MIMES AND MUSIC.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 8 June 1907, Page 3

MIMES AND MUSIC.

Miss Amy Castles hits had a very severe attack of measles, contracted, it was thought, on the occasion of a recent visit lo Berlin. Miss Castles' medical attendant war: very anxious for a time lest other complications should set in. This, no doubt, will explain the postponement of Miss Castles' operatic debut at Colovue.

"Living London" was so attractive in the eyes of the Australasians that .Messrs .1. and X. Tait determined to follow it up with other British Isles series. and accordingly made arrangciiu-nts for special views of "Living Scotland" and "Living Ireland." both of which will be sent on an Australasian lour in fho near future.

Mr ,1. C. Williamsons i.iusica'. fnwny company will contain in the Misses Amy and Dulcic Murphy a case almost on till fours with that of the now famous Castles sisters. .Miss Amy Murphy and Miss Amy Castles possess glorious voices which they devote to the interpretation of the more series class of music, while their respective younger sisters have both la leaning towards the lighter parts of comic opera,

Madame Album's conceit cmu|,any, including the prima doon herself, Miss Mildred Jones (contralto), Mr William Creen (tenor), Miss Myrtle Meggy (pianist), ami Mr Haydn Wood (violinist) will open a short season in Melbourne on June 12. They gave a short concert at York before leaving England, in which each member of the company gained most famous notices from the Press.

Touring operations have been particularly extensive among Mr J. C. Williamson's organisations this year, and a new policy of travelling companies to cover a very much wiiler fie'd may be said to have been inaugurated. iffies Tittcll Bruno, for example, is to visit, in the course of Iter farewell tour, two purls of the Commonwealth—Broken Hill and North Queensland —to which none of Mr Williamson's companies have been sent for some years past. Then the "Mother (loose" company are on the eve of embarking on a tour of Australasia to last fully six Months, and to embrace a more comprehensive itinerary than the ever been planned for a combination of their importance. The new musical c niedy company will spend a great proportion of their time on the roads, while from now until the end of the year both Mr .lulius Knight an/ Mr Andrew Mack will be kept busily "on ttK move" both in Xew Zealand and Australia.

All expectations regarding the Besses o' th' Barn Band have been realised since they opened in Sydney, where every one of their performances has been marked by absolutely packed houses and extraordinary enthusiasm. Among the many line numbers, their interpretation of "Tanhauser" music seems to be one of the most finished in their repertoire, for it aroused intense appreciation whenever it was played, and it carries with it the commendation of Sir Arthur Sullivan, who, in spite of the fact that only brass is used, and the strings upon which Wagner depends so largely for his effects are wholly absent, declared that the rendition of the Besses was the best he had ever heard.

Speaking of the appreciation of Shakespeare by the common people, Dr Cioldwin Smith says: "I liked to go to Sadler's Wells, the people's theatre ill those days, now long numbered with the past. It was nice to see the enjoyment of (he people and their loyally to Shakespeare. The taste of the people, being simple, as a rule is true. It is in the grade above, flint of the music hall, that the false lasle begins. The popular power of hearty realisation was amusing anil pleasant to behold. A man carried away, by the struggle between Richard 11. and the murderers, when Kit-hard felled one of his assailants, jumped up and shouted; '(!o it, old fellow! He's getting on pretty well.'" The best Hamlet he ever saw, he says, was Emile Dovrient, in liennnny. lie managed as far as possible to make his audience feel that he was soliloquising to himself, and not to the pit.

The annoyance prevented by latecomers was successfully overcome during Ihe grand opera season in Melbourne. Before the commencement of each opera three fanfares were sounded on the balcony of the theatre as a sign for the public to take their scats. The doors were closed after the third fanfare, and in order that the performance should no he interrupted, no one was allowed admission until the end of the act was reached. fn the intervals, before the commencement of each net, electric bells were rung twice. After the second ring the doors were closed until each act was finished. This system was crowned with success, and the late-comers had to cool their heela in the foyer. It is to be hoped that Mr George Mangrove will rigidly enforce this fanfare system during the Xew Zealand tour.

This month, sa3's the Westminster Gazette, 'Condon playgoers will have the opportunity of seeing the famous American play, '-Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch/' which has now been running for several years in the States, and is said to have yielded already more than a million pounds sterling. Enormous as has been the success of this popular play, it still falls far short by "Rip Van Winkle," in which Joseph Jefferson appeared over SOOO times, and which earned the amazing sum of £1,000,000. The ■'Ul.l Ilouiestead," with Deuman Thompson in the lending part, is said to have yielded L' 050,000 in a dozen years, or at the rale of nearly £BO,OOO a year; while ■■r.rniinie" was a gold miue across the Atlantic, running for 1207 nights at c smg'e theatre, and earning well o\vtsoo.ooo. "Colleen Bawn," •'East l.ymie" ••IVc,) o' Day." "Uncle Tom'- J ' Cabin," and several other plavs have made prolils running in ■, i:„ mvs . :l »' 1 <!'<■ "I'malo 'Detecti : credited with a clear profit of ,-f;i. ..linn.

Jn discussing tho mihject of colonial : "' !ls,s Ute advice tend,] )V ■Ml'lba. Ada Oossley, , m ,| otIKM-s liils Ijcell slKHll.l not Venture Ill) 'I invasion till n„.y 1,.,,,. H'l'tf mink ill the principal Australasian "'"lf''«. Another iis|h>cl of Uic matter '« at present bung ventilated in the don I'ress viz., modest workers who are ll:, " ,| ' V 1" ""ilin n living in i lie coh,- »'"■» doubling their income in tlie English provinces and at minor London functions. 'l'!"' speaker is Mr Thorold Maters, a journalist xvlio did work in Sydney for '"'fore lie was advised Ihat I'is full. re«nmiil, tenor voiee would earn lln"- Jlr fillers duly studied, and lias now lien in Kuropc a year, during which I't't'" 1 "' ''us »i«nj? with many choral soci-''l-tfs all over Inland i„ tl,e "Kliial, - I!'.'- "''''di'niplion," ami otllPr oratorio's. 1 1'* experience is that them is always room m lOngland and America for Au's'ra' l:l,l "rtMs will, pleasing manners and !1 talent for "getting on" who have really and truly found their services in demand in their own country. Such people can KO Home with the prospect, after a lot »f hard work and worry, of finding suitaide avenues for employment; they may I'von make a cosy little income in public itnel "at homes" without being in the i least "famous" „ widely known.