Necrophilia
j HE popularity of recordings from the period known as The Golden Age of Opera strikes me as decidedly odd. It certainly is a wonderful thing to have these voices from the past on record, even so sketchily, and I can imagine how valuable they must be ‘to students and historians of singing. But I should have thought the value to be almost archaeological, an interpreting of past greatness from the most residual of remains. I do quite enjoy the series now being heard from the YCs, in much this antiquarian spirit. Altough I don’t particularly admire the florid style used by many of the singers, I can admire their vocal dexterity, which is what mostly comes through, and imagine what the quality of their voices must have been, and even feel a kind of thirdhand nostalgia, But these ghosts only seldom give me an inkling of the delight with which I listen to a modern recording of, say, Ljuba Welitsch singing Arias from Eugen Onegin. Yet if these old records are as popular as we’re told they are, one must presume they ‘often give such delight to many people. I find it again, most odd. I must not omit to say that the series is admirably
presented.
R.D.
McE.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 8
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211Necrophilia New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 943, 6 September 1957, Page 8
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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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