Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC
NIOTES.
(By "Amphion.")
"The Arcadians" is to be revived by the the
New Comic Opera Company on Monday
next, for three nights. Theatre-goers will
remember that this opera created great en-
thusiasm when it was last staged in Perth.
It is brimming over with good, wholesome
comedy and tuneful music, and the dresses
are one of its greatest features. Peter
Doody, the eccentric jockey, who lived for
a whole day on a carraway seed in order
to keep his weight down, will be repro-
sented on this occasion by Mr. Robert
Whyte and Miss Dorothy Brunton will ap-
pear as Sombra.
The demand for seats for the last nights
of the New Comic Opera Company has, it
is stated, been remarkably heavy. The
company will terminate a record season on
Saturday, April 4, with the production of
everybody's favourite opera, "Dorothy."
The Fremantle Orchestral Society gives
its 83rd concert in Victoria Hall, on Thurs-
day evening, April 2. The Society will be
assisted by Miss Dora Obermoann.
The many friends of Miss J. T. Young,
the well-known teacher of music, will be
interested to learn that she is leaving Perth
next month on a holiday trip to London.
Miss Young expects to be absent about 6
months.
As already mentioned in this column, the
Easter attraction at His Majesty's Theatre
will be a season of melodrama, under the
direction of Mr. George Blood.
The English Pierrots, who enjoyed a re-
markably successful season in Perth last
winter are returning, and will re-open at
St. George's Hall on Mlay 30.
Mr. Arthur E. Greenaway, one of a lim-
ited group of clever Australian actors whose
stage experience has become cosmopolitan,
sailed for London by the Osterley after a
stay of six years in Australia. This well
known actor, who was born in Melbourne,
began his career under the late William
Holloway, and was the youthful Romeo to
Essie Jenyn's girlish Juliet, and was able
as Sebastian in "Twelfth Night" to make
up as the twin brother of her Viola in a
wonderful way. Mr. Greenaway has told
the "Sydney Morning Herald" that he pre-
fers Australian life, with its surf and its
sun, but a professional career in London
places an actor within six days of the vast
possibilities of the American stage, and,
when once he is favourably known there,
frees him by a quick change from anxiety
as to constant engagements. Mr. Greene-
way has visited Perth many times with pro-
fessional companies, notably with Miss Tit-
tel Brune, H. R. Roberts, and Julius
Knight. His last appearances here were
with the last-named actor, when he made
a hit as Sam Sibley in "Milestones."
Mr. Leonard Borwick, the distinguished
English pianist, is now en route to Austra-
lia, having sailed early last week. Mr.
Borwick is due to give his first recital in
Melbourne, on May 9, and announces that-
he will make a more extended tour of the-
Commonwealth on this visit than the time-
at his disposal permitted him to do three
years ago.
Mr. Asaurice Jones who for some time
past has been delighting Adelaide audiences
as the tenor of the Dandies, who are ap-
pearing in that city under Mr. Brans-
combe's management, has been transferred
to Sydney, where Mr. Branscombe has a
taken over the Smart Set Co., and is re-
forminig it to play at the Little Theatre
during the winter. The new combination
opens in Sydney next month. Meanwhile,
Mr. David Lyle succeeds Mr. Maurice Jones
as the tenor of the Dandies in Adelaide.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ulliott, of the
Smart Set Co., left Port Melbourne by the
Ville de la Ciotat last week, for London via
Marseilles and Paris.
Charles A. Wenman, the J. C. Williamson
Ltd. producer, who staged the "Forty
Thieves" pantomime and other productions,
leaves for London on business for the firm
on April 7. Be will be accompanied by Mrs.
Wenman, who prior to her marriage was well
known as Miss Flossie Dickinson.
The Harry Lauder season at the Princess's
Theatre, Melbourne, will commence on Sat-
urday, April 11. The famous comedian is
due to arrive in Sydney on March 30. Tra-
velling with Harry Lauder, and included in
the company, are Irene Berscenys and
Yoska, Hungarian gipsy cymbalists; Jack
d'Ark, marveious diabolo spinner; the three
Hassans, gymnasts on the wire; Miss Kitty
Ryan, Irish ballad singer; Ernest Sewell,
living marionettist; and Horace Sheldon
the musical director from the London Pal-
ladium. "
Miss Sybil Arundale, after a long absence
in Australia, made her re-appearance in
London on February 21 in the first produe-
tidis of a 'ew niusicar play, "The Joy Ride
Lady'" which was staged at the New
Theatre under the- direction of Sir Chas.
