(Section E)
Led by MARIE WILSON
Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
FRANK PHILLIPS (baritone)
ORCHESTRA
Overture, Russian and Ludmilla. Glinka Berceuse (Jocelyn Suite No. 2) Godard
Glinka was the father of modern Russian music, and this opera, his second, was one of the first big works of a reaily national character which the country produced. The tale is founded on an early poetical romance by Pushkin, and the poet himself had agreed to make it into an opera libretto for Glinka. Almost immediately afterwards, however, he was killed in a duel, and the libretto, as the composer used it, was the work of no fewer than five different hands. The story is a blend of fairy lore and old Russian legend. Ludmilla, the daughter of a Grand Duke, has three suitors, of whom she prefers the Knight Russian. She is carried off by magic powers, and the whole story is taken up with Russian's heroic conflict with these and his overcoming of one dread magic spell after another to win his bride in the end.
The opera was revived in England with great artistic success at the season of Russian opera given by Sir Thomas Beecham at the Lyceum Theatre three years ago.
Andre Wonnser was born in Paris in 1851, and died there in 1926. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and at the age of twenty-four won the Prix de Rome with an opera Clytemnestre. Wormser's most popular work, however, is the music to the wordless play L'Enfant Prodigue, which was first produced in Palis in 1890, and at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, London, in 1891. No more popular item of programme music is performed on the concert platform than the.suite made from this charming ballet. These ' Impressions of the Open Air ' are less known, but characteristic of a composer for whom melody was a requisite ingredient' of his music.