Relayed from the National Museum of Wales

National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)

(to 14.00)

National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

In 1834, at the age of twenty-one, Wagner became Music Director of the theatre at Magdeburg. The company consisted mainly of young people, and he was on good terms with them. Life in the theatre and out of it went merrily, and, if Wagner's own accounts are to be believed, without much regard for the proprieties, but the young musician found much to interest him, and to incite him to work. The theatre was run by a Committee with the help of a small subsidy from the Saxon Court, but the director had an unfortunate knack of being out of reach on pay-day, and by the Spring of 1836, it looked as though the theatre would have to close down.
The operas which he had to supervise were for the most part of the light-hearted order, Bellini and Auber being two of the favourite composers of the day, and Wagner, keen to achieve a success with the public, had no objection to taking a hint or two from the naive, melodious, style which was so much in vogue. With the idea of compiling a plot of brisk and vigorous action, and fitting it with music which would please both the singers and the public, he wrote a libretto on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and composed the music during the latter part of 1835 and the beginning of 1836. When the opera was ready, the artists were already somewhat restive, and needed a good deal of persuasion to remain to take part in it. The first performance was to be set aside for the Director's benefit, to recoup him for his outlays in putting it on the stage; Wagner was to have the benefit of the second night. There was, however, no second night. The first performance, in spite of all Wagner's efforts, ended in something like chaos before a crowded house, and though the second was announced, hardly anyone came to hear it, and the curtain never rose.
Wagner enthusiasts might well fail to recognize the Overture as his work, but it is of real interest as showing the influences under which he worked in those days, and the enormous advance which his later music made on this early essay.

Mollie Melvin (Soprano) and Orchestra

Mr. W.J. Townsend Collins, President of the Newport Rotary Club

(to 23.00)