THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 3486, 25 April 1874, Page 2

THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

The opera people have come and gone, and they can have no reason to complain of the treatment they received at the hands of the Dunedin people. L 2.700 in five weeks, which represents their takings, isn’t at all bad, and just shows what novelty will do. I wonder whether the Italians will meet with similar success, or success at all commensurate with their merits, should they pay us a visit about Christmas time or the beginning of the new year ? .Returning to Mr Allen’s company, I may mention that on Monday last and the two succeeding nights they performed at Oamaru, but did not do as well as was anticipated— a result owing solely to bad management. They went there under a guarantee of L2OO for the three nights, and were to halve the takings over and above that sum with the managers of the undertaking. The latter, however, made a sad mess of it. Half Oamaru believed that only

the holders of tickets for .the season, as . it was called, could obtain ad. mission; hence there were hardly any applications for single tickets, and “Mantana” did not draw the house it should have done. With good management, Mi? Allen should have had no difficulty in pock, eting LSO over his guarantee. At Timaru, where the management was in better hands, that was the result. On the openiijg night money was turned away ; on the two succeed, mg evenings there were full houses j and if it had been possible they equld have played a fourth night in Timaru with advantage. They opened in Christchurch on Monday to a capital attendance, and with prospects of a season as successful as was the one here. I notice that Mr Allen has gone in for increased prices, viz., dress circle, 7s 6dj stalls, 5s i and pit, 3s.

Apropos of opera, and on the principle audi alteram partem, I give the town corres* poudont of the ‘ Warnambool Standard’s’ criticism on the new operatic singers, which it wi'l be observed is less flattering than that which has appeared in the Melbourne papers. The gentleman who has been kind enough to send me the following extract assures me that the correspondent is well known in literary and musical circles in Vie* tons, and that his opinion may be relied on:

Signora Palmieri made her dehut as Amelia in Un Ballo,” and was a signal failure. Her stage appearance is anything but prepossessing —blonde, fat, apparently about 45, with features on which the owner could not possibly impress tragic or comic emotions, and a voice wanting m power. Signora Magi made her nrst appearance as Azucena, and proved a decided success. She is young, intelligent, not bad-looking, an excellent actress, and possessed of a good mezzo-soprano, scarcely to be called contralto, but an immense improvement on anything of the kind we have heard since the days of Sarah Flower. Signor Piorani—a new basso—is passable, with small compass of voice,

but a good stage figure; he is an excellent actor. On Monday, Signora Palmieri appeared &s Imcretia, and failed to impress the audience with a due sense of the character. Her rendering of the parts allotted to her in the first and second acts was very poor, but in the third act she gave out some of the most delicious notes I ever heard from the mouth of women, so that I went away unable to nay what I thought of her. lam of opinion that she has once possessed a deliciously sweet voice, but that now she lacks power; it is not cracked, squeaked, or broken, is highly

cultivated, with exceptional finish, but the singer appears (like a bellows with a hole in it) to lack wind—l can describe no other way. iq-mght she appears as Marguerite in “Faust ■” afid if she does not make a success, will have to fake a back seat. On Wednesday Signora AUoe Persian! made her tfeiuf as Annette in Cnsmno e la Comare, or the Cobbler and the i airy Godmother,” and was highly successful In appearance she looks about twenty, is in that character the handsomest girl I ever saw here on the lyric stage, a charming buffo actress, and possesses a beautifully sweet voice of no great power, but full of expression. Signor Baldassare, a baritone, also appeared in “ Crispin© ; in acting he is equal to that grand old man Grandi, and has a full, powerful, sweet voice. He achieved a triumph, and the applause meted out to him was a thing to be remembered. Madame Anna Bishop was a passenger from San Francisco to Honolulu by the City of Melbourne. She is expected to reach Auckland by the next boat. Two rumors are going the rounds just now The first is that Dion Boucicault and his wife are about to visit the Colony. The secapd, and more probable one, is that Madame Riston, the greatest tragedienne of modern times, is going to come o»t ti> “astonish the natives.”

One of the Liverpool papers publishes a letter from an actress on a subject that baa long been matter for comment in connection with theatricals at Home. “ The Actress ” complains of the prevalent evil in the profession of toadying women who have forced themselves into notoriety through their connection with some brainless member of the aristocracy. She says : ‘‘Legitimate actresses do not recognize these women, though many, from their subordinate position, are compelled to tolerate them; buji authors, critics, managers, men of positionmen who are supposed to respect themselves are not ashamed to give open encouragement and support to women, of unblushing notoriety, of no education or character, who give their services, find their own dresses, make their ‘’first appearance ’ on any stage, and whose sole idea of acting is to look pretty and wear a number of expensive, and very often absurdly inappropriate, costumes from Paris. I have just left one'of the leading London theatres where the "‘sole and' responsible manager’ owes his position'to a notileinaS' whose mistress is the real manageress and this is, unfortunately, the rule, net the exception, in London theatres. Let an aotress’s name be mentioned in connection with Duke of —or the Marquis of . * n d she is safe to have an engagement of some kind ; but if it is once whispered that she is ‘respectable.’the rnmor is fatal, unless she is fortunate m possessing inflnential friends, or in belonging to a well-known theatrical ‘ fto “* *v wp

Somebody sends to the London «Echo* a description, apparently in good faith, of a curious performance at a ghost stance in tha|

City. The ** medium,” a young lady, was strongly tied with tape and placed in a small cupboard like a- wardrope, which held nothing beside but a low chair, and was curtained in front. The end of the tape which bound her was fastened outside the cupboard, so that any motion of hers might be seen at ones. Where the bindings crossed they were waxed and sealed. All this accomplished, the gas was slightly lowered, and shortly “ Katie,” the ghost, appeared at the entrance of the cupboard. She wore a white gown and an eastern head-dress, and seemed much taller than the medium. She walked visibly up and down the room, answered the questions put to her, distributed flowers to the various sitters, shook hands with each of them, blessed them, and returned to the cupboard. When the enrtain was drawn the medium was discovered tied and bound as before. This is the tale most gravely told —an odd addition to the odd literature of Spiritualism. Professor Hartz, the magician, has lately been giving a series of performances in New "Sork, some of them which are as surprising

as they are entertaining and amusing. One of them is as follows :—A common empty packing box, with a lid hung by iron hinges, is placed upon the stage, and a committee from the audience asked to examine it. They report that it is a firmly made packing box. After a thorough examination, outside and inside, they take a rope and tie it up, passing it through the staples for the two padlocks, and then tie the ends firmly, and seal them with sealing-wax. They then envelop the box in canvas, which covers all six sides, when another rope is added, tied and sealed. Surely the box is safe from any attempt to get into it or out of it without removing the ropes | Professor Hartz’a assistant then comes forward with a canvas sack, open at one end. This is examined by the committee and by the audience. It is then placed over the head of the assistant, and tied below his feet and the knots sealed. . He is then laid on th§ box, and the box surrounded by a screen. In two and a-half minutes the sack

is thrown over the screen, the knot and seals untouched. The screen is* instantly removed, and the committee,' after examining the seals and finding them unbroken, com* mence untying the ropes and removing the canvas. The box is opened, and the man found inside. Prompter.