MISCELLANEOUS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1616, 25 April 1879, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The cost of Mr Paul Meritt’a n«w diama, entitled “New Babylon,” at the Dukes Theatre will include Miss Caroline Hill, Miss May Holt, Mr J. A. Arnold, Mr Charles Wilmot, Mr Clarence Holt, &c. Mr Alexander Henderson has disposed of his interests in the Criterion Theatre to Mr Charles Wyndhatn. He also gives up the reins of management at the Folly Theatre to bliss Dolaro. Mr Henderson will still retain his sparkling “ Les Cloches de Corneville” Company at the Globe, and will, moreover, bring out “Madame Favart” at the Strand Theatre at Easter.

The “New York Herald” says the followng are some of the items of the weekly salaries paid by Mr Mapleson to the stars of his troupe : Signor Campanim, £l5O ; Signor Foli, £IOO ; Madame Gerster, £120; Madame Sinico, £7O ; and Mdlle. Minnie Hank, £64. Capoul has signed an agreement for America to sing in operetta. He will receive 21.0,000 fraucsdbr six months. Charles Fechter has brought a suit for libel against A. K. M'Olure, of the Philadelphia “Times,” and the editor has given bonds for 600 dols. The trouble arose from a correspondent of the paper having charged Mr Fechter with intemperance. The Odeon management have accepted from the pen of M. George Duval a comedy in verse in two acts and four tableaux, founded on Shakespeare’s “ Love Labour Lost,” and entitled “Peines d’Amour Per dues.”

M. Remeny, has published, in the “ New York Herald” of January 18th, a serious charge against Herr Johannes Brahms. The first part of the indictment, in which M. Remenyi claims that he, and not Schumann, “discovered” Brahms, will have little more than a personal interest. M, Remenyi states that he took Brahms when he was a music teacher at 15 cents (7kl) a lesson, supported him, and gave him I'ree quarters at the house of Liszt. There Brahms one day offended the Abbe by falling asleep while Liszt was playing. Liszt forthwith, it is said, dismissed him from his house, and M. Remenyi states he gave Brahms money and a letter from Joachim to Schumann, who claimed his “discovery.” The other part is, however, a far more serious matter. M. Remenyi states that he (Remenyi) wrote the celebrated “Hungarian Dances ” and showed them to Brahms, and that afterwards he found Brahms claimed them for himself. In short, M. Remenyi charges Herr Brahms not only with the blackest ingratitude, but with positive musical theft. To those who know the comparative merit as composers of Brahms and Remenyi, the charge will appear ridiculous. But it is one which Herr Brahms, if he be in the right, will easily be able to refute, and he owes it to his credit as a musician and a gentleman to do so without the smallest delay. The first appearance of Madame Patti, in “Lucia,” at the San Carlo of Naples, attracted but a small audience, doubtless in consequence of the high prices. “H.M.S. Pinafore” has reached its 200th night at the Opera Comique, which, under the management of Mr D’Oyly Carte, seems to have taken its first lease of popularity. “Pinafore ” was roundly abused when it was first produced, and, like many other wellabused theatrical pieces, it appears to have hit the taste of the public. It is curious to see the inroads the musichalls are making into the* theatres proper. Mr Macdermott has, since Boxing Night, been the star of Messrs A. and S. Gatti’s pantomime at Covent Garden, and the “ Squire and Maria” is the big hit at the Strand. Now the “People’s Caterer” has engaged Mr George Loybourne for the Surrey pantomime. A would-be witty correspondent of a London comic paper propounds the following, which he calls a conundrum : “ What is the difference between one of Shakespeare’s plays and a dealer in wild meat ? One is ‘Merchant of Venice’ and the other the merchant of venison.” In reply, the writer says “ I will ask what is the difference between my correspondent and a donkey? Not very much, I fancy.” London correspondents are a curious race. He of a New York daily speaks of Mr Henry Irving as “ a caricature of Edwin Booth, with little twinkling eyes, dark skin, and one leg so much shorter than the other that ho walks with a decided halt. But his acting is so wonderful that no one can think of his looks,”