6 MARCH 1953, Page 18

Nelson "

SIR,—I would like to join issue with Mr. Martin Cooper when, at the commencement of his detailed and penetrating review of the recent concert-reading of Lennox Berkeley's opera,. Nelson, he wrote that " it seemed a doubtful service " that the English Opera Group Association proposed to do Mr. Berkeley when they announced this reading. Obviously, no member of the audience would expect to .be able to make a final judgement on the opera from a mere concert- reading, but surely a skeleton performance of any new opera auto- matically provides the valuable service of giving a fair idea of the potentiality of the opera and of its chances of success in any eventual stage production.

I do not imagine that Mr. Cooper holds it against the B.B.C. that they broadcast what are virtually concert versions of operas, with no scenery, stage, action, etc. After all, surely a concert-reading is better than nothing at all—as would have been the case, for the time being, with Nelson. At least, we now have the satisfaction of knowing that Mr. Berkeley has composed what promises to be a very good opera.

—Yours faithfully, D. A. YOUNG. (Chairman, English Opera Group Association.) 2 Edwardes Place, London, W.B.