He's Quite Tame

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 309, 25 May 1945, Page 8

He's Quite Tame

T is strange how the microphone can turn lambs into lions and ‘lions into lambs. I tuned into 1YA the other night with quite a shiver of expectancy to hear Sir Thomas Beecham in the "America Talks to New Zealand" series, only tofind that something had stripped him of every symptom of that astringent personality with which we credit him. Perhaps it was his unfamiliarity with his antipodean audience, or the impersonal surroundings of the broadcasting studio, or the necessity of dealing with the vast amorphous subject of music in America to-day, in only a few minutes. His remarks were sensible, but mostly too vague and general to be memorable. He was definite, though, in his tribute to the help that is being given to musical projects by federal, state, and municipal authorities. The Metropolitan Opera of New York, for instance, is now bringing opera to a much wider circle of people by lowering its prices; this is possible} he explained, because the authorities had remitted some of its taxes, a concession which is made to charitable organisations. . They had considered whether opera was charitable in its intentions, and’ had given it the benefit of the doubt. Next time a microphone is put in front of Sir Thomas, let us hope that it will be while he is going about his daily business of drilling an orchestra. Then, from all accounts, we really will hear some bright remarks.