NO AUDIENCES FOR OPERA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 6

NO AUDIENCES FOR OPERA.

Now that the actual text of Mr. Thomas Beecham's,denunciation, of Lon-v doners, for their refusal to support his * grand opera schemelias been delivered by" mail,: it' is found ,to cover, the whole • scope of his experience as director of . three seasons, two at Covent Garden and one at. Her Majesty's Theatre-. He, states that except in the. case -of-. "Electra" and ''Salome,", which attracted many non-musical;! sensation- ~ seekers who went to nothing else, and of Oifeniaph'Sioi'TalesriOf Hofcnan,"-ithegai' public resolutely held aloof from opera in * English. ■ Mr. Beecham complains .'-'that for years the fond delusion was ;cher- • ished that opera on a large scale at reasonable prices, and-especiallyin English, would be warmly taken up by the London public. Now. they , have had it for. a year,, and they have never.come anywhere near the place.: There is no. question of fairly raod audiences, or small audiences. There is no audjence ■ at all for opera.'- As for an audieflce for a now work, to put on'a,new-opera is to raise the most deadly danger signal. People .at once avoid ; tho theatro for as though it wero : infected w T ith the-plague. . ;... Distin-, guished artists haye-been, brought over to-sing in celebrated operas,' and the ; house has not been one-seventlf-filled." ; The testimony of a-patriot who is re-- , puted-to have lost nearly. £100;000 in. trying to create a.genuine-middle-class . audience of, opera-goers in London, as • distinguished .from the fashionable. sub- -■ ecribers to the Royal Italian Opera -

seasons, is calculated; to make ' Australians fairly well satisfied with their own attitude towards similar , artistic ventures. ,-Ifc .was a sis week's run>of Puccini's previously- unheard -opera', "Madame Butterfly," to crowded houses in , Sydney, followed ,by a" pronounced success in Melbourne,' and a substantial profit at the end of the New, Zealand tour, that encouraged -Mr.* J.'" C- .'Williamson .and Madame. Molb.i to preparo their most costly venture for nest .September. Now that 1 the application or the Sydney Symphony Orchestra\(profcssional) for a Government subsidy has led the older societies, which largely employ, professional assistance, to ate a similar, movement, it is .of liiter- ■ est to note that even in'wealthy, conconservative England the same question is being raised. It appears that' even. the historic prestige of the Le<xls Triennial Festival, and the dense populations,- it draws upon, have failed, to keep.it- financially sound. The receipts at the last festival were £7750, wyolving a deficit of £162. Worse still, we read that very few of these grpt oratorio functions pay. : "It is therefore obvious," remarks the London Dally Telegraph," "that the audience must be given the opportunity of' hearing what thev want to hear, and not what various'peopled imagine they ought to want to hear. —''Sydney Morning Herald."-