"MARITANA."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 36, 12 February 1929, Page 6

"MARITANA."

lii referring t.i iljc Choral Society"- intention to give "iiaritana" at one of it< concert* next .season, your contributor "Orpheus/' said in la st Saturday's Supplement: "It i- a pilv the 'society should put <ih ruliiii»li like -M.uitW when there are oilier work-. especially in the domain of oratorio. x);.a are crviw: out to be performed." Probably what '"< n pheus" intended to say w :li Uiuj the opera i'-longs *« a lighter elsss of mu>ic than the \v<>ik* "usually performed by the societv. Mo-t peonle tfonld have agreed with him had lie said that. It «*• as everyone knows. ballad onera. ix.it it. i> certainly something new. even to musical highbrows, to hear this evergreen work, wiich ha* delighted over four generations of nr.is.jo lovers and still retains its populai it v. sii-ustused as "rubbish." The (bora! Soeic"; \ v. 11 probably find it as -neat a draw as an\ ..:' tie other works it performs, with ih,- .„,.-ii.le ifM-epti"" ol "The Messiah." for. app.rl irmii h\ j>eroritirs (like "Orpheus" I. the avera-e iis.!i\ idiwl b ,xt "' tunefulness in music. May ] pom: .«n also to your contributor that ai the ].re-en; lame most of the modern compters seem to lark the divine gift of melody, and theie is a fortune awaiting anyone who can compo-c •"rubbish" as char-min;,' as the music of -.Mauwna." Ml >ICLOVER.