"St. John's Eve"

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 21, 5 December 1930, Page 5

"St. John's Eve"

"An Old English Idyll A DELIGHTFUL musical fantasia of old English country life will be broadcast under the title of "St. John’s Eve" from 1YA on December 8. The company presenting the entertainment will be the 1YA Auckland Choir, a band of excellent artists, who will need no introduction to listeners. The solo parts, which contain some of the prettiest selections, have been allotted as fol-lows:-Nancy, a village maiden-Miss Gladys Payne; Robert, a young villager-Mr. Len Barnes; Margaret, an ancient dame-Miss Cathleen Mulqueen; the young Squire-Mr. H. 5. Poffley; the organist, Mr. Eric Waters, and the pianist, Mr. Cyril Towsey. Mr. Len Barnes is also the producer. "St, John’s Eve" is an old English idyll by Joseph Bennett, set to music by one of the best known of English composers, Sir F rederick H. Cowen, who, to mark his association with the Melbourne Exhibition of 1888-9 when he conducted the famous choir, inscribed his composition: ""To the People of Melbourne, Victoria." The story of the poem opens on the eve of the Feast of St. John, and a ‘picturesque description is given of the villagers decorating their cottages with flowers and foliage-‘‘for by their night protected, when St. John’s Feast is here, no bolt of thunder can harm their dwellings." The village maidens sing of the power of the fairies who bring to them, in their sleep, the image of the man each shall marry. Margaret, in speaking to the village girls, tells them how each might behold her destined husband, but is jeered at for her pains. However,, one of the girls, Nancy, believes, and Margaret directs her to pluck a rose and hide it until Christmas Day, when he who takes it from her breast shall be her husband. Robert, a suitor for Nancy’s hand, boasts that he will be the favoured owner of the charmed rose when the time comes, but Nancy looks coldly upon him and turns away. We now see the villagers piling the wood for St. John’s bonfire, and at midnight the men and lads dance round the flaming pile. The next scene is the garden of Nancy’s cottage, at midnight. She plucks the rose, as suggested by Margaret, and sings the beautiful solo, "O Peaceful Night." She asks the rose to call her lover, and suddenly she hears a voice singing in the distance. It is the voice of the young squire. It is now Christmas Day in the Squire’s hall, where the villagers are gathered. The scene opens with a beautiful carol sung by Margaret, with the villagers joining in the chorus. Nancy enters wearing an unfaded rose, and Robert snatches the rose from her breast, claiming her as his bride. However, Nancy still spurns him, and the young Squire enters, telling how he has already taken the rose and replaced it by another. Robert rushes from the hall pursued by the girls, and the young lovers, Nancy and the Squire, sing their bethrothal. The final chorus is a grand paean of praise to God for his — wondrous gift of love at Yuletide. ;