DRAMATIC NEWS.
Miss Ada Lester, of whom many plsygoete here wilt have bright and enduring r*collections, made her first appearance in Christchurch at the Theatre Loyal on July 10, 1870, as Anno Catberick and Laura Fairlie in The Woman in White, Mr Wybcrt Beeve being the Count Foeco; Ur D’Orsay Ogden. Walter Hartwrigbt j and Miss Beatrice, Marion Haleombe. The favourable impression she then created was subsequently strengthened by heipounrayal of Magdalen Vsostooo I Great Temptation) Beryl Oeith (George Oeith), Mrs MUdmay (Still Waters Bun Deep), May Edwards (Ticket of Leave Man), Dora (Diplomacy), Lilian vavasour (New Men and Old Acres), and Constance Warbnrton ( Won at Last)/ It was in the latter piece—a smartly-written comedy from the pen of Ur Wybert Baevs—that she made her last appearance here on Sept. 23, 1879 and the subsequently supported Mr Beeve in Melbourne, whence she sailed for England It was with Mr Beeve that Mise Lester made her debut in the English provinces, and she was, we believe, the original Beryl in Mr Beeve’e dramatisation of George Oeith j and who that has seen them acting together in that piece can ever forget what splendid touches of the actor’s art the scenes between them were? A clear enunciation, a lithe figure, pleasing expressive features, a natural graoemneis cf manner, and a thorough knowledge of stage business, were Miss Lester’s advantages, which were, however, somewhat marred by a harsh voice. Still there who saw her performances during her stay in this city will not soon forget her, and to those who have memories of pleasant evening* spent in witnessing her charming delineations the news of her untimely death will cause no small feeling of regret. A lady member of the dramatic profession, who some time ago married and retired into privatellfein Christchurch, is about to return to tfae stage.
The Bohemians—a new combination including Messrs Hydes, Love and Alexander, Miss Madge Herrick and, Mise Clifton —have arranged to visit Timaru during the New Tear holidays. By telegram from Auckland we learn the Montogue-Turner Opera Company opened at the Boyal on Wednesday, and notwithstanding inclement weather hod a good house.— Signor Tamburini and the Brothers Nicolis opened at (he Albert Hall, Auckland, for a short season on December 14.—Professor Enter, phrenologist, is lecturing in the Napier district-—Gary's Juvenile Opera Company onto visit Napier during the Christmas noway*, and will produce The Pirates, Pinafore, and CMlperic. —The Pomeroy Company were but moderately patronised at Nelson. — Lyons’ Tourists did a good business at Taranaki. They played at Waverley and Wanganui on their way south, and were fairly well patroniscd. —A correspondent writing from Wanganuisavs:—The Pomeroy Company opened lure on Dec 5. to rather shy business, in consequence of the election attractions and the unavoidable absence of Ur Hoskins. Then Mi-s Pomeroy was indisposed, and the money had to be returned on the Wednesday night, and she did not appear for the rest of tfae week, but Mr Hoskins drew two crowded houses on the Friday and Saturday, and bis reception was a most enthusiastic one. If this company had been here at any time but the election week they would have done a good business. Lyons’ tourists are still playing up the Coast to good business, and they appear here for one night on Saturday next, after which they leave direct for Christchurch, The Harts open here on Boxing Day, and play for a week. In all probability Herr Wilhelm j will appear in Wanganui about the first week in January.” Bent and Bachelder’e Minstrels. are at Hokitika business good.—Cary’s Opera Company re-opened at weymouth, on Deo. 15.—Mr De Lias* Company continued to play to moderate boainese at the Theatre Boyal, Wellington, till Deo. 17, when the aeoaoa doted.—Mr Cary bavins succeeded in leasing the Theatre Boyal, Wellington, from Mr De Lias, the Juvenile Open Company were to open then on Monday last—The "Poet,” referring to the event, say*: —“The performance, judging from the rehearsals, promises to be a great success. The principal character, Mabel, will be token by Miss Lena Robinson, who sings and acts her part admirably. The youth who appears as -Frederick has a mellow tenor voice, and he acts with considerable judgment. The choruses are harmonious, the time is excellent, and the duets and trios all show careful training on the part of the conductor. The see aery requisite for the production of the open it nearly completed. The orchestra is under the directorship of Mr Oimino.”— The Williamsons opened at the Princess Theatre. Dunedin, on Saturday, in Struck Oil.—Mr Bobson has been giving his recitals at tiie Temperance Hall, Dunedin, with considerable success.—The Georgia Minstrels have been doing fairly well at the Theatre Boyal, Invercargill. The mail to hand from Sydney during the week brings dramatic news up to Deo 12. Patience is still running merrily at the Theatre Boyal, and will probably be transferred to the Opera House daring the pantomime season at the Boyal.—After running for six nights at the Gaiety, All For Gold was withdrawn on Deo. 12 in favour of the sensation drama The Black Flag. Mr Dampisr is not so liberally patronised as be should be, considering the manner in which the various pieces are put upon the stage. — The Osrdena are still at the Opera House, but business is by ho mean* brisk. They do not seem to take very well with the cornstalks,— Mr Grattan Biggs had a very successful run with Shin Fins* at the Queen's. On Dee. 12. Cuhla Macros was to be produced.