STALLS GOSSIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1915, Page 11 (Supplement)

STALLS GOSSIP.

MIMES, MUSIC, AND MOVIES. Sir Edward Elgar has written a new orchestral work entitled "Polonia," based upon two Polish national hymns and dedicated to Padercwski.

Miss Cicely Hamilton, the well-known feminist and playwright, and stepdaughter of Pinero, England's greatest dramatist,, is busy helping with Red Cross work, in France.

Mr. Stanley McKay's Pantomime Company, recently in New Plymouth, has had the sum of £4OO thrown on the stage for the Patriotic funds through the singing of "Your Country Needs You" by Miss Essie Jennings during their New Zealand tour.

It is announced in the Musical Courier that as a prelude to his regular concert tour this fall and winter, Ignace Paderewski will give three recitals for the benefit of the Polish Victims' Relief Fund, which he organised.

Mark Hambourg, the pianist, who toured New Zealand some years ago and delighted everyone with his masterly technique, has spent the last summer in London with more work, it is stated, that he can compass, but he may tour America after Christmas.

Harold Ashton, the well-known Williamson manager, who lias had his headquarters at Johannesburg for the past two years, sailed for Australia on Novembi 20. Mr. "Dick" Stewart has been installed as resident manager at Johannesburg. ## • •

J. C. Williamson, Ltd., are again attacking the Dominion with two big attractions—The Royal Comics, who open at Auckland on 27th inst., and the Muriel Starr Dramatic Company, whose season begins at Wellington on the same evening. Both companies will visit New Plymouth.

"Bransc-ombe's Dandies' have settled down in their summer locations in Australia. The "Orange Dandies" are at St. Kilda. Melbourne; "The Pinks,' in Adelaide; "The Reils," in Perth; "The Greens," at Eden Gardens. Manly; "The Scarlets," at Brisbane; and "The Violet#," at Bayswater, Sydney.

Mr. John McCovmaek Ims had at least five hundred new songs submitted to him during the last four or five months he has spent in the States. Only about thirty have been acceptable. Donald Mcßeath, the Australian violinist, has become very popular with McCormack audiences throughout the States, and will appear with the Irish tenor during the coming season.

The .fame of the "Hymn of Hate," which represented German feeling pretty accurately, seems to have overshadowed all other patriotic song efforts in Germany, to judge by a recent article in the Constructive Quarterly. Dr. Max Friedlander states that one and a-linlf millions of patriotic compositions on this subject were composed and printed from the declaration of war until the fall of 1314. This did not include innumerable imprinted poems.

Bland Holt —how the name brings back old memories of packed benches and amazing stage settings! Bland Holt, says the Referee, is a familiar figure in Melbourne streets. Ho has not succumbed to the allurements of a motor car. He takes the air in a stylish dogcart, and looks fit for another lengthy tenure of the boards. Many old-time first nighters will rejoice to hear of the genial Bland's latter fays, for he was loved on the stage and off.

. At Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, a fortnight ago, Mr. Fritz Hart produced 11. Purccll's famous opera, in three acts, "Dido and Aeneas," in its entirety. He had the assistance of some hundred singers and soloists, and, in addition, a first-class band. ITenry Purcell was a famous English composer of the seventeenth century, and the work 111 question is. one of his earliest, and, indeed, led to his introduction to the operatic stage, amongst the writers for which, in this and*' the next century, he stood, amongst a select few, in the foremost rank. Purcell's music is a succession of beauties, too little known to the modern lover of good opera.

Thomas H. Ince, the director of the Triangle moving pictures, which now arc playing at the Knickerbocker Theatre, New York, is the first photoplay director to utilise original orchestral scores for screen productions. These works are written to fit the various pictures of the company. Such on undertaking inaugurates a new tendency in the music associated with the film production industry, and is worthy of the attention of all musicians. There is no reason why artistic musical settings should not be written to the dramas of the screens. The first of the new scores was stated for production in connection with "The Coward," which started at the Knickerbocker Theatre on October 4.

To hand, seasonable greetings from Wirtli Bros., of circus fame. Mr. G. L. Peterson, the hustling agent of this show, states that the big organisation will open at Dunedin on. December 27 and tour the Dominion, The company engaged is an exceedingly strong one, and includes ipn'e a host of novelties absolutely new to New Zealand. They include Miss May Martin Wirtli, who has just come back to Australia after fulfilling important engagements in England and America, where she has been described as the most daring and sensational ladv equestrienne ever seen; Captain Frank Hilling and his trained seals and sea lions; the Louvains, slack-wire performers; the Loretta twins, lady horizontal bar performers; and a host of other acts. A piece that .T. C. Williamson, Ltd., have in hand for production is "Baby Mine," which the firm has been holding—metaphorically speaking—for some time, awaiting the opportunity of presenting it under the most favourable conditions as regards the east. "Baby Mine" will sson see the light. It. comes from America, where it caused more stir than any other farce comedy in ycars.» The controversy it aroused lashed the newspapers to frenzy. Some critics, including \Y. 1). llowclls, put it down as one of the greatest plays ever written, whilst others declared it indecent. Sucli diverse opinions failed to give confidence in the critical gentlemen of the Press, so the public went to Daly's Theatre to judge for themselves. The result was that "Baby Mine" rail for nearly two years. In London, too, its success was electrical. The central figures of the play are a young married couple, of ingenuous simplicity