DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 263, 15 July 1905, Page 14

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL

jdy Footlight.

WEST'S Pictures and the Bresoians are doing phenomenal business just now at the Opera House. Most nights the "full house" sign goes up at eight, and. 1 the dress cdrcle is booked beforehand. People haven't patronised a "picture show" to sutoh an extent before in Wellington, and you wonder why until you see the pictures. The enormous trouble that has bpear expended! on the production, of the films strikes one most, for in the coloured kinematographic views, of course, it has been necessary to "retouch" the minute pictures. Thris has been beautifully done. Few moviner pictures we have seem in Wellington have aroused such enthusiasm, or in which the realism has been so vivid and complete. Onei shows a mother putting a little girl to bed. There is a chair before the fire, with a garment hun^ on it. The little girl gets out of bed to obtain a dloll, and! knocks tihe chair into the fire. One sees the mad rush of about twenty fire engines, the crowd, the fire, the firemen climbing the ladld'er and hacking holes in tihe wall to get throuejh. Later the youngster is rescued. The light shines on the helmets of the firemen, the fine is a raging red, and there is so much, smoke and water that on© almost fancies the smell of the burning house. You have seen such things before, but noit in such, absolute faithfulness of detail, t * ♦ There are laughs in a great many of the arranged pictures, and the arrangement 'oan't be noticed. A chase after a man with a basket, who is supposed to have kidnapped a child' is the most amusing. It takes ten maniutes and a town, full of people and! ai policeman, not to mention) cripples in 1 chains and a wooden-legged boy, to run the man to earth. The child ia found) m a dog kennel, "as happy as Larry." Cowboys and Indians, sticking up of coaches, shootdnigs, and 'rescues are exciting goods, while a splendidly-acted picture, showing that 'love laughs at locksmiths," asks your sympathy for a girl whose father has forbidden her marriage. • • * "A Trap to the Sun" is one of tihose unexplainabl© xidctures that blend live people with stage properties, and shows six or seven terrific crashes — people sailing through the air in weird! contrivances, and! hitting a mountain, with a bang, submarines blowing up, trains wrecked' in the clouds, and always real people that get up and shake themselves free of ruin. The pictures are introduced 1 by Mr. West, who explains them with a wealth of West End English. "The Busy Bee" is a series of very beautiful films, showing myriadb of these insects in all the processes of honey gathering and storing. As the bees are much magnified! — they appear to be the s'ze of mice — the twinkle of a bee eyelid is perceptible. You felar that the bare-handedi bee farmer will get stung, but, as he doesn't swear, he evidently gets off soot free. The bee pictures are masterpieces. • • ♦ The "Brescians," dressed in picturesque Spanish costumes, are finished musicians. There are four lady Bresoians, and three gentlemen. They look aa if they had just dropped' in, especially the aocompanist gentlemanj. Ease and expression are the noticeable features of the performamoe, and the 1 'cello, double bass, violins, piano, and organ constitute a very fine orchestra. The selection of simple airs pleased vastly, (not only on account of the quality, but by reason of their familiarity. • ♦ * The singing of the Brescians is of finished excellence. The contralto voice of Miss Domenica Martinegro is rich and full, and is used with wonderful expression. Her splendid vocalism penalised her in many encores. Mis® Antonio Martinegro possesses a pleasing soprano voice, and sings simple little ditties sweetly, and the other ladies showed marked! vocal ability. Miss Adelina Miartinegro is a mistress of the violin. Her fantasia (VerdS-Hayward) was a perfect delight to music-lovers, and demonstrated her perfect control of a lovely instrument. There were three jovial Roman Catholic priests in tihe dress cdrcle, and! Mr. Rudall Haywood' sang "Father O'Flynn." to them. It was a capital effort, full of character and quiet humour. He had to sing a great deal.

