Echoes of a Golden Age

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 7

Echoes of a Golden Age

‘THE amazing popularity of opera at the turn of the century ig well known, but opportunities for hearing the voices of the foremost singers of the time are practically non-existent. Consequently, whatever form they take, such charices are milestones in the lives of opera lovers today. In 1901-1903, Lionel Mapleson, librarian of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, took cylinder recording equipment, presented to him by. Thomas Edison, up to the flies high above the stage at the Met. and took recordings at actual performances. These cylincrical recordings have been rerecorded on to disc, and in ZB Sunday Showcase on September 30, excerpts from an LP recording, Echoes of the Golden Age of Opera, will be heard in a programme introduced by James Robertson. "It must be admitted," says Mr. Robertson, "that the applause comes off best, and that the musical sounds vary enormously in strength and quality. But every now and then a flash of brilliance penetrates the gloom-a magnificent high note thrown off with head tilted backwards, perhaps, or a cascade of silvery sound." In fact, the surface

noise of the cylinders and a more or less powerful background roar sometimes almost obliterate the music. In this pro-

gramme, the listener will be helped by Mr. Robertson’s playing on the piano and picking out "what is important from the overall din and clatter." Excerpts are from the second act of Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment, . Faust, and Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, and the principal singers are Nellie Melba, Marcella Sembrich, Emma Calve, Albert Alvarez, Giuseppe Campanari, Johanna Gadski and Edouard de Reszke. . The second half of this Showcase programme is taken up with a reading of the first Canto of Byron’s epic. satire, Don Juan, by Tyrone Power, Don Juan, which was published in 1819-1824, contains sixteen cantos: the first deals with’ young Juan’s encounter with Donna Julia, the platonic purity of its beginnings and its development until Julia’s husband raids her bedroom, With many lengthy protestations at this insult, Julia proclaims her innocence and her husband is contrite-until he stumbles over a pair of boots. They are Juan’s, and it is the husband’s turn to rave and protest, and finally to dismiss Julia to a -convent. The satire is as enjoyable today as it was in the 19th century-per-haps even more so-and Power's treatment of it is pleasing. The rich tone and fluidity of his voice are particularly well , suited to the ease and beauty of Byron’s verse, and full justice is done to the nuances and cryptic asides, which are sprinkled liberally throughout the ‘piece.