BRITISH OPERA.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1927, Page 4

BRITISH OPERA.

‘‘There is no end of nonsense written in these days about ‘finding’ n musical genius who will supply us with the kind of British operas we want. In sober fact, the last tiling on earth that .British music publishers, concert managers, impresarios, and conductors wish to do is to ‘find* a genius of any kind. Your genius is rather given to telling the truth, and i is an ‘uncomfortable’ person; and the other kind of people incurably do their best either to starve him outright or to make his life as unhappy as possible. Our new British operatic genius would have no chance here unless he were backed up by either a good private income, a well-to-do wife, or a. wealthy and generous patron. An impecunious Bach, a ragged, unkempt Beethoven, continually-borrow-ing AY 'signer, would never he tolerated here for five minutes And an opera is not tiho kind of thing that one can scribble down at nights after a hard day’s work at something else. AYe are sometimes inclined to forget that the most important part of a composer s life consists in sitting down (or standing up) at a desk and writing hard for the best part of the day. And the mere writing down of the music of an opera is no easy job.”—Frederick Kitchener in ‘"The English Review.