MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 282, 22 August 1908, Page 12

MUSIC.

[Br Tbebie Cii M.] Kubellk'a Doparturo, Kubelik left Sydney by tho Melbourne express on August 14, and many admirers, including young lady violinists, assembled at the Central Railway Station, and Madame Kubelik was loaded with beautiful flowers. Miss Dyason, Mr. Schwab, and Mr. Buckingham were in tho party. Kubelik will givo ono concert in Adelaide, four or fivo in Western Australia, and then go straieht to London, whoro ho will eommenco' a series of concerts with orchestra, with Landen Ronald as conductor. His next big tour is through Russia. Kubelik presented Mr. H. N. Southwell with a valuable'breast-pin and a letter of thanks.

What the Butt-Rumfords Coined. Tho interviewers in London have been telling tho great British public that the Butts have been telling them that tho bank balance grew to the extent of £51,000 through tho Australian tour. Tho pair gavo 75 concerts, or thereaboutsand 75 into £51,000 used to bo £680 and nothing over if they teach arithmetic liko they used to. The average price paid to hear tho great Butt was certainly not more than Bs. (amazing the number of people who don't pay anything at all that ono finds in tho places marked "This lot ono guinea"). Then, even for tho gross receipts to reach £51,000, the 75 co'ucorts would have required an average paying attendance of 1600 or 1700; and when you remember that the contralto boomed at Alhury and Salo and such places, you know that average is just • impossible. Sydney Town Hall certainly holds 3000 people; but, even if you pack it, only 2200 people can get colds in Melbourne Town Hall at once; and from that eminenco tho seating accommodation of Australian halls topples down furiously. A liberal estimate puts the averago attendance at 800 for the 75 concerts, or 60,000 altogether; and if, after paying rent, lighting, and other expenses, tho pair cleared even os. a head, tho total would still bo only £15,000. That's what must be wrong—thev interviewers really didn't think it mnttcred whether they put the 1 first, or tho 5. But it will matter a lot to those managers who by-and-hyo will try to snare some other great' foreign artist to Australia, and who will be met, with, "Oh, nonsense! Tho Butts made £51,000 out there." Whereupon the manager will either have to regretfully decline business, or attempt to squeczo out of Australians tho samo shockingly high prices that have been charged on a fow occasions lately.—" Akenehi" in ■'The Bulletin." Notes.. There is a contrast in origin between Mr. John Harrison, the tenor, and Mr. Hamilton Earle, the baritone, of tho Ada Crossloy concert party._ Tho former rose from tho ranks of Lancashire mill operatives, the latter was the son of a Liverpool merchant, and' tho grandson of a British plenipotentiary in Brazil. He was designed for a commercial career, but abandoned it on tho urging of his friends (just as Mr. Kouuerley lluinford did), who foresaw a fortune in his voice. So did M. Bouhy, under whom lie studied in Paris, and after two years the prophecies came true, when Mr. liarlo was engaged, as the. only Englishman in the cast, for a season at Covent Garden. Since then his rise has boen rapid, and his position in tho concert world is now secure.

Miss Rosina Buckmann, the Wairarapa soprano, and about tho most capable dramatic soprano New Zealand owns, left Wellington during the week to join Musgrove's Opera Company at Melbourne. Miss Buckmann has already played "Maritana" in Auckland, and that fierce lady in "A Moorish Maid" with success, but sho neods the samo polish in deportment that she can claim vocally. I understand that she is to play Germaino in "Les Cloches" with the new company.

All music is more or less dramatic, and so tho march of music is towards tho theatre. 1 Tho times of mere enjoyment of tone-com-binations aro past.—lierr Nikisch, interviewed.

On Saturday ne.xt Gounod's "Faust" is to be produced in Sydney with Madame Slapoffski as Marguerita and Mr. Andrew Black as Mephistopheles, a duo of artists who should realise very fully tho musical spirit of tho great opera. Many in New Zealand havo seen Madame as Marguerita, a part in which she excelled, but Andrew Black's Me-, phistopholes is something to yearn for. Few know that Mr. Black was once on tho operatie stage, and played a season in Now York, but that is many years ago, and before ho rose to eminence as a ■ concert and oratorio soloist. Tho other members of tho Sydney cast will bo:—Sicbel, Miss Florenco Quinn; Faust. Mr. H. Neil; Martha, Miss N. Rosenwax; Valentine, Mr, W. Cox; Wagner, Mr. J. Cruickshank.