" Butterfly " and "The Trojan Women"
MUSIC
OF all operas, Madam Butterfly is surely the most detestable for its bad taste and falsity of sentiment. Even the physically more re- pulsive Salome does not sink quite to the level of Lieutenant Pinker- ton's moral turpitude. For this gentleman is by definition a healthy young naval officer, not a mental deficient incapable of mastering his desires. The objection is not to his having a Japanese mistress, but to his shameless boasting of his intention to desert her at the moment when his " bride " is at the door. Then there is the futile consul, whose embarrassed situation is not made an occasion for comedy, as it might be, and consequently becomes boring. Even more tire- some are the heroine's pretty ways, and the quaint ceremonies of the Japanese somehow no longer seem quite so picturesque since Pearl Harbour and Singapore.
And yet I confess I enjoyed quite a lot of Monday's performance by the Sadler's Wells Company, who have returned to the New Theatre for a season, partly because the part of Butterfly was admir- ably sung and acted by Miss Victoria Sladen, but mainly because, in spite of all prejudice, one was caught in the toils of Puccini's theatrical mastery. How well he knows his job! With what aston- ishing skill he transforms a paltry situation, based upon false premises, into something that, while his spell lasts, almost passes for tragedy!
It is sad, but an inescapable fact, that this kind of theatrical skill counts for far more in the making of an opera than all the lofty ideals, musical and dramatic of musicians far " greater " than Puccini. Even the greatest, Beethoven, lacked the theatrical craftsmanship to make of Fidelio the secure dramatic masterpiece it should be. And what shall we say of Cecil Gray's The Trojan Women, to which the B.B.C. devoted an hour of the evening last week? No doubt, it is a worthier work than Puccini's wretched melodrama. But I do not think the public will wish to pay to hear such a monotonous yam- mering, as they will pay to hear Butterfly. Not that Gray has not considerable musical skill, since he contrives to make one phrase of no great distinction serve as the basis of his whole score. But though there are climaxes and subsequent diminuendos, I could perceive no dramatic tension in the music, no signs of that excitement which is the essential ingredient of a theatrical work of art, and which would make itself felt, if present, even in a broadcast performance.
DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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