MUSICAL APPRECIATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17410, 24 May 1928, Page 4

MUSICAL APPRECIATION.

MR. APTHORP’S LECTURE. The third lecture of the series under the auspices of fhe W.E.A. was delivered last evening by Mr E. H. Apthorp, who in his opening remarks said the development of the opera might be divided into two periods; firstly from about 1066 to the time of Elizabeth, and second from the. lime of Queen Elizabeth to the present day. The speaker outlined the forms of music in use during the eleventh century and traced its development, as far as opera is concerned, from then to the beginning of the present period. Landmarks, such as the formation in Greece in 1594 of a society for the revival of the Greek classics; the writing by Monte Verdi of “Orplieo,” the first opera to be written, and the opening in Rome in 1671 of the first operahousc brought us to England and the the first performances there in the lime of the Commonwealth and the great musical revival after the return of Charles 11, from France. Purcell, the composer of the first English opera, and Handel, with his failures and the reason thereof and others were ably dealt with. Illustrations by gramophone records from the operas of Purcell, Handel, and Meyerbeer and a justification of opera, with its three dimensions, as an art concluded a most instructive evening. The next lecture will deal with the reformation of opera from Die old Italian style.