BRITISH OPERA

Evening Star, Issue 19662, 15 September 1927, Page 6

BRITISH OPERA

SIR THOMAS B EEC HAM'S SCHEME COVERING THE LOSSES WEEKLY SUBSGIH i'.TJOX BY PUBLIC. (Official British News.) Press Association —By Wireless —Copyright. 11UGBY, September 11. ("Received September 15, at noon.) Sir Thomas Beccham, who has done much lor "British opera, unfolded today some details of a new scheme whereby he hopes to establish British opera on a permanent basis. Ho estimated that there are 150,000 people in this country to whom liis scheme would directly appeal, and he calculates that an opera season such as he would like to give would inevitably mean a loss of £60,000. This sum would bo provided if the 150,000 persons would subscribe 8s a year, or only 2d per week. His slogan, therefore, is 2d a week tor the finest opera in the world. Subscribers to the enterprise would be given preferential treatment in regard to seats, paying less for them than the prices charged to the general public. Opera would bo provided iu London and in some of the great provincial centres with the finest material available in the Empire. The personnel of his operatic company would ho 95 per cent. British. Ho added; “1 leave 5 per cent, open because it is quite possible that lor some little time 1 may have to call upon foreigners in departments in which British artists and producers and so on have little or no experience.”