—Wilson's Circus is as libsnlly patronised as ever. Mr Harkins closed his remarkably successful season at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide on Dso 2, On the following night Miss Ada Ward opened at this bouse in The IFbMua t« Bed, but at latest dates was hot attracting good house*. — Hudson's Surprise Party opened in Adelaide on Dec. 10. There was a crowded house.— Professor Haaelmayer is giving entertainments to moderate houses at the Albert Hall, Brisbane.—lt is stated that Madame Adelina Patti bos refused £13,000 for 12 performances in Australia,—Mr J. B. Steele has accepted a six months' engagement at the Theatre Boyal, Adelaide.—Madame lima do Monika is exrted to arrive in Adelaide shortly.—Mr Q. W. Lswis, of the Academy of Music, Melbourne, is reported to have lost £BOO in eight weeks.—Mr George Bigaold is expected to arrive ia Melbourne on or about Christmas Day. He brings Youth, the latest London sensational drama, and several other new pieces with him.—Herr Bandmonn has gone to Calcutta.—The Mendelssohn (American) Quintette Club proved a frost at Newcastle. —Mr South and bis company put the Christmas season in at Brisbane. Fobsiov Qossir.
M. Victor Mmh, composer of Paul and Virgime is daugeroudjf U 1 with paralysis. Ho neverthsless daily continues working at the now score of CUopa(r«.~’hlt Edgar Bruce has received from the Prince of Wale* a handsome scarf pin in remembrance of hie late performance of Th* Colonel at Abergeldic Cattle. The company presented him with a timepiece.—Mr Henry Irving hae been creating quite nfnrore at the Boyalty Theatre, Olatgow, where he hoe met with success altogether unprecedented in the annsls of local theatrical*. The receipts for the first four nights of his engagement amounted to the sum of 451,890.—The special performance of Jbrye#*«e*«o< given recently in America by Miss Genevieve Ward for the Michigan sufferers yielded 786 dollars for the fund,—Messrs Gatti have made arrangements to produce a new drama by Mr Henry Fettitt. It is entitled Taken From Life and the principal character will he sustained by Mr Charles Warner,-W. 8. Gilbert's comedy of Foggsrtjfs Fitirg, written origin* ally for the lata Mr Sothern, will shortly be produced at the Criterion, London.— The Bronte Horse, which has reached its one hundredth representation at the Alhambra, will shortly have to be withdrawn. The house will be entirely redecorated and refur* nishsd, and will reopen with The Blaek Crock.—At the Palais Bojal recently, Mr Lhetibcr waa f&ed. During a dramatic run of 60 years be has created no less than 381
different part*.—The Jennie Lee Jo Company, in America, have cancelled all date* tad diehanded. Mist Leo has been offered an eaSigement in Ban Franciico.—Hcrr Angels Lumaon, director of the Stodt Theatre in Lcipric, ha* arrived in London, with hit (tarn* manager, to make preparation* at Her Majesty's then! to tor the forthcoming production of Richard Wagner’s J Sibeiungen in May next. —Herr Theodore Beccbman, the celebrated baritone of the Royal Opera House,Munieb,hae been engaged to take part in Niebelungen la London.—The homy heatre, London, opened recently with a aew sensational drama in seven acts, entitled Mankind, The novelty of the performance consist* in the age of the dramatie persona being given from Qroode, who is 101, to Jessie, who is only eight.— Mr Wallock has began bis annual Sour in Brooklyn, playing in Ours and My Awful Dad at Harerly’s Theatre.—Madame fine* opened in New York, at Brooklyn Park Theatre, on Nor. 15, ae Camille, and «k hioved a decided success.—Bignor Lo-iii, playing in Italian and supported t,jnnh. glisb-iptaking company, has made his Amet-nn dibit in Boston, playing Othello, Lear and Komeo, He appeared in New York at Booth** Theatre, on Ocf. 31.—1 tis announced that the contract between the Director of the Russian Imperial Theatre* and Mdlls Sarah Bernhardt haa been signed. The French actresa will give a aeries of representation* extending over three weeks. — Madame Far art received it* first English representation in Boston on Nov. 7.—Mr Edward Solomon, the composer of Bilk* Taylor, Claud* Ducal, and Lord Bateman, proposes shortly to visit America on professions! nasi' ness, and during his stay there will superintend the production of the two last-named works. —Mr William Young will supply the Cored Garden pantomime, which will be entitled LUttle Bo Peep, Lillie Bed Biding Mood, and The Little Old Woman who laced in a Shoe. —The highest salary paid by the French opera is £4BOO a year to M. La* cells; Manrel gets £4000; Yiliarst, £2400; Sellier, £1800; MdUeKraus, £3200; Mdlls Richard, £2400; and Mdlle, Pious, £BOO,—A genome theatrical sensation is in prospect in Puns. Permission is said to have been granted by the Prefecture of Police to the Director of the Porto fit. Martin to exhibit real lion* in the last scene of Biehe au Boie, and the moat extravagant reports are current about the outlay on the mounting of tbs extra? agaoxa. One scene alone is estimated to cost £3OO. Miss Griswold, a niece of Bret Harte, recently sang Marguerite in Faust in Paris. On the second night the receipts were £SBO, and the lessee doubled her salary.