An extraordinary scene occurred at the ce of Wales's Theatre on Saturday ing, when a new comic opera by Dam and Clerico was produced under the title of The Coquette. It was magnificently stayed, and no doubt an ime mense amount of money had been spent on its production; but the plot was feeble, the dialogue was weak, and the music was ie-hally. 'This is the opinion of the the opinion also of the who receival, the pices with ug" and hissing." Me. Lowenfeld, the manager, thereupon lost his temper, talked about' conspiracies, and, threatened the discontent-d occupants of the ry turned out by force; of course he that the malcontents were organised by rival theatresmanazers, which is unmitigated nonsense, He says, too, that many of the theatre mvnayers and music hall' managers employ claques and here he speaks the truth. Indeod, he ought know, because there is pretty. strong evidence that he himself is among the number. The ire of the "gods" on Saturday was certainly caused by the persistent applause and calls for encores" which me frum one or two little cliques. But the claque system, which, of course, prevails in all the Paris theatres has, fortunately, not yet obtained much of a hold in London. It prevails only at music halls nat certain theatres where light opera usually forms the bill of fare.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.