The Ethos of Pathos
MY appetite whetted by the interview in this journal with the great composeress Hilda Tablet, I looked forward to her opera Emily Butter with the liveliest anticipation. And my answer? Yes and no. The BBC, through Henry Reed, tried to give us an hour of elegant fun; unfortunately, they thought it such a scream that their asides took the edge off my risibilities. The third programme > pretentiousness which it was the aim of the programme to expose, suffered because of the self-consciously revealing — sotto voce comments of the ideally suave © compéres. Suavity must go .the whole way, with deadly seriousness, if the mockheroic joke is to come off. There were some choice things in the score, some of which were prodigiously witty; recita-_ tive lines such as "are you being sarcastic with your old friend?" one can treasure, and it was a charming device to have all the singers but one, Welsh, | and this one singing in Italian, There was a great deal of clever Menotti_ pastiche, echoes of Britten, and even Offenbach. But the joke was an Arts | Council family affair, for those in the know. And even for them, I don’t think >
it was funny enough.
B.E.G.
M.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 869, 29 March 1956, Page 21
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204The Ethos of Pathos New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 869, 29 March 1956, Page 21
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