The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-05-22
MUSIC AND DRAMA.
Countess for a Day.

The general sale of seats for Countess
for Day." will open at the Portland
Theatre this morning instead of tomor-
row, as at first announced. "Countess
for Day" was written by Bale, the
celebrated composer of "The Bohemian
Girl" and has been especially adapted
for production in this country. The
changes in the libretto are by Mrs. Eve
Ign Baker Harier, while the music has
been re-arranged and added to by Miss
Christine Brown. Among the members
of the company who will present the
opera at the Portland Theatre next Mon
day evening, are Miss Louella Wagner,
Miss May Bosley and Mr.. Hubert Dodd
Chambers Band Concert.
There has been some reason in the
past for finding fault with the public be-
cause they did not respond heartily to
the call upon them by Chambers Band,
when the band gave concert for it's own
benefit. No fault could be found with
the public from any such cause last
night. They filed every settee they
could rake or scrape, besides every van
tage point in the gallery. They stood in
knots and clusters about the hall and in
the galleries, and crowded the corridors.
1t was very attentive and a very en-
thusiastic audience as we'll. Every
number was encored, il we are not mis-
taken, and the band promptly responded.
The band numbered thirty-fve pieces on
this occasion, with We. Chandler as
conductor. The band was also assisted
vocally ty Mr.. Frank Shaw, tenor; Mr..
George Barbour, baritone; Mr.. Samuel
T. Eveleth, bass; and a fine chorus of
forty male voices. The various mum bers
of the programme-which was printed
in yesterdays PRESS-were rendered in
manner rejecting the greatest credit
on the organization. Especially notice
able was the Interpretation of Ross inls
"William Tell" overture, a composition
that requires great intelligence and
skill to render properly. The other great
show pieces, war Memories" Musical
Scenes through Switzerland" and "The
Salvation Army" were given with great
spirit as well as most artistically, and
the chorus and solo singers added great
ly to the eff ct of several of them. The
duet for two piccolos, by jacobson
and B Doth, and the quartette for four
comets. by Messrs.- blanchard, Brooks,
Moore and Mayberry, gave great pleas
ure. A n event of the evening was young
Ernest Gatley's clarinet,,s solo and varia-
lions on "Old Folks at Home.n His
playing was extraordinary for youth
of his age, on account of his tone and
phrasing. A feature of the concert was
the veteran leader, D. H. Chandler, play
ing in the band.
After the concert. the dance was in
dulged in, the grand march, headed by
Chandler's Band, and AL. Ryser, floor
manager. assisted by large corps of
aids. The souvenir programme and
dance order was said to be adorned by
a picture of Mr.. Chandler. We didn't
see one, assthey gave out early in the
evening.
Noble Choral Service.
The special musical service at st. Luke's
church on Clinton avenue, Brooklyn,
Wednesday night in connection with
Bishop Littlejohn's twenty-fifth ami
versary furnished the most impressive
choral singing ever heard in Brooklyn
church. 1t combined selections from
ten of the vested choirs of the city, $50
chorsters all told, supported by the fine
organ of st. Luke's, an orchestra of
twenty pieces and piano, all under the
spirited and mastery direction of Henry
E. Duncan, organist of Grace church
formerly of Portland-who proved him
self conductor with the power of COM
mand as well as with fine musical in
stincts. The service had one other ad-
vantage too, in the high gothic arches
and free spaces of St. Luke's, which
smothering it as some of the fat ceiled
churches do. This is the church of
which the Rev. Henry G. Swentzel is the
energetic rector, where he does the work
of two or three men in carrying on the
large and complex charitable and parish
organizations. and it furnished an au-
dience that filled every isle and corner
of the large building, overfowed into
the choir room beside the chancel and
out into the vestibule and to the Clinton
avenue sidewalk. The choral forces
with the bishops and three or four clergy
men who participated in the service
filed the chancel, the largest in the
city, and the first do zen pews in the
body of the church and the transept.
Notes.
Now is the time to secure tickets for
Countess for Day" to be given at
Portland Theatre next Monday evening.
Don't forget the concert to be given
By the Deaf Mute Society tomorrow
evening.
Mrs. Booth and the Salvation Army.
The many peopIe who were disannoint