OPERA BY WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18334, 26 February 1923, Page 8

OPERA BY WIRELESS.

REMARKABLE RESULTS.

GEMS PROM OOVENT GARDEN.

Thousands of amateurs knew last night that wireless had entered a new phase, says a writer in a London paper of January 8. • ."■ ' '-;. • The British Broadcasting Company showed what the wireless telephone really can do. They did more than that. -For they presented what is probably the most superb piece of broadcasting ever accomplished in any part'of the world. It was a stroke of genius. to start off with Mozart's "Magic Flute." When we switched on I could hear a' warm ripple of applause. That would be Mr. Percy Pitt strolling to the conductor's chair, Then the opening bars of the overture came clear and sweet, as if ' one were sitting chilled by the first blasts from the rising curtain of Oovent Garden. Instinctively I drew nearer to my fireside blaze. After a few adjustments, the rendering of the orchestra could be as nicely < appre- • ciated as if one were in the stalls. . ' Then the , miracle happened. The ; lovely soprano of Miss Gertrude, Johnston came sailing as clear above the orchestration as a bird rising above a copse. ; The lovely arias of the "Queen of the Night" I have never been able to enjoy so . perfectly' as I did last night in a remote village in Hertfordshire. • • "- \,■'•.■•■',. ~.'

We were using a four-valve set. And when I put the ear 'phones on I might have been standing on the stage a few feet from Miss Johnston during a rehearsal. '' .''■'; ■' r.\ '

But not only Miss Johnston - seems I to be endowed with -the ' "wireless" voice. One could catch every inflection of Mr. Robert Radford's sardonic singing of Mr. Walter Hyde's purity of tone. I expect ours was not the only y party that: instinctively joined in the .applause ; -we heard so dearly—just 14- miles away.,, \[ 1 If you are a sceptic,- I may' * tell you something which may convince you of how effectually Mozart's "> art/was' brought to tens of thousands of firesides last night. We have a sick friend who" loves music. Ringing him up on the,,'■ telephone, we asked if he would care to hear a snatch of the Oovent Garden opera. He said '?*.<*¥ " ■'..-■ I said, - "Listen > hard." And I hung the receiver from the top of the Amplion loud speaker. • y After a few minutes, thinking he might have been cut off, I asked him if he had had enough, and the answer was, "Get off the lineyou're in the way. You spoiled that last thrill. ,-_,- • •.,, :\ r. .;v :.'; yv...: