THE ENCORE ABUSE

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4372, 11 February 1909, Page 2

THE ENCORE ABUSE

Nobody could justifiably urge that we Dominioners are not fond of music, that to a certain extent we are not cultured in our tastes. The world’s greatest performers include us in their tours as a matter of course ; equally as a matter of course we go to hear them, enjoying their performances to a degree which must be gratifying even to men and women commanding old-world audiences of thousands. But, and we make no apology for saying this, we are exacting as to quantity, exacting to a point which leaves the bounds of 1 goo 1 taste almost out of doo-ee. And it is not fair. We treat our entertainers as though we, each individual audience of us, were the only set of people to whom they had to sing, as though the evening perfoimances were all there was of a great musician’s life, overlooking the strenuousness of the life generally, the daily practice, and the wearisome travel and fag of interviews and so on.

Only last Tuesday night at Miss Ada Crossley’s concert at Paeroa one had an instance of this kind of thing. The encores demanded were out of all reason, m< mbers of the troupe being recalled and recalled in a way that made oue blush for the Dominion, At the Marie Hall concerts the same thing was noticeable. After the performance of the Kreutzer Bona<a. an item of thirty or forty minutes, the audience in the Ohoral Hall Auckland simply insisted upon bringing the tired young girl back to the platform. It was barbarous. It is to be hoped that Dominioners will give this matter a little consideration, and decide to manifest more consideration.