THE JUNGFRAU KAPELLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2064, 15 February 1889, Page 2

THE JUNGFRAU KAPELLE

Under the title of the Jungfran Kapelle —a name fittingly adopted from one off the most ronuutlc of Alpine peaks— a new comblna'don of Swiss mountain singers and Tyrolese jodellers are annpnnced to open a short season of two n.<*ht* at the Oddfellows' Hall next Monday. The oompany are under engagement to Messrs Hughes and Jlnklns, who, after ft long career as agents aad treasurers for different theatrical firms, have opened on their own aooount as proprietors: of the latest Continental success. Iv order td meet the requirements of an extended Australian tour, the original K.peHa haft been rearolted by the engagement of threeadditional jodellers, and is thus particularly strong lv exponents of an art whioh ', Is. still unfamiliar to colonial audiences; The task of Increasing the oompany was one presenting difficulties unknown to the ordinary theatrical manager.' To fill the vaoanoles it was neoessary to take a trip across the Ohannel, to sojourn for a while amid alpine snows, to "discover" the artists among a population to. whom the jodel comes as a birthright. For it Is the peculiar attraction of the Jungfran Kapelle that It possesses nothing of the artificial glare of the footlights. It Is rath** a •' bit " of Alpine scenery, a living ohapter of Swiss life transplanted by Australian enterprise, and set down bodily on the platform for the entertainment of antipodean audiences. Bat the jodelltng, although an Important feature of the entertainment, ls by no means the sole attraction on whioh the company have to rely. Herr Maog and Fraulelo Dim and their comrades In this mountain chorus yank also as clever performers on the zither, the violin, the piano, and on snob rare Instruments as the xllophon, the mandolin, and the ooarlna. The oompany form an oohestra of fifteen musicians. The national musio of tbelr motherland ia thus given with an entirely appropriate background, land m the whole entertainment there Is no iarrtng note of the otvlltaation which has produced the drawing-room song and tbe drawing-room singer.