Wyndham. Miss Arundale received a warm
welcome, and her performance is described
as one of the most successful impersona-
tions in the production.
Fourteen weeks is the run of the J. C.
Williamison pantomime, "The Forty
Thieves," at Her Majesty's, Melbourne. Do-
ing capacity business nearly the whole of the
time, the pantomime could have easily run
for at least another six, but arrangements
in the theatrical business have to be made
far ahead, independently of the anticipated
success of a production, and as "Come Over
Here" has been fixed to leave Sydney and
open in Melbourne, "The Forty Thieves"
had to go over there. The opening date at
Her Majesty's, Sydney, is April 4.
Though it had been the intention to fol-
low "Joseph and His Brethren" at the Mel-
bourne Theatre Royal with the Fred Niblo
and Josephine Cohan Company, the business
at the Sydney Criterion with "Never Say
Die" is so big that the firm set about mak-
ing a re-arrangement of its plans to enable
the Niblo season to continue. The change
has now been effected, and at the Theatre
Royal, Melbourne, this season, the "Within
the Law" Company, after a triumphal tour
of New Zealand, will open in the first pro-
duction in Australia of the powerful drama,
"Madame X," by Alexander Bisson the
noted French playwright. There are a pro-
logue and three acts, which tell the story of
the downfall and tragedy of a woman's life,
and culminates in the sensational denouement
in a French court of law. The cast will in
clude Muriel Starr as Jaqueline Floriot-a
role in which this actress will have full scope
for her emotional powers. The play will be
produced by' E. W. Morrison.
Melbourne ocncert-goers will be well
catered for this coming winter, for, in addi-
tion to their visiting artists, Messrs. J. and
N. Tait are inaugurating a series of Satur-
day popular concerts at the Auditorium, the
first of which takes place this evening
(March 28). These concerts will be run on
the lines of the ballad-concerts given with
great success at the Queen's Hall and the
Royal Albert Hall, London. The pro-
grammes will be of a popular order, and the
prices of admission low. For the first con-
cert the directors have been fortunate to
secure the services of Mdme Slapoffski, the
distinguished prima donna, who has just re-
turned from Europe after a series of
triumphs in London and on the Continent.
Other artists appearing at the first concert
include Mdme. Maggie Stirling, Miss Elsie
Treweek, Mr. Oswald Rippon, Mr. Fred Col-
lier, Herr Louis Hattenbach, Miss Noel
Geddes, and Mr. Harold Elvins.
Productions set down for staging this
year by J. C. Wiliiamson, Ltd., are "The
Argyle Case," a strong drama of the detec-
tive order with the element of mystery; and
"The Girl in the Taxi" and "The Girl on
the Film," musical plays.
Marie Lohr, the Australian actress, has
achieved a considerable success in Herbert
Tree's revival of "The Darling of the Gods,"
in London. The London "Daily Telegraph"
refers to her as follows: "She gains in power
and emotional truth with every part she
plays, and there has never been such pas-
sion in her acting as she gave us with Yo-
San. She is the daintiest daughter of the
gods, marvellously disguised in her Japanese
semblance, black-haired, flowing-gowned, and
hugely sashed."
Jerome K. Jerome has written anotherplay
entitled "Robina in Search of a Husband," in
which the author's daughter, Rowena, plays
the name part. The piece, which relies for
its success on the ancient motif of mistaken
identity, is described as terribly involved. It
is alleged that it would take a Sherlock
Holmes and four trained bloodhounds to dis-
cover what the author is really driving at.
Harold Bauer, the great pianist, who com-
mences a tour of Austalia this year, is once
more arousing the Amnrican press to en-
thusiasm. The New York "Evening Pest"
recently said of him:-"What need is there
of an orchestra when sonorities as coloured
as Basers can be produced on the piano?"
Is, The "Musical Review" unhesitatingly de-
dared that "he is the greatest pianist of re-
cent times," and the Boston "Transcript"
was of opinion that "to play like Bauer was
to be one in a million." The Philadelphia
"Inquirer" remarked: "He (Bauer) is an ar-
tist who ressects his art, his public, and
himself. Each of his visits to Philadelphia
of has been a source of pleasure and profit to
all those who are interested in music." We
might add an extract from the Ghicago
"Journal":-"Bauer is an eminently sane
pianist. Without mannerism and without
affectation, he seduces his public."
