MUSIC
THE first performance of Rosenkavalier in the autumn season at Covent Garden, with a new and almost entirely British cast, provided a good specimen example of the company's present strength and weakness. There was a new Marschallin (Sylvia Fisher), Octavian (Constance Shacklock) and Ochs (Howell Glynne), and the only foreign guest was the Sophie (Erna Berger). Rosenkavalier depends more than any other opera on traditional, one might almost say aristocratic, qualities in the singers—complete ease and grace of manner, unfaltering mastery of fine shades of voice and gesture. This makes it very difficult for a young company, few of whose singers have great experience.
Neither Sylvia Fisher nor Howell Glynne ever suggcsed this ripe, autumnal quality. Sylvia Fisher sang well, and her voice has real distinction even when its dramatic expression is weak and uncon- vincing. Howell Glynne, following the tradition of Sadler's Wells, where he has done such excellent work, translated the untranslatable Ochs into a sort of Squire Western gone to the bad. The part needs a more flexible voice and delivery and a more confident manner, both in singing and acting ; but with time he may develop a new and personal interpretation of a markedly English kind—which, after all, is what Covent Garden aims at. Most successful of the three was Constance Shacklock, whose ardent and boyish Octavian carried real conviction. Erna Berger made a most unromantic Sophie. Her voice was only telling in the top register. By the singers, then, the attempt was gallant, really successful on occasions, and often promising for the future. Much less can be said for the orchestra under Dr. Rank!. From the very opening onwards the playing was coarse, expressionless and bumpy, as though Strauss's spate were quite out of control. This often ex- ceedingly vigorous music needs no artificial whipping-up ; its expressive qualities are there for the playing, not hidden ; and, with English voices at least, Strauss's orchestra needs discreet handling rather than exaggeration if the singing is to be heard. It was difficult to believe that this was the same orchestra that, under Desormiere, gave such a sensitive and distinguished performance of Meas.
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Janine Micheau, who gave her first English recital at the Wigmore Hall on October 26th, is a well-known soprano in France, and, like so many French singers, showed at her best in the music of her own country. The Mozart with which she started was disastrous, and the Rossini hardly better ; but she sang Debussy with style and feeling, and, though she chose two inferior songs, her Faure was elegant. The voice itself is powerful and bright in colour, very easily
becoming shrill if pressed beyond mezzoforte. MARTIN COOPER.
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