OPERA HOUSE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12635, 24 October 1905, Page 2

OPERA HOUSE.

THE WATKIN MILLS QUINTETTE

Local music lovers will, we think, treasure among their pleasantest recollections the concerts given here by Mr. Watkin Mills and his talented associates. Last evening, after a brief absence, tho concert party gave a farewell programme at the Opera House, to a large and enthusiastically appreciative audience. The excellence ot the entertainment thoroughly justified the enthusiasm of the audience. The programme included several of the gems of the company's extensive repertoire, and was, moreover, \distinguished by the fact that Mr. Watkin Mills and Mr..Harold Wilde introduced two songs in commemoration of the Nelson centenary. Mr. Wilde gave "Plymouth Hoe,", and Mr. Mills "The Death of Nelson," and both items were heartily —it would be superfluous to say deservedly—applauded. Mr. Mills was, as usual, in splendid voice, and his difficulty was to satisfy his audience. Every one of his songs "caught on," and ho was recalled again and again. Mr. Wilde, Miss Gertrude Lonsdale, Miss Edith Kirkwood, and tfee company's 'talented pianist, Mons. Edouard Parlovitz, worthily supplemented the efforts of the famous vocalist .with whom they were assoaiated, and, like him, were similarly honoured. Apart from the meritorio'JU character of the concert itself, the last appearance here of th© Watkin Mills' Quintette will be remembered by an "unrehearsed incident," if so it may be called, which preceded the performance. At 8 o'clock Mr. Mills stepped in front of the curtain and smilingly announced that owing to the misdirected efforts of some blunderer the piano had been sent away. The blunderer had, however, been discovered, and the piano "would arrive in a few minutes." In the meantime, in order not to tax the patience of the audience, the "house" instrument was brought into use, and Mons. Eduard Parlovitz played his initial solo upon it. Then the Richard Lipp upright grand, kindly supplied by the Dresden Company, duly "arrived," and the concert proceeded on the even tenor of its delightful way.