MUSIC
" Snow-Maiden." By Rimsky-Korsakov. At Sadler's Wells.
Tins is the best production of opera that I have ,Seen at Sadler's Wells, and it looks as if the powers that be, at last, are alive to the importance of making Sadler's Wells into an opera house of the pre-war Continental standard, such as we have never yet had in England. It has not only been the money that was lacking in the' past, although it was impossible for an unsubsidised theatre ever to compete in quality with the subsidised opera houses of the Continent. You cannot, however, in a few years hope to equal the standard of the very best opera houses abroad such as those of pre-war Dresden,
Vienna, Berlin and Milan. Their productions were the fruit of a living tradition accumulated in an unbroken period of several centuries, thus having at their disposal hundreds of highly trained and experienced artistes. But we can now achieve a reasonable standard, because in the short lifetime of the Old- Vic and Sadler's Wells, and Sir Thomas Beecham's many English opera production3, we have already got a nucleus of singers, and once there is a regular career open for operatic talent in a permanent opera house we shall find an influx of gifted singers and producers and conductors from the Schools of Music in London and the provinces. We may then expect the standard of performance to go steadily up and up.
Here in this new production of Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow-Maiden is a good beginning, for it is not an easy opera and depends not only on its music being adequately played and sung but also very much on its style of production. It is based on a fairy tale of Ostrovsky of how King Frost and the Fairy Spring have a child Sneegourotchka, the frozen-hearted Snow-maiden who is kept by her parents deep in the forest because the Sun-God is in love with her and they know that once she felt his kisses she would melt. Out of this symbolic legend an ingenious plot in four acts is constructed which suits Rimsky-Korsakov's peculiar genius for writing vivid, picturesque and strangely impersonal music admirably. The scenery and cos- tumes by Barbara Heseltine are excellent in a traditional Russian colourful style. The production by John Moody is very lively and cleverly avoids cheap pantomimic effects ; in fact it shows real taste. The augmented orchestra under Lawrence Collingwood played much more like a real orchestra than used to be the Sadler's Wells habi*, and the choruses (very important) were splendidly sung. And not only were the principals—Olive Dyer (Snow-maiden), Herbert Tree (Poor peasant), Valetta Jacopi (Lehi), Vera Terry (Koupava), Ivor Evans (Misgir), Tom Culbert (Tzar)—good, but all the smaller parts were well filled. Snow-Maiden should not be missed by music
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