THE Wireless MILITARY BAND, conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL
DOROTHY BENNETT (Soprano)
TOM KINNIBURGH (Bass) mHE first extract is one of the two splendid
Bass airs in The Magic Flute. In it the High Priest of the Temple of Wisdom tells how the noble in heart is welcomed to the company of those who are guided by the gods Isis and Osiris, but the mean and unworthy can never find a place within those hallowed walls, where all live in peace.
IN the song by Gounod, the blacksmith god,
Vulcan, who forged Jove's thunderbolts, tells why he prefers to remain in his underground kingdom, where he is lord of all. It is because when he ventured above, to Olympus, and wooed Venus, he was repulsed and made a laughing-stock.
THIS, generally reckoned the best of all the Overtures written for the Opera Fidelio, is a long piece, fully developed on symphonic lines-too extended for use as a theatre overture, perhaps, but a magnificent concert piece. There is a short-slow Introduction, and then the vigorous main body of the Overture begins. There are two chief tunes-the very soft and mysteriously-opening one, and a smoothly flowing one.
Note the dramatic interruption of the Trumpet call in the middle of the Overture (generally performed in the concert room, by a player out of sight); this represents the crucial moment in the play, when the Minister of State appears, just in time to save the hero from execution.
BRÜNNHILDE, beloved child of Wotan, has disobeyed him, and must be punished. No longer may she ride the storms and exalt in the wildness of her godhead. As a mortal she must live henceforth. She is to be awakened by the first man who encounters her. She pleads that only a true hero shall make her captive, and as a last boon Wotan, having laid her to sleep upon a rock, summons the fire-god. As ho points his spear here and there, spurts of flame issue from the rocks around her, and the famous Fire Music flames and hisses and glows in the Orchestra. As Wotan turns slowly away, we hear, thundered out by the brass, the sturdy, martial melody prophetic of the hero who shall win her-Siegfried.