MUSIC IN ITALY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18208, 2 October 1933, Page 9

MUSIC IN ITALY

DECLINE OF OPERA HOUSES PARTLY CAUSED BY SPORT SYDNEY, Sept. 26. Mr. Lionello Cecil gave a dispiriting account yesterday of. the decline of music, particularly opera, in Italy, which for so Jong has been one of the chief goals of music-lovers and aspiring singers. Mr. Cecil (whose real name is Cecil Sherwood) has spent most of tho last 19 years in Italy, where lie was a leading operatic tenor, and knew conditions as they won* before the decline. Of 70 Italian opera houses, he said, only 25 were open to-day. Orchestral players and teachers had suffered equally with singers. Alr. Cecil said that one reason for the closing of opera houses and the shortening of seasons was the rapidly-increasing enthusiasm for sport, that was encouraged by tho Fascists. Young men had no time for anything but sport- Broadcasting had had the effect of reducing the number of orchestras and of keeping people from fhe theatres. The high rate of exchange had greatly reduced the flow of visitors, and had shut off the supply of English and American students. The Fascists had not helped art. i Mr. Cecil has arrived in Sydney under a, six months’ contract lo the Broadcasting Commission, and will be hoard in tenor roles during the season of grand opera, which is being organised by the commission. He said that he had sung 300 times in Boiti’s “Mefistofele,” which is one of the lesser-known operas that are included ire the present programme.