Preparing for Grand Opera Season

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 502, 4 February 1949, Page 7

Preparing for Grand Opera Season

who is now in Wellington rehearsing part of the National Orchestra é6f the NZBS for the forthcoming Italian grand opera season, doesn’t care a shrug of the shoulders-neither do other Italians, he says-about nationality among musicians, as long as their work is good. "Music is everybody’s property and the best performers of it will always be supported by the musical people of all nations." Signor Vedovelli is the third member of the triad which will control the orchestra for the season. The principal conductor and artistic director of the company is Franco Ghione, and the conductor is Manno Wolff-Ferrari (nephew of. the Italian operatic’ composer, Ermanno Wolff-Ferrari). Vedovelli holds the position of deputy conductor. He confessed, in an interview with The Listener, that he had not heard of the Edinburgh Festival of Music and Drama, but he told‘ us that the music of Benjamin Britten was well known in Italy, for it had been played at La Scala, Milan, for the last year or two. On the other hand, the work of William Walton was not so well known. In fact, some English composers who were famous both in England and America, and possibly in France, had not been heard of in Italy. "It’s hard to say why that is," he said. "Possibly the right channels are not used for the interchange of musicians between the two countries. Perhaps it is only a one-way traffic out of Italyit sometimes happens that a composer’s work becomes known in another country through a friendly conductor who says, ‘You send me some of your music, and I will play it for you.’" Italian opera has been enjoying much popularity in England lately, according > VEDOVELLI,

to Signor Vedovelli. A company from the San Carlo Theatre in Naples did very well at Covent Garden, and the Cambridge Theatre had had a season of 14 months of Italian opera. One of the tenors who had played there was now with the company to tour New Zealand. "Are there any new operas being written in Italy?" "Yes, quite a lot, but most of them only get as far as a first performance and then they are forgotten. The old operas are great music; that’s why they last. And opera must have good theatricality besides well-performed music. The opera theatre in Italy is for the people-not just for the good musicians. Many of the ordinary people may not know anything about music-making, but they love to hear it and they know what is good and what is not."

"Too early yet," was his comment -when asked if he had formed any ideas about the state of music in New Zealand. ‘The orchestra is pretty goodnot much different from good orchestras in Italy." Umberto Vedovelli started to learn the piano. when he was four years old, but later on, to help maintain the family home, he took up accountancy. He gained degrees both in accountancy and music and subsequently studied come position, eventually securing the Italian equivalent of the English Mus. D. degree. For a while he served in Italy’s conscripted peacetime army, and then vras a conductor of theatre orchestras. In 1940 he found himself with the Italian army in Libya, where he was taken prisoner. He was released from prison-camp in 1944 and afterwards joined ENSA, touring India, Ceylon, and Burma to give concerts to British and American troops,

For details of the Auckland Grand Opera season see pages 14-15.