THE WEEK'S RADIO Star Guests Sing In “Die Fledermaus"

Press, Volume C, Issue 29556, 4 July 1961, Page 12

THE WEEK'S RADIO Star Guests Sing In “Die Fledermaus"

A long-standing tradition at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, is an annual performance of Johann Strauss’s perennially delightful opera, “Die Fledermaus,” in which the ball scene is used as an opportunity to present star members of the company in a special cabaret.

The custom originated in 1905. at a benefit performance for Heinrich Conried, the Metropolitan’s director. Not only did the cast of “Die Fledermaus” include such great singers as Marcella Sembrich. Bella AHpn, and Andreas Dippel, but those appearing in tjie ball scene included Caruso. Scotti. Pol Plancon. Emma Eames, Nordics, Louise Homer, and Giraldoni. the creator of Scarpia in "Tosca.”

When Decca made a new recording af “Die Fledermaus” in Vienna last year it decided to follow the Metropolitan tradition and introduce famous guests into the ball scene. Renata Tebaldi sings the “Viljalied” from the “Merry Widow”; Fermando Corena sings “Domino”; Birgit Nilsson, the Wagnerian soprano, present “I could have danced all night.” from “My Fair Lady” Mario del Monaco sings an Italian song and the Spanish mezzo-soprano. Teresa Berganza sings a Basque lullaby: Joan Suther- | land sing’s Arditi's waltz. “Il Bacio”: the late Jussi Bjorling sings, in German and Swedish. "You are my heart’s delight” from Lehar's “Land of Smiles”: the negro soprano, Leontyne Price presents Gershwin's “Summertime”: Giulietta Simionato and Ettore Bastianini join forces in “Anything you can do” from “Annie Get Your Gun”; and Ljuba Welitsch makes a reappearance on records after a long absence to bring back Vienna with "Wien, Wien, nur allein.” With this gallimaufry there is also a highly-praised performance of “Die Fledermaus,” in which the cast includes, Hilde Gueden, Erika Koth. Waldemar Kmennt, Walter Berry, Giuseppe Zampieri and Erich Kunz. Herbert yon Karajan conducts the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The recording will be given its first New Zealand broadcast from 3YC at 8 p.m. on Friday. lonesco Play Eugene lonesco’s play, “The Rhinoceros" (YCs. 8 p.m. Saturday i, is a satirical comedy which explores the question: how far will people go in order to conform to convention? lonesco suggests that they would quite willingly turn into rhinoceroses if everyone else were doing so. The action takes place in an unnamed French town, and the characters are ordinary middle-class people. The peace of Sunday morning is disturbed by a rhinoceros charging down the main street; another soon charges past in the same direction. In the next few days, people develop husky voices, bumps on their foreheads and tough skins. Then they turn into rhinos. The habit spreads until the town becomes a community of rhinos. Only one man has the will to resist and remain a human being, and the play ends on a frightening note as he prepares to fight to retain his

personality against the pressure of the herd. The play has aroused tremendous inter J est and controversy in Europe and Britain. In Saturday's N.Z.B.S. production of “Rhinoceros” by j Earle Rowell, the leading role of the defiant Berenger is played by Keith Lee, an Australian actor at present appearing in “My Fair Lady" in Auckland. Duparc Few composers have achieved a reputation for greatness with so small an output as Henri Duparc. Although he lived from 1848 to 1933. he left only an orchestral nocturne, a symphonic poem, a motet and 14 songs. He was an extremely self-critical artist who destroyed his other works, but the real reason for his small ouput is a nervous illness which prevented him from doing any creative work in the test 50 years of his lifeIt is on his songs that his reputation rests, and they are among the greatest treasures of French song, uniting poetic sensibility and dramatic feeling with musical inspiration of a very high order. Music lovers who have not made the acquaintance of these songs should do so tonight, at 9.59, when 3YC will broadcast Duparc songs sung by the great French baritone Gerard Souzay. Gielgud Galaxy When Sir John Gielgud presented his tapestry of Shakespeare speeches in New York, the “New York Times” critic said: “To all selections he brings a flawless mastery of verse and a complete absorption in his text ... he uses his voice with such subtlety and suppleness that the listener feels that for once no barrier, no obstacle, exists between him and Shakespeare. The art of communication can go no further." The first part of the presentation was broadcast in August. 1959. and the second part, entitled “One Man In; His Time." will be broadcasts in the ZB “Sunday Show-' case" at 9.16 p.m. on Sunday.; The speeches range from “A I Midsummer Night's Dream" to “Macbeth," from “Richard ll’’ and "Julius Caesar” to the sonnets. Laie Schumann

contemporaries called "the father of German music.” The text comes from the first chapter of St. Luke, and in the rhythmic vitality of the dialogue between the Angel and Mary can be felt the air of Venice, where Schutz had studied with Gabrielli and Monteverdi. The artists performing these works are Norma Procter (contralto). Peter Pears (tenor), Haakon Stotiin <oboe) and Benjamin Britten (piano). The programme was recorded in the great fifteenth century church of Blythburgh, once a busy town but now a quiet village, near Aldeburgh. Another Aldeburgh Festival concert this week was recorded in the Aldeburgh parish church, and may be heard from 3YC at 8.32 tonight. In it the Amadeus Quartet —which visited New Zealand a few years ago--plays Mozart’s String Quartet in F major. K 590. and Cesar Franck Piano Quintet in F minor, in which the quartet is joined by the great English pianist, Clifford Curzon. Disputation The BBC. programme. "A Medieval Disputation on Religion and Art” (3YC, 930 p.m., tomorrow), was record'Ki at a meeting of the Cambridge Aquinas Society It follows the strict form of logical argument as initiated and practised by the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages, being introduced by a moderator and carried on by a defendant, who states the thesis that “art and religion are reconcilable,” an objector, who argues the opposite case, and members of the audience, who put forward their arguments when the question is finally thrown open to them. The moderator is the Rev. Thomas Gilby, 0.P., who opens the programme with a description of the exact form and purpose of a scholastic disputation. Stating the case for the unity of art and religion is Father Illtud Evans. OP., and the Objector is Father Benet Weatherhcad. The strict, graceful discipline of their argument suites:* the controlled movements of the expert swordsman. Mandolin Concerto Although Stravinsky lists it among his favourite instruments, the mandolin is nowadays ignored by serious composers and, indeed, is very seldom heard at all. In the 18th Century, however, there was a considerable vogue for the mandolin and several great composers wrote for the instrument. One was Beethoven. who wrote five mandolin solos with piano accompaniment. Another was Vivaldi, perhaps not surprisingly, for among his several hundred concert! there is one for nearly every instrument of his time. A Vivaldi mandolin concerto, with solo mandolin accompanied by concerted mandolins and string bass, may be heard from 3YC at 10.52 p.m. on Thursday

Towards the end of his composing life, Schumann 1810-56) became interested in some of the less familiar chamber music instruments. Some of his most personal utterances, full of dark forebodings but often with a strange charm, are written for clarinet, horn, viola or oboe. Such are the Three Romances for Oboe and Piano, Op. 94, which will be heard in an Aldeburgh Festival broadcast from 3YC at 7.30 p.m. on Monday. The programme also includes two songs from Hugo Wolf’s Spanish Song Book and “The Annunciation.” by Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672). whom his