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_ISTENING to a VOA programme "from 1YA recently, I thought, as I sometimes do when Verdi is sung, how easy it is for us to underestimate the qualities of such a composer until we hear someone else trying to write in the same way. Sentimentally: throbby Puccini may at times be, he may have a monotonous predilection for the woman
who loves not wisely but too well (although not everybody would accept Professor Dent’s phrase "slobby erotics’), and some arias from Butterfly and Boheme may have been rubbed threadbare. Yet his dramatic sense, his feeling for mood and character, and his translation of passion into melody shine out by comparison with his recent imitators. Perhaps it is only when Puccini’s man-ner-is mixed with Coca-cola and diluted with brackish water, as in Menotti’s work, that we recognise his artistry and his individuality. The time is overdue for a revaluation of the great Italian operatic writers. They have a good chance of receiving it so long as "their operas are sung, as on some of the VOA programmes, with the "voce, voce, e poi voce" Rossini demanded of an opera singer.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510824.2.19.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 634, 24 August 1951, Page 11
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191More Voice New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 634, 24 August 1951, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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