Directed by Louis Cohen
Relayed from The Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Delibes, like Sullivan, wrote both church and theatre music ; at one part of his life he held appointments in church and theatre at the same time. Successful in his own lifetime, and distinguished by many of the highest honours which France can offer her citizens, he cherished the ambition of composing serious opera, but it was as a composer of light opera and ballet music that he was most popular and that he is now remembered.

The opera Le roi l'a dit is based upon an old-world French subject, and was produced at the Opera Comique in 1873. Though the opera itself was not a great success in Paris, the Overture still holds its place in concert repertoires.
Percy Fletcher was one of those active musicians who, in the manner of permanent Government officials, do the real work that noisier people shout about and get the credit for. Fletcher was a clever composer of the best type of popular music, a man of experience in every department of the profession, and one who knew every inch of the theatre, from the box-office to the stage-door-for years he was musical director at His Majesty's Theatre.

He was, like his colleague, Eric Coates, born in the Midlands at Derby. Besides the music he composed for the theatre, he produced a quantity of cleverly-written, very tuneful and extremely popular light music. He ranked amongst the half-dozen or so British musicians who did this sort of thing extremely well.