THE WEEK’S RADIO Early Masterpiece Of Opera By John Blow

Press, Volume C, Issue 29502, 2 May 1961, Page 9

THE WEEK’S RADIO Early Masterpiece Of Opera By John Blow

Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” is often called the first English opera, but “Venus and Adonis” by his teacher, John Blow (1649-1708) has better claims to that distinction as it preceded Purcell’s work by several years and appears to have served as the model for “Dido and Aeneas.” Although it was called a masque, “Venus and Adonis” is now seen to be a true opera on a small scale, and it is recognised as one of the masterpieces of English music.

The date of the opera's composition and first performance is not known, but it is usually placed between 1682 and 1684, proceeding

i“Dido and Aeneas’’ by sevI eral years. “Venus and i Adoni*” was first performed iat the court of Charles 11. ■with one ot the King’s misi tresses, Mrs Mary Davis, in the part of Venus, and her | young daughter, Lady Mary I Tudor, as Cupid. I In the prologue for Cupid and some shepherds and i shepherdesses, the unknown i librettist directs some slyly I satirical lines at the court. I but any suspicion that this I is merely a formal occasional : piece is quickly dispelled by I the first of the three acts. It shows the unwilling Adonis i being urged by Venus to join ' a hunting party. ("Adonis i will not hunt today, I have already caught the noblest prey,” he sings. "No, my shepherd, haste away.” replies Venus. "Absence kindles new desire. I would not have Imy lover tire . . .”). Finally he goes, to the accom- | paniment of a delightful huntsmen's chorus. The second act is in the nature of a , domestic interlude, in which ' Venus and Cupid instruct the I little Cupids. One of the most charming scenes in all opera is that in which the ' little Cupids—sung by children—repeat their lesson, spelling out the difficult words. The third act, preceeded by several dances opens with Venus grieving the absence of Adonis. Soon, however, he is brought in dving from wounds inflicted iby a boar. He expires in i the arms of Venus, whose ■ final lament is the climax of i the score. Here Blow's music rises to great heights of ■ poignancy and expressive- ■ ness. Tonight at 9.59 p.m.. 3YC j will broadcast a complete reI cording of the short opera—--lit lasts onlv an hour—with ■ Margaret Ritchie as Venus. I Gordon Clinton as Adonis and Margaret Field-Hyde as Cupid. Anthonv Lewis, an I expert on early British music. I conducts the Oiseau-Lyre ' Orchestral Ensemble. ' Early next month “Venus I and Adonis” will be per- : formed in the citv by the i University of Canterbury Musical Society, with John I Ritchie conducting. Per- ' formances will be given in i the Repertory Theatre on ijune. 8. 9 and 10. with a ' matinee on the last day. Early Bizet Another opera this week is Bizet's “The Pearl Fishers.” •Olis opera, written when Bizet was only 25. is widely known as the source of a I famous tenor-baritone duet which almost reached hitparade status under its English title. “In the depths Of i the temple.” The music is not up to this level all through I the score, but there are several other fine arias and admirers of Bizet will find his i customary freshness and , vivacity of style already strongly in evidence in this early work. In a recording of "Les Pecheurs de Perles” to be heard from 3YC at 7 p.m. on Friday the principal singers are Mattiwilda Dobbs (soprano), Enzo Seri (tenor) and Jean Borthayre (baritone). The conductor is Rene Leibowitz. N.Z. Play One of the very few New Zealand plays to be produced on the stage both in New Zealand and overseas «s well as being published, "The Tree,” by Stella Jones,,.has now been produced by William Austin for the N.Z.B.S. and may be heard from 3YA at 730 tonight. The play tells of Herbert Willis—« crumpled soul, whose wife, Ada, has died some years before—who lives with his twin daughters, Daisy, a young widow, and Lucy, who is unmarried. The unexpected arrival of the other daughter, Hilda—also unmarried-t-causes a,stir in the otherwise complacent little family circle. Ghosts of the past come floating in during a flashback to former \ days. There is something disturbingly familiar in this New Zealand dome*tic scene. : “The Tree” was first pro- ' duced at the Little Theatre, :n Bristol, England, and was later toured throughout New Zealand m a New Zealand : Players production. In this N.Z B.S. production. Herbert . Read is played by Peter ' Read; Ada. his wife, by Peggv Walker, and his.three daughters by Dorothy Munro, Wendv Gibb and Dorothy McKegg. Composers Conduct I Three composers conduct their own music in a recorded I Aldeburgh Festival concert to Ibe heard from 3YC at 9.45 om. on Monday. Sir Arthur Bliss conducts his “Music for .Strings.” which, in spite of j its modest title. Is in quasisymphonic three-movement i form and in its exploitation of the full resources of the j string orchestra is reminis!cent of the Concerti gross! of the masters of an earlier age. It was first performed at •he Salzburgh Festival in 1935 .by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian ' Boult. Lennox Berkeley, ani other English composer, con- ’ ducts the Aldeburgh Festival Orchestra in his “Four : Poems of St. Teresa of Avila." j in which the contralto soloist | is Janet Baker These settings (of poem' by St. Teresa, the : great 16th-century mystic, were written in 1947 for, and : first performed by, the late (Kathleen Ferrier. Finally, the

