Dr. C. DELISLE BURNS , D.Lit... Stevenson
Lecturer in Citizenship in the University of Glasgow:' What Difference have Motors Made ? '
(From Glasgow)
LAST week Dr. Delisle Burns inquired into the effect on people of changing customs in food and clothing. This week he considers the effect of the coming of motors, one of the most outstanding changes in the last thirty years. Motor-buses and motor-charabancs free people from the village pump. and allow them to see much more of the world. Tho mixing of people that this brings about may make a real democracy more possible. Since the motor-car, aeroplanes have come, and are already beginning to affect society. Does it make any real difference to be able to move about so much more quickly ? In his next talk, Dr. Burns will discuss another scientific invention that has revolu. tionized the life we lead : electricity.

Contributors

Unknown:: Dr. C. Delisle Burns
Unknown:: Dr. Delisle Burns

Source: Radio Times

20:00

Operatic Concert

National Programme

Fri 15^th Jan 1932, 20:00 on National Programme Daventry

View in Radio Times

Evelyn Scotney (Soprano)
The B.B.C. Orchestra (Section D)
Conductor, Adrian Boult

Peter Cornelius, author, poet, and composer,and one of the leaders of the self-styled 'New German' school of music which gathered round Liszt at Weimar, in the middle of last century, had been dead a good many years before his work began to receive anything like its fair share of success. - The comic opera, The Barber of Bagdad, of which text and music are both his own, was performed only once in his lifetime, and was not revived until nearly thirty years later, at Munich. It is full of real humour, and the music is all fresh and spontaneous. There is nothing Eastern about it, though the story is an old one. in the manner of the 'Arabian Nights.' The Barber rejoices in the imposing name of Abu Hassan Ali Ebe Bekar. and is renowned not only as the greatest of all barbers, but as one of the greatest of all talkers. Swift though his razor is, a thousand times swifter still works his tongue. At more than one point in the opera the chorus prays to Allah to be saved from the flood of his talk. Like his still more famous brother of Seville, he has a large hand in the destinies of the other people in the tale. and it is largely through his intervention that the young hero, Nureddin, is happily wedded to Morgiann. the fair lady of his choice.

The Overture begins with an introductory section, presenting two little themes which are hoard a good deal in the course of the work, and then in flowing waltz rhythm the solo 'cello introduces one of the principal tunes. The other principal tune, a very lively figure, appears first on the woodwinds. Towards the end there is a little passage for woodwinds alone, in which it sounds as though the instruments were too shy to carry on, but soon the whole orchestra joins, and the Overture finishes with a robust and vigorous section.

ONE of the most brilliant pieces in the coloratura sopranos' repertoire, this polonaise has really nothing to do with the actual drama of Mignon. Filina, who sings it, is an actress, one in whom the little Mignon sees a feared and hated rival for the affections of her beloved Wilhelm.
At this point in the story, she has just come with the other players from the Pavilion in which Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has been performed. She is still wearing the costume in which she has appeared as Titania, and, flushed with success, sings, ' I am Titania, see, here is my sceptre.'

Dame Ethel Smyth's opera, The Wreckers, is among the distinguished British works which are much better known on the Continent than here. Produced at the Leipzig Opera House in 1906, it met with immediate success; again, shortly afterwards at Prague, and at Vienna, it was no less warmly received, making an impression such as few works of British origin have achieved in Germany.
The Prelude, to be played this evening, is the introduction to the Second Act, and its name provides sufficient clue to its intention.

The Boatswain's Mate is a comic opera in one act, with a libretto made by Dame Ethel Smyth herself from W.W. Jacobs' story of the same name. It is a very amusing dramatic version of the well-known tale of Mrs. Waters, tho widowed landlady of The Beehive, who is wooed by the ex-boatswain, Harry Benn, and won by the ex-soldier, Ned Travers. The latter is engaged by the boatswain to execute a mock burglary at the inn in order to bring home to the lonely landlady the need of male protection ; but, as things turn out. she proves to be very capable of looking after herself and, incidentally, of choosing a second husband, who is no other than the amateur burglar. The overture has no dramatic connection with the opera itself, and is meant to be merely ' a few minutes of cheerful music suitable to any cheerful occasion.' There are two chief themes, the first one heard at the opening, softly and lightly. It is developed in a fantastically humorous vein, before the more sustained second subject enters. It is the melody of the composer's March of the Women.

Orchestra: Overture, The Barber of Bagdad...Cornelius, orch. Moul
Evelyn Scotney and Orchestra: Racconta di Maddalona, La Mama Morta (Andrea Chenier)...Giordano
Orchestra: Two Intermezzi (The Jewels of the Madonna)...Wolf-Ferrari
Evelyn Scotney and Orchestra: Polonaise, Je suis Titania (Mignon)...Ambroise Thomas
Orchestra: On the Cliffs of Cornwall (Prelude, Act II, The Wreckers); Overture, The Boatswain's Mate...Ethel Smyth