ROWING CLUB ENTERTAINMNET

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 93, 16 July 1880, Page 2

ROWING CLUB ENTERTAINMNET

Tho Foxton ft-wiuj; Clu'i m*p cortiinly to bi> congratulate loj t.iu jmge audience their entertainments invariably draw. At t!::it giveu on Wednesday evening, the Public Hall was well filled, the iront seats being crowded ; in faot, tho lack of a sufficient dumber of chairs for the front seats is a' drawback to the appointments of the building, wb/cb; should be at once remedied. The first part consisted of musical selections by ladies only, and the different pieceß were highly appreciated, the audience being moßt demonstrative in their expressions of applause, asd indeed, the whole of the Bongs and duets were remarkably well rendered. The overture, by Mrs Symons and Miss Evans, consisted of " The Linnet Polka," a sparkling piece, and was played witn great spirit, loud applause greeting the performers at its close. Mrs Tansley followed with the familiar song, " Constance," and achieved a great success, the well-known ballad "The Good-bye at the Door," being given in response to a vociferou* encore. Mrs Dimes followed with " The Flowerets of the day," which she Rave in capital style, and narrowly escaped an encore. Mrs Flower and Mrs Russell then gave Kucken's duet, " The Happy Hunter," which is a beautiful piece of harmony, and ample justice was done to it, as was testified by the encore accorded them i the last verse was repeated in response. The next item-on the programme brought out a lady who made a most favourable debut at Wednesday' g concert. We refer to Mrs Shore, who possesses a very sweet soprano voice, which she uses with great taste. Her opening note", in " Mother take me home again," evidently pu 1 "- her on good terms with the audience, who teniifieu their gratification at the close of the verse, but when the song was finished, ft complete outburst of applause brought the singer back to the footlights, and ''See that my grave's kept green," was sung, in which we liked Mrs Shore even better than in her first song. ■Mrs Flower then gave, with great taste, "The Skipper and His Boy," by "Virginia j Gabriel, which weil-deserved the encore it secured, " Darby and Joan " being given lin response. The la9t piece of the first part consisted of Parry's well known duet, " Love wakes and weeps," in which the purts were taken by Mrs Davies and Miss Cook, the latter lady making her debut on this occasion. She proved herself the pos sfißSor of a powerful alto voice of great promise, and we fully expect her to maintain the credit of the family to which she belongs, the lady members ot which have frequently in days gone by delighted Foxton audiencos. Tho duet was sung excellently, and received a deserved meed of applause. The curtain rose about ten minutes after the close of the first part, and revealed the Foxton Christys in position on the stage. The company comprises thirteen members, and is extremely rich in instrumentalists, there being, in addition to the orthodox Bones and Tambo, the latter of whom is a " oometist," two violins, a flute, banjo, &c. The two corner men were dressed in capital coßtumes, and threw themselves into thf-ir work with great spirit, whilst (i Massa Johnson ." evidently had his t-am well iv h:ind, and hud trained them carefully. The company only und>rtook what is known as the " <h.\ir business," and this was done in a really creditable Btyle, considering that it was the first performance of an amateur company. From the overture to the last song, no hitch of any kind occurred, tho whole of the music went extremely well, speaking generally. Of course, some of the songs were better than others, but this was to be expected, considering that it was the first time that eight of the performers had sung in public. A very good feature of the siuging was the " whisper chorus " at the close of each song, which was most effective. Tlie various jokes and local hits provoked great laughter, though some of them were rather " hot." We would point out that some of tho best points were lost to the back seat part of the audience, by not being spoken out clearly enough by the comer men. This trifling defect, however, ;cau he easily remedied by a little greater care in rehearsal, and will doubtless pass off when the performers are more accustomed to their position-*. Before closing, we mußt give great praise to Mrs Davies, who acted 'throughout as accompanist to the Christys, her duties bding extremely arduous, as the songs followed in rapid succession. Considered as a whole the entertainment was extremely successful, and we are glad to learn that the Bowing Club will be a substantial gainer by it. The receipts at the door were neailv £12.