THE WEEK’S RADIO "Orpneus And Eurydice"

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 13

THE WEEK’S RADIO "Orpneus And Eurydice"

B. -• » ■ e importance of Gluck’s operasfe emphasised V musical text-hook, but hearing mm are usually restricted to odd arias sinw hv warming up at the start rf a ZdtaL tonight at 7 o’clock 3YC will J complete recording of his first great opera, “Orpheus Eurydice.

WMteetts’’ was the first project ®f Gluck’s musical-dramatic i&nns. hi the mid-18th centgy opera was entirely domin--4*l by singers, particularly dMati, who sacrificed everything off their voices and Agf extraordinary techniques. UMSitie action was obscured jg entirely subordinated to a jJjr iequrßCe of formal arias (fit himself wrote several MM' of this sort before he Ss “Orpheus” in 1782. “OrjKT produced the same sort etitm as was aroused by WaggMyppens a century later. Par--3* musical society was bitterly , Sm* after the new style, which jit due regard to dramatic expgjMon, and without ignoring the iijbrtance of the voice, struck alEience between the orchestral ngi portions of the score. But (Ok triumphed, for.thfere was lajM'teal basis to the opposition had been aroused largely role of Orpheus presents gMn difficulty in modern proffiMte of the opera, as it was originally for castrate. Madhya it ia usually assigned Mtar contralto or tenor, al-

■ though it has sometimes been ' B baritone. Tn . the ’ nmk dlne i to l * heard tonight ■ Orpheus is sung by the contralto r Margarete Klose, Who is wttdefr >* a <wSoX 1 era exponent of the part* Th* ®. tl ' eic b *tng and Amw, i the god of love, ! "BoyJTirt 4 Cort’* • sssnxti'aasf ® cence and simplicity of the story i in a most Channing manner. : Victoria Regina The play “Golden Sovereign” (3ZB, 9.15 p.m., Sunday) is adapted from Laurence Housman s "Happy and Glorious” short plays about the life and reign of Queen Victoria. Housman began the series in 1920, finishing them 21 years later. Each « of only a few minutes’ duration. for many years these entirely tactful playlets were refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain because of an archaic convention concerning the portrayal of royalty, in spite of Housman’s objections that they were “neither indecent, nor libellous, nor blasphemous, nor liable to cause a breach of the public peace.” He described himself as “the most censored playwright in England—but the most respectable.” In 1937 the intervention of what he termed “a Higher Authority of blessed memory” resulted in licences being granted to some, though others—presumably considered too forthright in their portrayal of incidents in the Queen’s life, remained under the ban. The 8.8.C.’s “Golden Sovereign” begins with the young Princess Victoria being told she is now Queen and continues through to the day 60 years later ' when, the old Queen returned ' from her Diamond Jubilee pro- ' cession. I Invective

Since the death of-Bob Bempte, says Dennis McEldowneyt in “The Ungentle Art” (3YC, 9JO tonight) —the first of his three N.Z.B.S. talks on the. art of invectivepointed let Mdne picturesque invective has been lacking from the pqjp Zealand parliamentary icene. "However, a few examples eT Mb Semple’s contributions to the language are included in the programme, which also ranges urther afield—to Sheridan’s assault on Warren Hustings, for M«*®- _ <- ■