JOSEPHINE WRAY (Soprano)
WALTER WIDDOP (Tenor)
ARTHUR FEAR (Bass-Baritone) '
THE WIRELESS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(Leader, S. KNEALE KELLEY )
Conducted by CHARLES WEBBER
' Faust ' Overture
JOSEPHINE WRAY , ARTHUR FEAR, and Orchestra Duet, Act II, ' The Flying Dutchman '
BEFORE the mysterious Dutchman came on tho scene, the Norwegian lass, Serita, had had a youthful sweetheart, Erik the huntsman. But in her heart she has always cherished visions of the mysterious seafarer whose portrait hung in her father's house, and his dread story has always appealed to her. When he actually appears, all thoughts of the boyish Erik are overshadowed by his striking personality ; it is as though she had suddenly grown up from her own girlhood.
In this finely melodious duet, with its moments of real dramatic fervour, she promises her hand to the Dutchman, so redeeming him from his dread destiny.
ORCHESTRA
Siegfried's Journey to the Rhine
('The Dusk of the Gods')
JOSEPHINE WRAY , WALTER WIDDOP and Orchestra
Duet, Act I, ' The Valkyrie'
SIEGMUND and Sieglinde, alone in the great hall where they first saw each other, while her lord Hunding sleeps, and while the moonlight streams through the open door, tell each other in words of rapture how they knew that they were destined for one another, when they first looked on each other's faces. As Siegmund sings of his joy, something in hia voice recalls her father to Sieglinde, and she asks him if the name ha gave Hunding is really his own. He tells her that whatever name she gives him he will bear, and she calls him Siegmund, as indeed he is. The whole duet is one of those ecstatic pieces of passionate music which cannot possibly be reduced to terms of cold prose ; nor does it need any such translation.