THE STATION ORCHESTRA : Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
A PERFORMANCE of Masaniello in Brussels, on August 25, 1830, has been held partly responsible for the outbreak of the revolution in which the Dutch were driven out of Belgium. Be that as it may, it is generally agreed that this is the finest of all Auber's many (and popular) Operas. Instead of being merely pretty and tuneful, as are so many of his works, Masaniello has great dramatic power and spirit. Wagner himself praised the work highly.
The Overture is chiefly made up of tunes from the Opera itself.
FREDERIC LAKE (Tenor)
THE second of Roger Quitter's Three Shakespeare Songs is a setting of O Mistress Mine, the Clown's song in Twelfth Night.
Sir Toby Belch and his friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, have been making a night of it. Toby has just expounded his philosophical theory that 'not to be a-bed after midnight is to be up betimes.' The Clown has come in, and the jovial Knights give him a cheerful, if somewhat unceremonious greeting. Then Sir Toby offers him sixpence for a song, to which the Clown responds:-
'Would you have a love-song or a song of good life ?
'A love-song,' says Toby, ' a love-song.'
'Ay, ay,' chimes in Andrew; 'I care not for good life.'
TCHAIKOVSKY wrote the music for a Russian Ballet, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, in which are shown the wonderful adventures of a little girl, and of a beautiful pair of silver nut-crackers which she received for a Christmas present.
Tchaikovsky afterwards arranged the music of this Ballet in the form of a Suite, in which a Miniature Overture is followed by a set of seven short pieces-Characteristic Dances, he calls them, and the title is very apt. All are vivid, some are amusing. The first and third of these little dances are included in to-day's programme. The first is a humorously-formal March. The third is a whirling Russian Trepak.
THE composer of Passing By is not that amazing and delightful English genius of the seventeenth century, Henry Purcell, whom we are just re-discovering, but is said to be another (and very much later) member of the family.