The Benefit of the Opera Season.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue III, 20 July 1901, Page 105

The Benefit of the Opera Season.

It will, I think, be generally eonreded that the advent of the Grand Opera Co., which opened its New Zealand season in Auckland on Mondaylast, is an event of considerably more importance to the community than anything that has occurred in the musical world for some considerable time. The vogue of musical farce and variety entertainment has been so long sustained, that the taste for high class music seemed in danger of absolute extinction, and it is therefore with a great sense of relief that true lovers of music have welcomed a company which can adequately render the works of the great composera of the French, German, and Italian schools. That the effect of the season will be for good, cannot be doubted, but it will be interesting to see how that section of the community which delights in the jingling airs of the "girl” series of so-called musical farces, emerges after a course of Wagner. That they will experience the same delight in the magnificent breadth and richness of these compositions, that more fastidious and experienced students of music will, is not possible, but at any rate they will most certainly feel that a new world, an unexplored treasure house, has been thrown open to them; and whether they fully appreciate its beauties or not, they cannot fail to derive from it enjoyment and benefit. Assuredly, also, it will blunt a too keen appreciation of the cheap and nasty- music hall ditty, with its monotonous refrain, and its eternal resemblance to its innumerable brothers and sisters. Once interest A reader in Dickens, and he will not likely return to his "dime novelette,” Surely- after experiencing the magnificent descriptions of the Toreador song in “Carmen,” not even the greatest victim of the variety show habit would return contentedly to that ghastly- success of the music hall stage, “Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out.” Surely even the greatest admirer of that detestable ditty would feel it lacked something after sitting through an enchanted evening of “Faust.” It is not reasonable to suppose a man will return contentedly to vin ordinaire after he has enjoyed Mouton Rothchild. The effect of the visit of the company will therefore be to revive a desire for high-class concerts and good music. Variety- entertainments, shilling “pops,” etc., etc., have of late almost starved the good music out. and firstclass concert companies have feared to come and visit us. The opera season should change all that, and by, elevating the public taste, bring back those “good old days” when some of the finest platform singers and greatest musicians could visit New Zealand assured of a warm welcome ai d a profitable season.