—A grand English Opera hse been made out of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin'' — Michtl Slrogoff still continues to draw at the Boston Theatre. — Genevieve Ward’s two weeks' engagement at the Globe Theatre, Bostor, ended Nov. 5, Forgetme-Not continuing the attraction to the close.—Patti has mads arrangements with Henry E. Abbey, to taka charge of her American concert tour. Thirty concerts will bo given.—The pantomime fvt the Queen’* Theatre, Manchester, will bo wmi.n r.-j J. T. Denny, and the subject will be Aladdin—The Colonel woe produced for tire iim tune in America, at Boston, oa Aug. 15. a Ux.g and prosperous run is predicted for it.—lire Bor Chancellor Tindall, of Dublin, haa been presented by Mr Irving with a bus*, which is a likeness of the eminent artiste in the port of Hamlet. —It it said that arrangements bare been made for a series of representations ia July next at Drury Lone Theatre, in which. Madame Biston will act in English. Since Madame acted the scene in Macbeth in our language she has studied [the whole part of Lady Macbeth and of Giacometti’s Elizabeth. —J. Z. Emmet’s latest appearance was In Pittoburg. According to a London correspondent the true glory of the Lyceum Theatre ia that English Sarah Bernhardt, Miss Ellen Terry. Off the stage she it quite as fascinating aa when before the footlights. She haa proved the extent of her power of enchantment by successfully winning and wedding three huebands, all of whom are still living, divorce and not death having released her from two of them. In fact, it is reported that while walking in the Grosrenor Gallery recently, with her present spouse, Mr Kelly, she came face to face with her two former bus bands, who were promenading there together, and that the only embarrassed personage of tha quartette was Mr Kelly: and they do say that the law will soon be called into requisition to break the bonds that unite her to her present spouse, and that she will theff become the wife of a prominent English actor. Surely this wonderful and interesting lady ought to Inscribe on her wedding-ring the motto said to have been adopted by the old Countess of Desmond on the occasion of her fourth marriage:
If I survive I'll have five.
Mr Jefferson is appearing at the Union Square theatre, New York, as Sob Acree in The Bitab, which he baa cut down to three acts, eliminating the character of Julia, and reducing the part of Falkland to a few lines. The Lord Chamberlain has given Mr J. B. Mapleeon notice that in consequence of hi* absence in America, Her Majesty’s theatre can no longer be licensed to him solely, hot will be licensed to the manager of any enter* tainment for the time carried on. Avery handsome donkey played an important part on the first night of Tie Found* hays at Sadler’s WelU. Be was introduced in the third act, and was so tickled bv the novelty of the situation that he laid down, stared at the audience, and then, turning oa Us back kicked up his beds with evident delight, the voiqesol the actors being drowned in the uproarious laughter of the spectators, which continued until the animal was put on his legs again and led from the scene. In M, Lab’s new ballet, shortly to he produced at the Grand Opera, a great effect ie expected to be produced from an episode in which at the moment two rivals are crossing their swords the shadow of the woman they are fighting for bounds in between them, and by its movements protects the favoured lover. The substance of the shadow will be Mdllo Bengalli. A most curious collection of theatrical works brought into the market by the demise of its late owner, the celebrated Baron Taylor, will, it is said, shortly become the property of the French Government, who have secured it for the moderate sum of e ght hundred pounds- It contains over thirty* five thousand printed plays, representing the rtpertoint of all the raritian theatres since the year 1789, and including copies of all the French piece# r armed in the province or abroad during last ninety-one years. Among its most interesting features is a complete series of the political dramas written and produced during the epoch of the first French Republic, and an equally perfect set of the plays printed, but not performed, in France from the com* maneement of the eighteenth century to ite close. Another important item in the catalogue is a library of handsomely bound volumes, two thousand one hundred in number, comprising the whole dramatic literature of Fngland, Germany, and Italy. In addition there are sis hundred original manuscripts of plays, many of them composed by authors of renown. When, shortly after lag&ne Scribe's death, his widow was engaged in preparing for publication a complete collection of his works, she was compelled to apply to Baron Taylor for the loan of certain manuscript* in his possession—plays written by her deceased husband, which, although they had been performed, had never been printed. The National Library of France will soon boast possession of all these treasures.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18811227.2.4
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6500, 27 December 1881, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,626DRAMATIC NEWS. Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6500, 27 December 1881, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.