Baghdad, A. and M.
HE BBC production "Freya Stark in Baghdad" was a most tantalising affair. We heard background noises suggestive of modern Baghdad (tooting of motor horns superimposed upon the call-to-prayer), and the voices of the authoress telling us of her experiences there. This would have been quite enough for one presentation, but no; the BBC had to go and spoil it by telling us, at the same time, all about Old Baghdad, city of the Caliphs, conjuring up the shade of Haroun-al-Raschid by incantations of eastern: music. Against this background
(this was the tantalising part) we had, just to give the atmosphere, voices speaking lines from Flecker’s Hassan, and a little of the incidental music which Delius wrote for this play. Now by all the prophets, why couldn’t they have made two entirely different programmes out of it? Why not one devoted to Freya Stark, who I am sure could easily have provided material for a talk lasting a great deal longer than the short time allotted her; and another, even longer, programme giving us as much of Hassan as possible, and the whole of the Delius music? As it was, the snippets of Flecker and Delius were just sufficient to whet the appetite, but snatched away, like one of Hassan the Confectioner’s own sweetmeats, before we could properly say we had partaken.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 333, 9 November 1945, Page 9
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225Baghdad, A. and M. New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 333, 9 November 1945, Page 9
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