Dramatic and Musical

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 197, 9 April 1904, Page 14

Dramatic and Musical

By Footlight.

MISS Fitzmaunce Gill with her dramatic company, opened her "Bank of England" at the Opera House, on Easter Monday, and took delivery of a considerable amount of bullion. Every seat between floor and ceiling was occupied by a customer. The drama was very satisfying from the sensational point of view. There were four acts of assorted sensations, ranging from dealings in "flash" notes to murder in the gold vaults of the Bank of England, with plenty of Sherlock Holmes business in between to satisfy the audience that things would get tangled out all right m the end. * * • The play fluctuates between Barraclough House and the Bank of England, and when the leading characters are not grouped about the mansion of Lord Barraolough they are sure to be knocking about the Bank. All the trouble arises over Lady Sylvia. Barraclough, because she despises the suit of Stephen Hatley (her father's co-director at the Bank), and prefers a mere clerk named Eric Dane. Hatley doesn't stop at trifles to win a bride, but goes ri°-ht ahead under a full pressure of villainy, wru a flaxen-haired Hebrew named Gorden Isaacs to fetch and carry and talk serio-comics through his nose after the usual manner of the stage Jew, who teems to be an indispensable part of the furniture of these melodramas. * • • Hatley, by means of Isaacs and a clever counterfeiter of false notes, tries to ruin the favoured lover by causing him to utter bogus notes. He has also got his prospective father-in-law (Lord Barraclough) under his thumb, and privy to a deep-laid scheme to remove certain treasure from the Bank. In an awkward moment he quarrels with his confederate, the counterfeiter, murders him in the bullion vaults, and packs his body into the treasure chest that is to be removed. After this, the interest of the drama centres upon his attempts to sret that funereal chest shifted out of the bank, but he is foiled at every point, and eventually completely outwitted and exposed by a clever and dashing American widow (Mrs. Aminta J. Beane) and Sherlock Holmes, whom she employs for the purpose. * * ♦ The play was cleverly staged, and the performance was smooth and effective right through. Miss Fitzmaurice Gill, as Mrs. Amintai J. Beane, occupied the front place in the public eye, and her bustling manner, quaint Americanisms, and frequent invitations) to "just put that down on your cuff." kept the audience highly amused. Mr. Charles Blake sustained the difficult role of Sherlock Holmes with good effect, and soored in the nocturnal scene wherein he plays upon the superstitious fears of the guilty bank director by masquerading as the ghost of his victim. * * * Miss N. Mylrae's slight and graceful figure suited the part of Lady Sylvia, and she spoke her lines and acted with becoming dignity. Miss May Granville

acquitted herself well as the discarded wife of Stephen Hatley, and Mr. W. Power as Hatley exerted himself to play the villain. JVtr. E. B. Russell invested the part of Gordon Isaacs with a strong flavour of humour, and gave intense satisfaction to the "gods." The sweethearting of Tommy Sprouts (Mr. S Adson), Holmes's page, and Lucy Lockett (Miss Mabel Russell), Lady Sylvia's maid, along with Jeames, the footman (Mr. W. Welch), furnished the rest of the low comedy element. * * * Mr. P. Savien made a hit in the role of Godfrey Dane, the inconvenient confederate who gets knocked on the head, and Mr. C. Lawrence as Lord Barraelough, and Mr. J. Goodall as Eric Dane, the young clerk who wins the bride, carried out their parts very satisfactorily. The "Bank of England has been doing stunning business all the week. A change of bill is promised for Saturday, when "A Sister s Sacrifice" goes up. It is a story of MandaThis new play seems to have won golden opinions everywhere it has been staged. The scenes are laid in romantic Burmah, at Mandalay, so recently popularised by Rudyard Kipling in his song of the British soldiers. The plot is described as carrying throughout a story full of love and sentiment on the one side, and thrilling adventure on the other. The military scenes in Burmah, notably the midnight attack on the entrenched Temple of Buddha, are said to be marvellous pieces of stage effect, while the scenic tableaux are described as highly realistic. Mr. Blake has a fine leading hero's part as Captain Norman Swain©, and all the members of the company are well suited. • • • The Buckmann Concert Company were well patronised at the Opera House on Good' Friday, and produced a favourable impression. Miss Rosma Buckmann is a young lady belonging to Feilding, who has just returned to the colony after five years' musical training in London and Birmingham. She has a charming stage presence, possesses a clear and flexible soprano voice of good timbre, and sings with confidence, phrasing well, and managing her voice artistically. The intonation was slightly at fault in "I know that my Redeemer Liveth," and' there was just a suspicion of forcing the voice in "Divine Redeemer." But, the general effect was highly satisfactory. She also sang an ana from "Eli/ and, byway of encore, the dainty little ballad "Dorothy May," which raised a strong desire to hear her in secular music. « * * Mr. Hamilton Hodges raised quite a furore by his singing. "Nazareth" was a real tour de force, and, the audience let themselves go in loud cheers, and successfully enforced a double encore. The aria, "Lord, My God," from Dubois' striking cantata, "The Seven Last Wards of Christ/ was declaimed with impressive effect, and "Angels Guard Thee" was a real gem. Mr. Hodges also joined with Miss Buckmann in a duet from "Elijah." Mrs. Ernest H. Queree's pianoforte playing was a delightful feature of the concert. Her accompaniments were marked by refined artistic taste, and her bracketted soli (an andante by Heller and Schumann's "Grillon") were interpreted with exquisite grace and sweetness. The audience at once exacted an encore. Miss Clarice, a young sister of Miss Buckmann, not yet out of short frocks sang "Daddy" very nicely, and won a recal. Fuller's Entertainers, at His Majesty's, are frisking along with much dash; and to the sound of new voices and fresh feet. Among the newest goods for your sampling is Mr. James Williams, who

