"Sromes mow tue Orenss."—(T.
"Werner Laurie Ltd)
How many operas are there of recognized merit? How many can you mame? At a guess, I should have replied to the first question "About fifty," while the answer to the second would have come a good tway behind that. in this volume (which is a combination of three books which have been issued pre-Viously—Stories from the Operas, [Stories from the Russian Operas, Vand More Stories from the Operas) Miss. Gladys Davidson has given us the stories of one hundred and six operas, and any music lover will be very hard taxed to think of a genuine opera, which exists in score, far less is ever performed, which is not described in this book.
When you go to see opera, even you have the benefit of being able to hear it in English (opinions may differ as to whether this is an advantage but, in my view, at any rate for the first time of hearing itis decidedly 0), it is of immense assistance to a full enjoyment of the music to have a real undorstanding of the story which. the composer is trying to tell, and the characters which he is portraying. [Of course you will generally find a psis on your programme, but, addition to the difieulty of tr ing to read this in lowered lights or during the intervals, it is generally badly printed and worse written, a jumble of names of characters and their actions, but without any attempt: to story as a whole, oF the na motives of the characters.
Miss. Davidson soos about what is by no means an easy task in exactly. the right way. She tolls ach tale in a. simple straight forward way, giving us the principal characters with a sufficient description of their environment and nature, so that their actions the' natural result of the ions in which they find. them-
The story is not confused by attempting to eram in a mention of all the minor characters, nor {sit divided into the acts and scenes 'toby which the composer is. compelled to limit the presentation of his work. Each opera thus becomes a well-written precis, and not a scenario of stage directions.
Some people will say that what you go to hear in opera is the music, and that the plots of most operas are such rubbish that it doesn't matter much whether you understand them or not. With this do not agree: listening to opera not the same as: listening to a concerto. 'The composer is endeayuring to illustrate by his music the utterances of the characters, and an understanding of what those characters are saying and why they are saying it, must be material proper' appreciation of his musi There is much to be said for the view recently expressed in the "Observer" that the English versions lof operas sound such trash because grammatical and sensible translation of the libretto cannot be made fit in with the musfe, and sug-[gesting that, at any rate in the Tong passages of recitative and dialogue, the music should be modified so far as may be necessary to adapt it to a well-w English transcription (w not mean a literal translation) of the original.
Some of the plots are admittedly 1 bit thin, but, by.and large, it will be found that there is a robustness and variety among them which will surprise you. The complicated epic The Ring is well told, but there is rather a sameness about the seem. to deal principally with
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.