The Radio Review
IF the "operatic experiment" which Mr. Gordon McConnel is now conducting continues -along lines as imaginative and thorough as it is at present, studio opera will scon be one of the most enjoyable features in the broadcast music programmes. It is not often I find I want to listen twice to the same pro- gramme ; but I could not resist tuning in to the second performance of Mozart's two miniature operas, Bastien and Bastienne and The Impresario. It is astonishing that Bastien should have been written when the composer was only twelve' it is already individual and contains at least one immortal air. It's naiveté was well contrasted with the maturity of The Impresario, which is really an essay in colora- tura. The difficulty of finding singers who could do justice both to the score and to the acting of The Impresario was overcome by providing " ghosts " for the two rival sopranos. Mr. John Coates, as the impresario himself, was able to exploit to the full those mimic powers for which he is famous.
Previous page