Mr. Fred Mills, the Brescian comedian., nn "To be <xxntiniued) in aw nextf^ and "The Ballymoney Conversazione 5 amused vastly. A shortage of programmes on Tuesday night Was an inconvenience, and the only explanation is that so large an. audience couldn't be accommodated l. Many people were turned away just after eight., being unable to obtain adtaLssioin. •* * ■* Fuller's New Entertainers, at His Majesty's Theatre, ara still well supported by Stillwell, who as "a good judlge of silk." Stillwell strolls an to the stage in scarlet evemiT" olotihet, and doe's! his special act. He hasn't got any visible handkerchiefs' on him, and he takes the sleeves off his coat, to show bare arms, and that "there is no deception." He begins making handikarohiefs, substraotinig, multiplying, and dividing handkerchiefs. If the "Artful Dodger" were handy he would weep for joy, and! Fagan would die of shotek. Before he has done with himself, Stillwell has one thousand! handkerchiefs spread around, so he says. Anyhow, he asks you to come aboard, and; count them. Stillwell will fade from view tomorrow (Saturday). * • • The Raleigh Brothers are slack-wire artists of the burlesque kind; one sladk-wires, and the other dloes the laugh-producing. It is a pretty good "turn." The Stewart Trio are stall playing the aluminium organ chimes and the 860 silver bells, amdl Miss Winnie Stewart sings "When the Roses Bloom Again." The roses bloom beautifully on the piloture screen. Harry Marshall is an impersonator of ladies, particularly the vaudeville seria lady. He sings, and 1 you don't quite know whether he is a she or a he until he takes his hat an'd back hair off, and shows his close-crapped) poll. His "turn" takes. * * • Miss Ethel Preston is a dasher. She "lets herself go," and, asi high-kicking is always animating, as well as instructive!, she gets glad paeans of praise for her skysoraping feats. Mass Nellie Power is new to tiho company. She sings "Honey, don't say that we moist part." I'm tired of songs with the word "Honey" in them, but Miss Nellie mustn't mind! that. She is all right. Bob Hall (comedian). Ted Anderson, and Ted Stanley (comic songsters) are still in the bill, and* Harry Wilford, doon eonigster, is new. To-morrow (Saturday) Fred Rivenhall ("Australia's areatestt comedian") and! trapeze artists Leons (three) will be seen a,nd heard. * • * Mr. M. J. Brookes 1, of the Dresden, is always to the fore with something good in. the musical 1 line. Just mow he has in stock Boosey aaid Co.'s fine Imperial edition, of Song-Books. In separate volumes you can get soprano songs, contralto, tenor, baritone, and 1 bass songs, and' the compilers have admitted no shoddy stuff. They comprise popular, standard, and classical songs, and are very cheap. If you want to make a nioe present, try one of these volumes. * * * Cuyler Hastings is to: r>lay nn "The Liars," in. New York. Afterwards the oold American will support Bertha Kalich, in "Fedora."

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Two theatres are being built in Sydney to replace the Lyceum. • * ♦ Tod CaUaway recently manned) Miss Crissde Mascotte, of the "Mascotte Sisters." * * • Pollard's Opera Company foumd lots of salver at Broken Hill, where tihey played a- very successful season lately. • * • Mrs. Langtry has taken "The. Walls of Jericho" to South Africa. Some of Mrs. Langtry's race-horses accompany the walls. • * * To produce a musical comedy in London takes £20,000 out of the producer's pocket, but if it hits the pubho it puts £100,000 back again. Madam© Melba, at her first appearance in "La, Traviata," at London Opera House, franked all the Australian cricketers into a special box. * * * Owing to the tremendous 1 amount of sickness among "stars" on the. other side, many recent contracts have stipulated forsick-pay in case of break-down. ♦ * Reported now that Alfred! Damoieir is not really seriously ill, it not having been necessary to call a doctor in. Rumour had it he was hopelessly paralysed. Herr Benno Soherek has been elected a member of the London Savage Club. But, seeing that Herr Benno is working at Johannesburg, he probably won't attend every week. • * • A rink for ireal ice skating is in course of construction at Melbourne. Adelaide already has its Glao-um. Some enterprising, Wellimgtonian should freeze on to the idea. \ « • ♦ Dora Taylor, the clever top dancer, who was always well received in Wellington, goes to Londoni m order to see am ear-specialist. Dora S ete . increasingly deaf, and has. missed serious accident several times on thaib account. • » • Daniel Frawley, the American actor, is a bit communistic. He is going to take a New York theatre, and says he "hopes to surround' himself ■with' a company of clever people, and give each member a financial interest in the project." # An actor who is doing rather well tells me the worst time he ever had 1 was when his salairy was so low as to prohibit him having more than one real good meal a day. The real hardship was that he ajad to play the part of a man with rich-mian's> gout. • * • More trouble over copyright and authorship. Charles Harman has requested the immediate withdrawal from public performance in London of the play "Leah Kleschma." To Charles Frohman and others concerned], he has intimated' bis priority- of copyright. • • • Clement Wragge, who lectured! in New Zealand before he wandered to London, is at present asking tlhe big city to "come and behold the. wonders of Nature and tihe glories of creation." These properties Clement isi exhibiting in "The Temple of TJrdina," at Londtan Crystal Palace. • • • In, connection with the recent tragic occurrence at the Savage Cluig, when Mr. Axnfcld, while singing "We Take Off Our Hats to the King," fell back and died, Mr. Odell^who was sitting near, and had! grasped the seriousness of the position, ©aid, in. a hushed voice, "Yes, to the King of Kings." • • * Adelaide "Quiz" has this: — You may sing the vile Boyne water to a paitriotic Mick You may food aroundi the hind hoofs of a mule that's prone to kick. You may tell a Scott a bigpipe is a death dirge out of tune, But never tell Nell Stewart you appreciate Miss Brune. • * • That extraordinary young man, Oliver Baidbridge, who used 1 to tell moving stories of adventures by flood! and field in New Zealand, is at it over Sydney side. Sydney "Bulletin" mottoes his show: — "Mr. Oliver Bainbridlge, wfho needs his hair cut, gave his lecture on the "Black JeW last week. The subject is too painful to be pursued furttar." # Sarah Bernhard'b confesses her six dfreaded fears: — (1) That she will become thin againi ; (2) that her son will cease to love her ; (3) that (die will die rich (she considers this a sin, and has religiously squandered money to evade it) ; (4) that she will grow ugly ; (5) that Sardou will think some other actrretas as great as she ; (6) that she will "grow <wd" on the stage. Bernhardt, wflo is now in tflbe sixties, recently revived "I/Aiglon** in Paris.