THE STAGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 111, 18 July 1885, Page 5

THE STAGE.

Miss Genevieye Ward has now opened at the New Opera^house^Sydney. The title of Henry Byron's unacted play, found byMr Sothern in hi« father's, paper*, ! is "A Noble Noodle." I Joseph B. Polk has secured a new play by Dr Say re, the author of "The Strategist." Its present title is •« Mixed Pickles." 1 The Melbourne Fraternity of Mutual Imps held a masquerade ball in the Exhibi- ; tion building on the 24th ult. The well-known actress, Miss Ada Cavendish, who has only lately risen from what threatened to be her deathbed, has just been married to an equally well-known dramatic critic, Mr Frank Marshall. Mdme. Judicis about to retire from th« stage, and it is announced that her, present' season at the Varietes will be her farewell to Paris. She goes to America next, and in the spring disappears into private life. An original drama, entitled "Unmasked, or the Runaway Convict," by Mr Barnett, a Canterbury schoolmaster, is about to be produced in Christchurch. The scene ia laid in that city. Professor Haselmayer, the well, known stage conjuror, has just died at Vienna, aged 47, at the precise juncture that he had retired with the idea of enjoying the large fortune he had amassed. : M. Gounod has written a third aria for Siebel in "Faust," which was introduced for the first time in January by a new singer, Mdlle. Fignet. If it is as good as the famous "Flower Song," it ought to create a sensation. Dunedin is absolutely without amusements, and promises to remain so until the opening of the Wybert .Reeve Company at the end of this month. By the way, this Company has been doing good business in Wellington. The Tich borne claimant has been earning from £100 to £200 a week with a travelling variety company in the English provinces. He merely had to do a 15 minutes' walk round and explain himself and his grievances to the audience. Mr Robert Underwood, who acted as business manager for Mr A. T. Dunning in con nection with the Pollard Company, has left for Sydney and Melbourne, where he intends keeping a look-out for novelties for New Zealand. Mr Edward Farley has carried out his idea of taking a company into the far East, and when last heard from he was at Singapore with a small company playing a round of popular opera. Miss Eva Devonport is the prima donna. Herr Remenyi and his company are at present in Melbourne. Mr Himmell and Miss Hattie Downing have left him, and propose to return to America. Herr Remenyi proposes a tour round some of the larger towns inland. On concluding her recent season in San Francisco, MissEmmaNevada was presented by her old schoolfellows withapurse containing 2,000 dollars in gold. The prima donna was a good deal affected by the ovation she received, and broke down in attempting to sing " Home, Sweet Home." The Majeroni and Wilson Comic Opera Company in Melbourne have produced Offenbach's " Brigands " at the Bijou with great success, Miss Gracie Plaisted and Mr Hardinginthe principal parts. Thereismuch bright music in this opera, and the canon for the beggars is never forgotten by anyone who hears it well doneThere is one glorious bit of British boasting in the spectacular drama " Khartoum," at ganger's, which invariably brings down the house. " I can see you are English by your faces," says the Madhito a peripatetic artist and a military chum. " Very likely," is the reply, "no British foe has ever discovered it by our backs." M. Henri Kowalski, the eminent pianist and litterateur ; who was in Melbourne during the Exhibition year, is expected to pay another visit soon. He was said to be in Colombo on May 19*. M, Kowalski is a good and genuine musician, and in passing through Auckland several years ago he contributed a piece of music to Mr Cailliau's paper, "The Music." Dr. J. E.Taylor, the new science lecturer, is holding forth in the Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne. The title of his first lecture was "The World Before Man," and it proved attractive enough to fill the hall. Dr Taylor is a fine, tall, fair Englishman, who speaks clearly and well. His lecture was attentively followed, and frequently applauded. His second lecture was on <% Flowers and Fruits." George Macdonald, the poet and novelist, has entered a new field of literature — the editing of Shakspere's plays. His stage directions are more poetical, actors think, than practical. Imagine an actor studying this situation: "Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in • Hamlet.' He should have around him, as it were, a luminous cloud of his coming; end. A smile net all of this world should close the speech." A smile not all of this world would be effective ! Two concerts were given during April in London in aid of the Women's Industries (in connection with the Loan Exhibition thereof) in which the programmes were made up of compositions entirely by women, Mrs Meadows White, Lady Thompson, Mrs Joseph Robinson, Miss Agnes Zimmerman, Maude Valeric White, Mrs Roeckel (Jules de Sivrai), Mrs John Macfarren (Jules de Brissac), E. Philp, Madame Schumann, Fanny Henselt, and othera. Coincidentaliy with the publication of the Revised Bible, Messrs Brook and Chrystal are issuing a work on "The Bibles of Other Nations," being selections in English from the Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, Buddhist, and Egyptian Scriptures, from the Koran, the Talmud, and the Apocryphal Gospels, with introductions to each book — that to the Talmud being written by the Rev. L. M. Simmons, profeseor of Hebrew at Victoria University, Manchester. The volume also contains an essay on the Ethnic Scriptures, by Dr. James M. Hodgson, and a letter by Max Muller on "Bibles of the World." Canon Farrar gave permission for the inclusion of the translation of "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." An t nglish miner, being curious to know the character of Handel's great work the " Messiah," which he had frequently heard highly praised, went to hear it, and arrived shortly before the occurrence of the famous chorus, "lam the King of Glory." fie made his retreat from the hall not long afterwards, and being asked by some acquaintances why he had left before the end of the concert, gave the following explanation I— "Wey," he said, "aa wes beggorin gled to get oot safe. Yon chap gat up and baals out " Aa'm the King iv Glory.' Directly eftor, anuther jumps up an' yells, *Aa's the King iv Glory. No sumor was he doon than up starts anuther chep .en' screams oot 'Aa's the King iv Glory.' Then the whole lot began to yell "Aa's the King iv Glory,' an' as aa saa I thor we&ganning to be a row aa cam oot."

' A movement, is on foot to establish a working-men's 'home in Dorcheateiy> England; onvtemperancelprinciplea^aet a memorial to the late .General Stwart.y; {„.'.)