(Section D)
(Led by LAURANCE TURNER )
Conducted by FRANK BRIDGE
VALENTINA AKSAROVA (soprano)
ORCHESTRA
VALENTINA AKSAROVA AND ORCHESTRA
Scena, Ritorna Vincitor ! (Aïda). . Verdi
I
AÏDA, the daughter of the King of Ethiopia, is at present a slave in the retinue of the King of Egypt's daughter. She has attracted the love of Rhadames, the commander of the Egyptian army, who is about to take the offensive against the Ethiopians. Aida is torn between her love for Rhadames and her wish for his personal glory, and her duty to her father and her country, whose defeat would cause her bitter sorrow. 'Ritorna vincitor ' (Return victorious) is the song in which she appeals to Heaven to have compassion on her difficulties and to reconcile her conflicting emotions.
WHEN Grieg cast his instrumental music to Ibsen's play of Peer Gynt in the form of two Suites, he furnished a little summary of the story to show which were the points in it which the several movements illustrate. The movements do not follow one another in the order in which they appear in the play, and the First Suite takes us to several parts of the world. Two of the movements in the First Suite are set in Morocco, where Peer found himself in his wanderings ; the first, called ' Morning ', is his awaking on the shore, and the third is a dance performed for him by the Arabian girl, Anitra. The second depicts his mother's death. Peer has escaped from the realm of the mountain king, and makes his way home, to find his mother dying. The last movement in the First Suite is the Dance of th: people of the mountain king where Peer is held captive.
IN THIS sad-hearted song, listeners will remember, Butterfly, deserted by her lover, Pinkerton, sings of her steadfast faith that he will one day return She tells of how she will go to meet him, hiding at first, and then springing out to greet him joyously.
IN THE original version of Gounod's Faitst, produced in Paris at the Theatre Lyrique, the only ballet was in the Kermesse scene of the second act. Ten years later the composer revised the work for production at the Grand Opera. and the traditions of that theatre demanded something more elaborate in the way of ballet. The two authors of the libretto accordingly raided the second part of Goethe's Faust, untouched for Gounod's original opera, and made use of the revels of the Walpurgis night. There, in Goethe's play and in this revised version of Gounod's opera, Faust meets many of the famous women of old, Cleopatra, Helen, the Trojan Women, and other personages of myth and legend. When the opera is given in this country this scene is almost always omitted.