrick, and was also owner of the Adelphi Theatre.