Israel Zangwill, the clever but fIamboy-
ant writer, has finished another play, "The
Melting Pot," which was recently given a
first trial at the Court Theatre, London.
The title, it would appear, is given to
America. where all nationalities are being
boiled down to produce the perfect type.
Like most of Zangwill's plays, however, the
effort is full of melodrama.
The Kaiser has forbidden the production
at Herr Reinhardt's Deutsches Theatre, Ber-
lin, of a play called "Ferdinand, Prince of
Prussia," on the ground that one of the
characters is a member of the Prussian
Royal Family.
The J. C. Williamson management has
just secured for Australia one of George M.
Cchan's comedies, the curiously-named
"Seven Keys to Baldpate." It is possible
that this will be purchased for London by
Mr. Seymour Hicks and Mr. Frank Curzon
(who is concerned with him in the new ven-
ture at the Prince of Wales's). The scene
of this play is laid at Bald Pate, a moun-
tain home of rest for tired minds. Thither
goes an author who has a big money con-
tract for a novel. Assured by the owner
of Bald Pate that he, the novelist, is the
only person possessing a key to the house,
he settles down to work there on his great
story-only to find very soon that there are
six others who have keys. Greatly worried
and distressed by their presence, the novel-
ist nevertheless goes on with his writing,
and it is not until the last moments of the
play that one is apprised of the author's de-
sign-that these six other persons are mere
ly the mental creations of the novelist, the
embodied figments of his imagination, the
characters, in short, of his great story!
It is said that Mascagni is embarking on
a new venture in writing incidental music
for cinema shows. His musical illustration
of a-life of Garibaldi will be one of his first
attempts in this direction.
Mischa Elman, the Russian violinist, has
a delightful sense of humour, for which rea-
son he has always a stock of amusing
stories, among the best of which is his ex-
perience when he played recently at the
Leeds Festival. Every corner was under
police surveillance, owing to suffragette in-
vasion and dangers. The orchestra was
playing the "Leonore" overture No. 3. The
horn player appeared behind the scene to
give the effect of the trumpet call in the di-
stance, and had just blown his first long
blast, when an over-active policeman jumped
at him from behind, and, snatching away
his instrument, said: "What are you trying
to do? Don't you know there is a concert
going on out there, and they can hear you
as plain as if you were on the stage?" The
overture proceeded without the horn solo.
Sir Herbert Tree has arranged that Mr.
George Bernard Shaw's satirical modern
play, "Pygmalion," by now an established
success in America, shall follow "The Dar-
ling of the Gods" at His Majesty's, London.
The distinguished actor-manager will play a
certain Professor Henry higgins, who
starts to elevate a Covent Garden flower
girl (Mrs. Patrick Campbell). He accom-
plishes the elevation so effectually that she
becomes a duchess. The girl's father is a
dustman on true Shavian lines. By the
way, it is an interesting fact that this dis-
tinctly new "Pygmalion" was first produced
in Berlin last September.
The Oxford University Dramatic Society
gave its annual performances at the New
Oxford, commencing on February 18, and
concluding on the 24th. On this occasion
a Greek play was due, and the selection
fell on "The Acharnians" of Aristophanes.
A special feature of the production was the
music specially composed by Sir Hubert
Parry. London "Daily Telegraph" of Feb-
ruary 21 says:-An overture, a couple of
entr'actes, and the choruses engaged. Sir
Hubert's attention for this Aristophanic re-
vival, and evidently the occasion inspired
him to a mood of highest mirth. One
gathers that the distinguished composer has
been unblushingly anachronistic in his mu-
sical illustration of incidents in the Greek.
comedy of 425 B.C. Thus, references to
war's alarms and exclusions are suggested
in his overture by echoes of "Oh, dear, what
can the matter be?" and "An 'orrible tale
I've got to tell" (the latter a tune that
carries the older playgoer back to the days
of J. L. Toole and "Villikins and his
Dinah.") But Sir Hubert has not relied
a merely upon popular tunes of another day,
for in the prelude to Act 1 he makes an
unabashed incursion into the realms of
a ragtime and his high spirits and jovial
humour have led him to turn airily from
the classical strains of "Hitchi-Koo" to the
"Meistersinger" overture. Elsewhere he
provides a musical entente by combining
our National Anthem with "La Marseil-
laise," while "Die Wacht am Rhein" is
made to conjure up visions of Spartan ene-
mies. In these, days, when most of our
composers try their hardest to be desperate-
ly clever and terrifically solemn, may we
beg for a hearing in London of Sir Hubert
Parry's jeu d'esprit?
