MASS MUSIC.

Patea Mail, 28 July 1882, Page 3

MASS MUSIC.

Farmer’s mass in hj flat was the first half of the programme. It is sacred music of an interesting character, requiring a stronger chorus than the society can now muster to do full justice to the composer’s genius, and needing also a full string band to bring out by variety and contrast the solemn beauties of devotional music. The society has not been so strong during, the winter as it was previously. Good powerful soloists are also too few. The band has diminished lately until only two violins remain to support the piano. That instrument is now presided over by a young accompanyist of considerable promise. It is a pleasure to record that these weaknesses did not prevent the society from performing the mass with considerable success. Steadiness and fair precision were noticeable in nearly every movement. The “benedictus” quartette was pleasingly sung, and the other concerted passages for leading voices were also nicely given. If the chorus members had been ranged nearer the front, and the back scene brought more forward, the volume of sound would have been less dissipated in the large area behind the proscenium.iri;This arrangement vwould have helped the solo passages also ; but .the choruses especially needed every such aid to make up’ for weakness in volume. The mass was not too long, the audience knowing ’thht lighter and brighter music was to follow, and this part of the programme gave the more pleasure because it had not to be taken along with another heavy-piece, or other serious selections. It bad the freshness of contrast, without too much of one thing; a pleasing change from grave to gay. “TRIAL BY JURY.” “ Edwin sued by Angelina ” for a broken promise of marriage was the plot of a lively burlesque opera forming the second part of th programme. This

opera was one of the early successes of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan, before “Pinafore ” and the “Pirates of Penzance” convulsed the play-going world with laughter. How striking and instructive must be the contrast between the merry success of this performance on Wednesday, as compared with the prim and serious recital of the same opera by the Patea society some three years ago ! Then they sang it sitting in solemn rows, looking severely respectable in evening dress ; making a strictly serious task of a musical comedy. Whereas now they changed all that. They “ dressed ” the piece in character costumes: the jilted bride arrayed in smush while wedding-robe, with tulle veil and orange blossoms, appealing to a sympathetic jury for damages; backed up by the smiles and wiles of eight blushing bridesmaids, in “killing” costumes and cupid wreaths, coaxing a verdict out of soft-hearted jurymen, and thereby precipitating an avalanche of sudden weddings—contrary to the statute in that case made and provided. The stage was furnished as a court of justice ; jurymen to the left; spectators on the right side (these being lady members to help as a chorus) ; the judge’s bench with curtained canopy in centre ; likewise the clerk in front, and the learned counsel in wig and gown. It wasn’t a bad imitation, don’t you know, though the strict forensic practice was rather stretched when the plaintiff’s counsel enforced his appeal to the jury by putting his arm round the jilted plaintiff’s waist in the ardour of his argument —which he shouldn’t. Yet they say those naughty lawyers go to church, sometimes! The pompous usher too made a fussy noise, as ushers will, in pretending to keep “silence in court.” That usher’s part was capitally filled with strong basso voice and bustling behavior. It was like a local earthquake to hear him call “Silence in court!" — and a thump on somebody’s head with his long stick. The judge’s part was filled by a member of extra judicial weight, who looked like a judge every inch, including the spectacles. He let out, in a judicial whisper, that his promotion to the bench had been a job (the jury said “ A good job too ”), brought about by marrying a rich attorney’s elderly ugly daughter. The jury were “ a mixed lot,” as juries usually are, and filled their parts with success; though they were strangely unanimous in finding for the plaintiff (and for the languishing bridesmaids) before the defendant’s “ case ” had been opened. The foreman juror was got up immensely ; resembling one of the queer characters in Dickens’s stories ; and acting his part wit,h such comical completeness that he could be forgiven for being rather absent when the curtain rose —an incurable habit of his. • It takes a wise man to be always in the right place when wanted ; as in this case.

The counsel for the plaintiff acted his part as if to the manner born ; except that it is not strictly usual for a lawyer to embrace his client. The wanton and wicked defendant played his part so neatly (and sang it so sweetly) that the maidens of the district will be rather afraid of him as a too too utterly free lover. Not satisfied with jilting the plaintiff, he actually ogled and flirted with her bridesmaids in open court; vowing that he had a right to change his mind because nature is constantly changing, and that he was willing to marry one lady to-day and marry another to-morrow. The judge brought in a verdict of his own by throwing his books in a passion at the heads of pleaders and jurors ; then declaring that he would many the plaintiff himself —having put away that “ rich attorney’s elderly ugly daughter.” So the curtain fell amid a novel matrimonial mixture : the judge offering to marry the plaintiff, and the jurors proposing to the bridesmaids. That’s how they do things on the stage. The opera was a marked success. The acting was more than passable ; the leading parts being excellent, including the difficult role of the fair plaintiff. It was a bright and lively piece, full of amusing “ go,” and passing off without a hitch. As a musical performance, the characters sang as admirably as they acted ; and it would be churlish to pick little faults in a performance which gave so much pleasure and hearty amusement. The clear enunciation of the judge, the counsel and others, was a great merit in such a piece. Nothing leas than liberal applause could compensate for the arduous labor of preparing an acting opera for the stage. But the excellent result is worth the prolongued effort. The Society can now

feel a proper pride in having achieved a genuine success ; and the conductor is entitled to all the satisfaction which follows an anxious experiment that has proved a pleasing surprise.