DOROTHY BENNETT (Soprano)
HORACE STEVENS (Baritone)
THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND
Conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
BOIELDIEU was so modest about his own work that, if the story be true, he used to take the completed sections of his early opera, The Caliph of Baghdad, to the Conservatoire in Paris where he was a professor, to ask his pupils for their verdict on the music. If they did not like it, he referred it to the great MehuJ. He need have been in no doubt about the attractive qualities of his music ; nearly all his lighthearted and melodious operas won immediate success, and many of them held the stage for generations after his own day.
THE part of Lucia in Donizetti's opera, based on Walter Scott 's novel, has always been a favourite with singers of the coloratura school. It is an exceedingly effective rôle with more than one fine opportunity. This scene comes from the first act. Near the castle there is an old fountain, beside which Lucy met her beloved Edgar, and here she is awaiting him. There is an old legend that once long ago an unhappy girl was murdered close at hand and her body thrown into the water. Lucy has seen the ghost of the unlucky one, and interprets that as an evil omen for herself. In this melodious air she tells the story of the tragedy.