MUSIC WITHOUT WORDS
sir,-May i endorse fully A. K. Lurner’s opinion about the broadcast of operas and the annoying interruptions of the commentator. The plot could be outlined before the beginning of each act, as Mr. Turner suggests. Moreover the listener is able to find a résumé of the opera in your columns-though not always quite intelligible or quite correct (as in the case of " Carmen"). It is certainly an insult to the intelligence of the audience to insinuate that it is incapable of following the story after these " preparations," without having somebody chirping in continually. In many cases the story as such is unimportant-anyhow in comparison with the music, so that even if minor details escape one not much harm is done. We are expected to get the right " opera-atmosphere" by factitious remarks as " ah-here is the conductor now," and we even "hear the applause of the would-be audience. Does it improve this "illusion," if the music is interrupted all the time? Nobody would put up with it in a "real" opera house! Various correspondents have asked why the excellent classical programmes in the early afternoon are not given in detail, when the ephemeral dinner music to which nobody is admittedly listening seriously, is listed item by item.
IN ARTE VOLUMPAS
(Havelock North)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19411107.2.9.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 124, 7 November 1941, Page 4
Word count
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214MUSIC WITHOUT WORDS New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 124, 7 November 1941, Page 4
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