Something of Value
"CONFINED to quarters by the winter pestilence," to quote one of my fellow radio reviewers (only this time it was in the spring), I was unable to go to hear Victoria de los Angeles, as I’d hoped to do. But listening in, marvelling at the voice, sensing the excitement of the audiences, it occurred to me that there are compensations to our isolation. We aren’t visited by many great singers: so few that our experience must, remain fragmentary. We may decide, and rightly,-I believe, that Victoria de los Angeles is a great singer; but we can’t say, from personal comparison, just how great, great in just what way: we can’t indulge in the niceties of criticism. Yet just because such visitors are so rare we all share them, or all of us who want to share music at all, in a way that wouldn’t be possible in London or New York, where there would be competing attractions on the night, further excitements the next night. Here, it is a community event. Our behaviour then may seem a little naive, but people who have lost the capacity to be naive have lost something of value, however much they may have gained.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19561026.2.35.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 17
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203Something of Value New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 17
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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.
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