THEATRICAL NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 437, 15 January 1890, Page 6

THEATRICAL NOTES.

(FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) The title of the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera will probably bo “The Duke of Venice,’ or something of that kind, and it should be ready about Saturday week. The scene of the first act represents the familiar Plaza di San Marco at Venice, and that of the second an imaginary island in the Adriatic. Both are superb sets, and in James Craven’s best manner. The principal character in the opera will be the Duke, an eccentric prince much given to going about incognito. Ultimately, by a series, of mishaps, His Highness is arrested, tried, and banished to an island in the Adriatic for conspiring against himself. The company appear less confident of success than heietofore, though the indefatigable Gilbert is rehearsing them with his usual thoroughness. Of Sullivan’s music, the Savoyards are all solemn*y bound over not to hum or whistle a bar outside the theatiS. The cost of the run of “Doris” at the Lyric Theatre was tremendous, as the opera never returned even working expenses foi a single week since its production. With precedent of “ Dorothy” (which was kept in the bills for two months at the Gasety and four at the Prince of Wales’ before it became the rage and drew the town) before him, Mr Leslie stuck tenaciously to “ Doris. The thing had, however, no life in it, and even in the provinces has failed to catch on. Poor George Stone, one of the feiv prominent members of the original Gaiety Company who did not visit Australia last yeai, died of typhoid in Edinburgh on Saturday morning to the great grief and concern of Leslie, Lonnen, Nellie Farren, etc., etc., who were all warmly attached to “good old George.” As usual, there are to be three colossal ballets in Drury Lane pantomime this Christmas—an Entomological one, a Zoological one (for the special benelit of the children), and a Shakespearian procession and ballet. How these will be worked into “ Cinderella ” Augustus Harris (Ltd.) and his unlimited assistants alone know. The book of the “annual” for so many years entrusted to Edward Laman Blanchard will this season be written-up by by Horace Lennard, who also supplies the Crystal Palace opening.