has a voice so deep that it's a wonder he doesn't lose it. Mr. Albmson who plays the orchestra, all but ran off the piano when accompanying James. Mr. Williams's songs, notably those dealing with the sea, which is the only thing that has sufficient depth, are skilful and pleasing. • • • Miss Kate Maher, the charming, blue-eyed Irish colleen, is with the frohckers agam ; and as mandoliniste and singer of dainty songlets she is very welcome. Miss Iris Kadamo, straight from Tokio, is bound to get a hearing, seeing that she comes from Japan. She has a sweet- sympathetic voice, and seems to know English pretty well. • * • Fred Bluett, m his character and dialect sketches, is a choice blend as always. and the vocal story he calls "Mooch About" would extract a laugh from a rheumatic patient with toothache. Dick Davis and Joe Cowan are still to be seen, and very plainly heard, while Mr. Walter Melrose, described as "Australia's most brilliant descriptive," may be someday if he keeps going. The Traverna girls are joyous little things, in quaint frocks, and are good serios. Millie Clare and old friend Daisy Chard are all on the bill. • • • The two recitals to be given in Wellington by Herr Albert Friedenthal, the world-famed pianist, take place at the Sydney-street Hall on Friday and Saturday th.s week, Apr A Bth and 9th. The Auckland concerts last week were highly .successful, all four being very well attended. After the recitals in Wellington, Herr Friedenthal will give a few provincial concerts, the dates of which are as follows — Nelson, 11th ; Wanganui, 18th and 20th ; Palmers ton North, 19th; and Napier, 22nd and 23rd. After which he goes on to Hobart via Chnstchurch, Dunedin, and Invercairgill. • • » It seems quite superfluous to say a word in praise of this celebrated pianist. He is a pupil of the famous virtuoso, Kullak, is now at the zenith of his powers (he was born in 1862), and during the last twenty years he has toured every part of the world, winning the highest kudos everywhere. He is master of nine languages, and plays no less than 250 pianoforte pieces all from memory. • * • Kyrle Bellew, the curly-haired actor, who played Romeo to Mrs. BrownPotter's Juliet in Wellington some years ago, is said to have been robbed of a valuable gold watch lately while watching a bicycle race. Valued it chiefly because it was a resent from General Kitchener. Whereupon, a matter-of-fact Yankee paper coldbloodedly asks : "Is this a 'cute advertisement?" Such things have been heard of. • • • Pollards' popular people are still busy taking unto themselves wives and husbands. The latest victim to the matrimonial fever is Mr. Harry Quealy, who was to wed Miss Nelly Finley, in Western Australia, at the end of March. • # • Miss Lillian, Digges, who was here with the Williamson Musical Comedy Company last year, is touring the English provinces. • • • Missi Maud Dalrymple, the Sydney contralto, who has been heard in Wellington — wasn't it with Amy Castles? — met with a stroke of luck in singing at Government House, Sydney, not long since. The Earl and Countess of Lonsdale heard her there, and were so impressed with her voice that they offered to pay the expense of launching her upon the musical world of London. Therefore, Maud has just started for the Old Country.