MUSIC
THE operatic season at Covent Garden opened on October 19th with a performance of The Flying Dutchman. This, without an obviously outstanding singer for the title role, was a strange choice, but Herr Joseph Metternich learned the part for the occasion and learned it in English, which he sang scrupulously, though largely unintelligibly. His is not an imposing appearance, and he is a very conventional actor. But his voice is full and pleasant, and, with no linguistic pre- occupations, he might achieve the note of heroism, though never, I think, of mystery. Sylvia Fisher, always musical but seldom a con- vincing actress, struggled with clothes and make-up of a hideousness such as no woman should have imposed upon her ; and although her voice is moving in quality and her interpretation never fails to touch by its patent sincerity, she never came near to suggesting Wagner's heroine. Norman Walker sang Daland, not a difficult part to interpret if a singer can resign himself to being something of a bore, both musical and personal ; but he made matters worse by being largely inaudible, and his bluffness and gruffness never came over the footlights. Thor- steinn Hannesson, handicapped by a cold, sang Erik, and Edgar Evans made a pleasant light-weight Steersman.
The orchestra under Karl Rankl started the season well, with fuller tone than we have had in the past from the strings and neater brass- playing. Herr Hans Tietjen's production left rather too much to the imagination, and the impact of the first appearance of the Dutchman's ship, which should be overwhelming, was precisely nil—as was that of its ultimate disappearance. There was a great deal of what Wagner was later to call Nacht and Nebel—in fact it was a very foggy night— in Act r, but I saw no signs of a storm on the stage, not were the very half-hearted efforts of the crew to tie up the boat synchronised with the music. Senta, in Act 2, stood so long in so uncomfortable and unnatural a position that her discomfort, though not her spiritual excitement, gradually communicated itself to the audience. And who, in the name of all the saints and martyrs of theatrical production, perpetrated that final rising sun, which suggested a very cheap Japanese poster rather than Redemption through Love ?
MARTIN COOPER.
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