Miss Chatley receives the honours for last Wednesday night's performance at the Lyceum Theatre of two delightful ballets by Luigi de Luca and a musical sketch by the same composer. Not that she staged the latter, bui because she has imported a degree of originality into the other which should do Shanghai a world of good, Her scenery is boldly conceived and well bainied, and is like a breath of fresh air ina city where there has been too much subservience to old-time convention, Second tribute must be paid to Maestro Sloutsky, who handles de Luca's musie with masterly touch and gets more out of what the critic saw nearly two decodes ago, when "Plerrot's Dream" was produced for the first time, He was at all times more than efficient and gave de Luca full value for the music which he has written and on which he is to be complimented, "A Summer's Morning," produced by the Bateman King School of Dance, was something which will be Femembered for a long time to com It may. be excused if the remark 1s wade that it was a trifle Disneyesque Ju conception and execution, but that could not be helped; a master has taken such themes and produced them in a way that any other interpretation seems to be an imitation, The ballet was delightfully dress the various members danced extreme ly well and managed to convey the Wonderful pastorale, for that is wht it was, in a manner which did: the individual dancers, og well as their producer, the utmost credit, Connie Pade as the butterfly danced tong and well, while the other characters were 50 Well filled that to endeavour to differentiate between them would be a diMeult task, In Milady's Bower" has been peo-duced once before, and then not particularly happily, but last night Billie Harvey—and who would know her by any other name?—sang so delight: fully as completely to commander the show, "Pierrot's Dream" the writer has seen before, But memory plays queer tricks over two decades and a com: parison is not entirely possible, is very definitely not a ballet; it is a piece of pantomime, and 50 excelently done that one is lost between the acting of Jimmy Holwill as the Pierrot and Pep Lacks as the Moon, Leslie Harmer as Polichinelle was also remarkably good, but, again, to attempt to choose between the var ous performers is a work not to be attempted at a time when the mind is filled with the pleasantest of impressions. To sum up; the presentation given that night was a memorable one; and something which should not be missed, not because of the institution "of which it is in ald, but because of the intrinsic worth of the performance itself, Tt is not aten that Shanghai can produce the original work of one of ils residents, but when it is of the order that Luigi de Luca thas produced, when it is handled by a man such as Maestro Sloutsky, and when behind all that there is the rehearsing of Mrs, Dita Tenger-Blum, the scenic effects and dressing of Miss Chatley, with the expert assistance of Mr. Charles Speyer, there are enough ingredients fo make sure that the evening will be an enjoyable one, as it was that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.