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T: Farce (1 act) C: Amateurs

F: Music

Th: D

R: This was the last theatrical entertainment organised by Horatio BUSKIN and he could look back on a successful "career” as manager. Only the music had flagged of late (tonight "a buzz in a box near the proscenium represented the music — we were len feet away from it and it was therefore lost upon us" the days of "Sir George Smart and Messrs Thalberg" and "Koenig” were over).

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To make up for these shortcomings "Mr. CLAY as Honeybun (in the Infanticidal Farce) was, as he always is, first rate". In Slasher and Crasher the public witnessed the debut of "Miss Polly DEXTER as Rosa, affording hope of a new evening star of the first magnitude" (NCH 23.2.1856).

14.8.1856 (Thur)

N.N.: The Nigger Doctor and his Patient Patient or the First Lesson in Surgery” T: Negro farce

C: Travelling American Company (Messrs Baker, Woodward and Montgomery) Th: Old Theatre (C)

N: The whole evening was announced as a “Grand Ethiopian Musical Soirée ̈ ̈ R: An advertisement only was published in the NCH of August 9. In it the above mentioned

gentlemen (**formerly of the New York Serenaders") praised their performances as having been "the theme of universal admiration during the past four years throughout the East Indies as well as the Australian Colonies". In addition to the farce, the programme consisted of “Negro songs, interspersed with willy saying and doings peculiar to the African race in America”.

19.9.1856 (Fri)

Concert by Ali Ben Sou Alle and some local amateurs.

Instruments: **Turkophone”. “Turkophonini”, clarinet, piano.

Programme:

G. ROSSINI: Two overtures. V. BELLINI: Selections from "La Sonnambula". F. MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: "The Fairest Flower" (song). Some German songs, The "Shanghai Redowa Walse", Medley of English, Scottish and Irish airs. Th: N.N. (C)

R: Tonight was the occasion of the first real concert in the Settlement's history. It was given by Mr. ALI BEN SOU ALLE, a Turk who, after a study at the Conservatoire de Paris, had been appointed Directeur de Musique de Marine in Senegal (which had been French since 1871) in 1844. In 1847 he returned to Paris to enter the orchestra of the Opéra Comique, but the following year he went to London where he found employment in the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre at the Haymarket. He learned to play some instruments that had been invented by Adolphe Sax, the Belgian musician (1914-1894) and thereafter he made an extensive 10ur to Australia, Java, Singapore, Manila and China (CM 16, 10, 1856). In Hong Kong and even Canton he had appeared in August and October 1856 (CM 7.8. 14.8. 21.8. 16.10.1856). In between he gave two recitals in the Yangtze port. In the Survey it has already been stated that the soloist entertained the public with performances on several instruments that had been rechristened Turkophone and Turkophonini: in reality they were the Saxophone and (probably) the soprano saxophone. Well may we ask how these instruments, which were only of recent origin (1840s), were received by an audience completely unused to their sound. The artist interpreted a selection from Bellini's "La Sonnambula" on the "Turkophone" and the critic wrote that "the compass of the instrument is very great but we confess to some disappointment as regards its quality of tone, and correctness of tone also, in some few notes, and altogether we think it an imperfect instrument