The latest prodigy in the musical world
(according to the London "Daily Tele
graph") hails from Italy and is a conduc-
tor. For these two reasons Willy Ferrero
stands apart from most of his kind. To
Hungary and Russia we have come to look
in recent years for a more or less regular
supply of youthful musical geniuses, and
they are usually either pianists or fiddlers.
Willy Ferrero provide the exception in that
he "wields the baton." This seven-year-old
Italian boy has been giving a series of con-
certs in St. Petersburg and astonishing the
Russian public, accustomed though they
must be by this time to feats of the musi-
cal wunderkind. Little Ferrero was also
commanded to direct a concert before the
Tsar and an audience of Royal person-
ages. There was an orchestra of eighty
five, and the St. Petersburg correspondent
of "Le Temps" has furnished an interest-
ing account of the proceedings. To his
Imperial Majesty was left the choice of the
programme, and the first niece he selected
was the "Tannhauser" overture. After-
wards came a Grieg dance, followed in turn
by Boccherini's Minuet and a Farandole of
at Bizet. Twice the very precocious conductor.
called a halt in order to explain to the in-
strumentalists-in French-how he wished
certain passages to be played. Little Fer
rero, it is said, throws off all trace of boy
ishness as soon as he sets to work with his
miniature baton. His expression becomes
serious-even severe-and his eyes take on
a strange looking concentration. The lat-
est "infant phenomenon" is about to visit
London. He would cut an odd figure con-
ducting an orchestra, say, at the Albert
Hall.
Mr. Haydn Wood well known alike as a
violinist and composer who toured Austra-
lia with Mdme. Albani, has been engaged
to make a tour, of the London music-halls.
He will be assisted by Miss Dorothy Court,
a leading member of the Savoy company
during the last revivals of the Gilber-Sul-
livan operas.
We may be thankful if we are deprived
of the opportunity of hearing "Parisina,"
the new work in which Mascagni collabor-
ated with D'Annunzio, and which came to
hearing in December in Milan. At the
first performance the novelty ran to such
abnormal lengths that the curtain did not
fall finally until two o'clock in the morn-
ing. Before the second performance Mas-
cagni had sacrificed the whole of the second
act, besides making extensive "cuts" in
other parts of the score-surely a very dras-
tic revision. But even then the opera play-
ed for nearly four hours, and the impres-
sion it left does not appear to have con-
vinced the Milan public that the composer
of "Cavalleria" has produced a work likely
to enhance his reputation.
The son of a tinplate worker, Ernest
Saunders, of Llanelly, won the silver cup
and £10 10s. in open competition for piano
playing at the Ghent musical festival last
month. There were 136 competitors: Al-
though practically self-taught, young Saun-
ders is also an accomplished violinist.
Mr. Keble Howard, director and producer
his of the repertory season at the Grand Thea-
tre, Croydon (Eng.), resolved to give Eng-
lish comedy, on the ground that the pro
grammes last year at most of the repertory
theatres were rather on the heavy side. It
is noteworthy (remarks a Victorian contem-
porary) that Melbourne followers of the
Repertory Theatre have manifested more de-
votion to what would be called the heavier
works submitted, and laid themselves out
for a course of deep thinking.
Professor Granville Bantock's new choral
symphony, "The Vanity of Vanities," was
produced at the third concert of the Welsh
Choral Union at Liverpool (Eng.) last
month. The six movements are based on
passages from the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Like its immediate predecessor. "Atalanta in
in Calydon," the work is for unaccompanied
voices.
The historic London theatre, Sadler's
Wells, has been converted into a picture
palace. For close on 20 years Samuel
Phelps made it, the leading playhouse of
London, his brilliant Shakespearian revivals
drawing playgoers from all parts of the
metropolis. One prominent member of the
Phelps company, the late William Hoskins,
afterwards settled in Australia, and became
a very popular actor, especially in Mel-
bourne and Ballarat. He was a famous
Shakespearian scholar, and in the closing
years of his life he conducted a dramatic
academy in Melbourne, and trained several
accomplished actors and actresses. It was
while he was playing at Sadler's Wells that
he gave valuable help and encouragement
to a stage-struck youth who was destined to
become Sir Henry Irving, regarded by many
as the greatest actor of his time.
$