from the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden
See the article by Scott Goddard on page 12
Scene : In Venice-At Crespel's house
Cast
Conductor, Sir THOMAS BEECHAM , Bt.
Chorus Master, ROBERT AINSWORTH
It is fitting that the Covent Garden season should close light-heartedly with Offenbach's sparkling music. Tales of Hoffmann thus provides a gay finale to the year's ' Covent Garden symphony ' with its great Wagnerian first movement, its melodious cantabile movement of Verdi and Puccini, and its impudent Rosenkavalier scherzo.
The past season has been perhaps the most brilliant of any since the War, and on no less than seventeen evenings listeners all over the country have been able to ' overhear ' separate acts and in one case, on the opening night, a whole opera.