"THIS STRANGE WORLD"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23882, 9 August 1939, Page 16

"THIS STRANGE WORLD"

Sir Thomas Beecham last month conducted his last performance for at least 18 months—" Tristan "—which brought down the curtain on the Covent Garden season. "In this strange modern world, this brave new world created for us by our friends, the enemy, there is practically no public for the fine arts." he said, to the delight of an audience that had cheered him and his company for nearly 10 minutes. " You may consider yourselves as the Old Guard. There is no public for Art. There never was. I lay on you the responsibility for coming again next year, and bringing one more with you. Sir Thomas will not be there to conduct next year. He is going into voluntary musical exile—" partly on medical advice, and partly for the sake of my sanity." he says. He walked home a little aggrieved with his public, but very pleased with a £IOO gift presented to him during an interval by the company. Back stage, they handed him a gold stud box with a diamondencrusted monogram, and an eighteenth century silver cake basket, subscribed for by cleaners with their coppers. a.nd by artists, orchestra and stage hands.