LES CLOCHES DE CORNEVILLE'

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2583, 4 October 1915, Page 7

LES CLOCHES DE CORNEVILLE'

A MEMORABLE NIGHT.

By far the largest, and certainly the niost enthusiastic, audience of the seaeon witnessed the final performance of Oloelies de Corneville" by-the Wellington Operatic Society at the brand Opera House on Saturday evening.; Among those: present were: The lriino Minister and Mrs. .Massey, Sir Joseph and Lady Ward, tho Hon. James Allen, and the Hon. A. L. and Mrs. Herdman. 1 rior totho riseof the curtain on the third act, tho Hon. Mr. Herdman (who ts president of tho society) came forward, and expressed the thanks of tho society at the manner in which'the performances had been received. He haa ventured amidst that galaxv of youth and beauty, he. added, with a two-fold object. Ono to express thanks to the public of Wellington for its appreciation of the effort of the socioty, ivlnch, had for- its object the rendering of assistance to' wounded soldiers, and secondly to express, his thanks and profound gratitude td one who had been' associated ,with things theatrical in this country foi; twenty-five or thirty vear.s. He referred ( to /Mr.' Tom Pollard. It iyas a pleasure, and a privilege for the. society to be associated with the representative of this noted old family, and tho merit of the performance had'been largely duo, to his "supervision. He would lik-o to say that as a result of the week s performance there would be an amount to hand over to the fund A balance-sheet would be published i j ft was hoped that that amount would be augmented, as the society intended to approach J. C. Williamson, Ltd., for a reduction in the rent, in view of the object of the season, and knowing the generosity, of that firm ho was 6ure that tho application-would be favourably considered. ' (Applause.) Again, he wished to thank Mr. Pollard for the splendid work ho had done for the society.' At this point Mr. Pollard was pushed on to the stage from tho .prompt entrance, and was given t.liroo hearty cheers. In . thanking the society and Mr. Herdman for tho kind things said of him, Mr. Pollard said that it was thirty-four years since he had been first associated with "Les Cloches" in Wellington. That was in the old Theatre •Royal, now beine; converted into a police station. But it was always a pleasure to go hack to tho old plays, and he'was always'glad to see the old opera beiug played. The success JV-hich liad attended 'the performanceshad to do with everyone in the bill— principals and chorus. All had done well, but the chorus liad done especially well. No ono was more pleased when a success was achieved than himself, and if there were shortcomings it was his fault, no ono else's. (Applause.)

Mr. Herdman also referred to tho fine work which Mr..Page had done as conductor, and it was largely to his credit that tho society's splendid chorus wasso efficiently trained.

AH the principles wero remembered by their friends in front and behind the "funny little row of lights." Misses Sullivan and Wilson were ladened with flowers and chocolates, Mr. D. A. Kenny received a beautiful basket of fresh vegetables llorally disposed, Mr. H. 6. Shakes (who gavo on Saturday evening a notably good performance as Gaspard) was presented with a walkingstick, and Mr. Alva Shaw received a very perfect model of himself as Gobo. At the conclusion of the performance the members of the society were entertained at supper at the Burlington Cafe.