CONSTANCE WILLIS (Contralto)
THE B.B.C. ORCHESTRA
(Section C)
(Led by F. WEIST HILL)
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
THIS aria occurs in the opera Alkestis. Admetus is to die, but Alkestis invokes the powers of death to take her life in order that her husband may live. In this noble song she declares her high resolve.
THE career of Jean Louis Nicodé was passed for the most part in Dresden, where he was director of the Philharmonic Concerts and Professor of the Conservatorium. His compositions are those of an ordinary symphonic writer until in about his fiftieth year he suddenly decided to write a huge concert work of operatic dimensions which would employ every orchestral instrument for which a plaver could be found. This work, entitled Gloria, is a kind of symphonic opera ; it is in six long movements, introduces chorus and leit motifs and leaves no room in the programme for anything else that evening.