Around The Nationals

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 135, 23 January 1942, Page 20

Around The Nationals

ists will provide the substance of a new series, " The Gentler Art," which will be heard from 2YA shortly. The aim is to present a quiet fifteen minutes of reflective literature, read by Diana Craig. The works of Addison and Steele will be drawn on, perhaps Bacon, and eventually Hazlitt and his successors Samuel Pepys may even be included. The first instalment of "The Gentler Art" will be broadcast from 2YA at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 30. a bed * HEARING Humperdinck’s popular opera’ Hansel and Gretel one would hardly guess that the composer had been a disciple and admirer of Richard Wagner; nevertheless Humperdinck did live at Bayreuth with Wagner and helped in the production of Parsifal. In his younger days he had won many prizes and scholarships, and travelling awards made it possible for him to study all over Europe. Hansel and Gretel, which used a libretto prepared by Humperdinck’s sister, is the work he will be’ remembered by, though he wrote a great quantity of other music. A selection from the opera will open 4YA’s evening programme at 7.30 p.m. on Saturday, January 31. * « % M02ZART’S opera The Magic Flute will be heard in a novel form on the next two Sundays, with recordings made at Glyndebourne, dialogue between the items provided by the NBS Drama Department, and the usual commentaries. Beethoven said that this was Mozart’s greatest opera, because in it his genius showed itself in a large variety of musical forms, from folk-like ditties to highly developed fugue. The story was written by a man called Schikaneder, an impresario of the day, who gave himself a comic part after his own taste-that of Papageno, the bird-catcher. Schikaneder’s spoken dialogue has been adapted for the radio presentation, and recorded by NBS players to accompany the Glyndebourne recording of the music. The Magic Flute will be broadcast’in part by 1YA at 9.28 p.m. on Sunday, January 25, and will be completed the following Sunday. it from the English essay- * ae * (CESAR FRANCK’S symphonic poem "Les Aeolides" ("Sprites of the Wind"), which will be heard from 1YA at 7.50 p.m. this Friday, January 23, is based on lines taken from Leconte de Lisle, of which free translation is: "O breezes drifting in the skies, sweet breath of lovely spring, who with playful kisses caress the hills and plains; oh virgin daughters of Aeolus, lovers of peace, nature awakens at your songs." Aeolus was god of the winds, which he kept imprisoned in a cave in the Aeolian Islands, to be set free as he wished or as the higher Gods commanded. Franck’s work is poetical and descriptive rather than dramatic, and delicacy is its chief characteristic.