American composer, Aaron Copland, conducts his Two Pieces for String Orchestra and his “Quiet City.” for trumpet, cor anglais and string orchestra. Originally composed for string quartet, the Two Pieces were transcribed for string orchestra in 1928 and were performed that year by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky. "Quiet City,” composed as an orchestral piece in 1940, is based on some of the incidental music Copland wrote in 1939 for Irwin Shaw's play of the same name. The play, a realistic fantasy concerning the night thoughts of many different kinds of people in a great city, called for music evocative of the nostalgia and inner distress of a society profoundly aware of its own insecurity. Shakespeare’s Antony “Antony and Cleopatra” belongs to what has been called the third period of Shakespeare’s writing. Attributed to the year 1608, it was preceded by "King Lear” and "Timon of Athens” and “Pericles.” Following it came “Coriolanus,” “Cymbeline” and the last great dramas, “A Winter’s Tale” and "The Tempest.” More fully than any of Shakespeare’s other plays, “Antony and Cleopatra” illustrates the obsession of lust, and the results of that obsession in Antony’s degradation and defeat. In a 8.8. C. World Theatre production of “Antony and Cleopatra” to be heard from the YC's at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Antony is played by Anthony Nicholls and Cleopatra—one of Shakespeare's few great tragic parts for an actress—by June Tobin. Ayub Khan After the assassination of Liaquat Ali. Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, political affairs in Pakistan went from bad to worse —“and a situation came whereby people almost lost faith in themselves and Pakistan and everything,” says President Mohammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan in a BB C. programme to be heard from 3YC at 9.35 p.m. on Sunday. Consequently in October, 1958, General Iskander Mirza, who was then President, declared an emergency, abrogated the Constitution and proclaimed martial law. As head of the Army, Mohammad Ayub Khan was made Chief Administrator, and shortly afterwards he seized oower and became President. In this programme the President explains why Pakistan found it necessary to abandon for the time being any attempt to reproduce Parliamentary democracy on the Westminster model. He ; describes the extensive land reforms that have been introduced. With enthusiasm, he tells what he and his Gov- ■ eminent aim to do to awaken . their people and teach them their duties and obligations in the State and to build up > a democratic system on a strong foundation of local government. The basic units i of the system will be the union councils, whose con- > stitution and working he describes in detail. The end . product of all this, he insists : emphatically, will be democracy. President Ayub . Khan is interviewed by ! Frank Byers, chairman of the Liberal Central Organisation in Britain: T. E. Utley, a political writer and commentator; and Sir Conrad Corfield, who served in the Indian Civil Service before independence. British Folk Songs Some time ago, the wellknown American folk music collector, Alan Lomax, spent ; several years engaged in a sort of musical archaeology throughout the four corners , of Britain, finding and recording folk songs old and new. He was helped by other collectors, such aa Peter Ken- ■ nedy of the English Folk . Dance and Song Society, and Seamus Ennis, the Irish piper. The results of this combined operation may be heard from the YAs at 9.30 on Sunday morning, when the first of six 8.8. C. proi grammes by Alan Lomax will be broadcast, under the title “The Ballad Hunter.” Skiffle makes a surprise appearance in the first programme Lomax explains that with its different beat from the Ame- : rican original, skiffle has become a genuine part of British popular art. Indeed, as the series shows, singers and songs abound throughout the British Isles, and the folk music which many people thought dead is very much alive and flourishing. Some of the songs in the programmes are sung by Ewan Mac Coll, himself a collector of folk music. Otherwise they are mainly sung by the people of England, Scotland. Ireland and Wales who are nreserving the tradition of folk songs without even realising they are doing so. Their efforts, many of which were recorded “in the field” bv Seamus Ennis and Peter Kennedy, are preserved in the folk song archive of the 8.8. C.. which contains tome 2500 items. Owing to the difficult conditions under which a certain number of the songs were obtained, the recordings sometimes fall short of present-day technical standards, but it was felt that their rarity and exceptional interest warranted their inclusion in the series. Alan Lomax, born in Texas, has been collecting folk songs all over the world since he was 17. He has been curator of the folk-

song archive of the Library of Congress since the death of his father, John Lomax. Together they provided the nucleus of that great folksong collection when they made a 16.000-mile trip throughout the Southern States in 1933, recording songs in churches, schools, prisons, lumber camps and ports.