Modern Opera Not Liked

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 12

Modern

Opera Not Liked

Experimental modern opera was not appreciated by the opera-going public, the Australian conductor, Gerald Kurg, said in Wellington on his arrival at the week-end to begin rehearsals for the New Zealand Opera

Company’s production of “Faust”

Overseas, if a “way-out” opera were performed, the opera houses were empty, he

said. Audiences were much i more conservative about their opera than about their symphonies. New forms would have to be introduced slowly after the public was educated to accept them. “Composers are far ahead of the public. The distance between them is greater than ever before. People thought Wagner was avant garde for his time, but composers now are much more so.” The 36-year-old Mr Kurg is in New Zealand to conduct and direct “Faust." He has worked here before and considers New Zealand opera audiences to be dissimilar to their Australian counterparts. In Australia the season was sold out before the opera opened. This, he feared, was not the case in New Zealand. The percentage of young people in Australian audiences had grown tremendously since 1967. More money had brought about huge changes since that time. Productions had been bigger and better, and overseas artists easier to acquire. After flying from Washington and experiencing a sevenhour wait in Los Angeles, the American soprano, Mildred Allen, who will sing Marguerite in “Faust,” was ex-hausted-when she arrived in Wellington on Sunday. Miss Allen sings with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York “on and off.” “The Met likes its singers to work for other companies too,” she said. “It’s an international house, really.” She has many favourite operas in different styles, but feels an affinity for “La Traviata” and enjoys singing Madame Butterfly.”