Opera Scotland

Valkyrie 1931Covent Garden Opera

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This performance of The Valkyrie by the Covent Garden Opera contained several singers who had worked with Carl Rosa, but they were mostly unfamiliar.  Charles Webber had long experience of conducting Wagner in Germany before the Great War.

 

An Edinburgh Review

Scotsman:  Tuesday, 17 November 1931  (p8)

The Valkyrie - Covent Garden Opera Company - Mr Charles Webber

'Presenting a cast which was identical with that of the previous week's performance, save that Mr Parry Jones replaced Mr Francis Russell as Siegmund,  The Valkyrie at the King's Theatre last night was again a triumph in operatic production.  Singing, acting, orchestra, staging were all unexceptionally artistic.

'Mr Charles Webber was again the conductor, and the skill with which he guided the performance called for the highest praise.  From the opening of the Prelude to the gradual dying away of the ''Fire Music'' at the end of the opera, The Valkyrie is a torrent of gorgeous sound,  and a torrent swamping everything the music can easily become.  But last night the voice parts always stood out sufficiently from the richly-coloured back-ground, and perhaps the best proof of the unforced ease and freedom which Mr Webber secured for the singers was furnished by the clearness with which their words were heard.

'It used to be said that Wagner's music was trying to the voice, that it was not readily singable, and that in his treatment of the orchestra he showed no regard for his singers.  That Wagner showed no regard for anybody when he had a particular object in view is no doubt true, but in writing music for the stage he meant his singers to be heard, and it might be a matter of some difficulty to point out passages in the Wagner operas in which, given a conductor who knows his business, the singers are at a disadvantage.  Certainly there was no such feeling last night.  The orchestral music lacked nothing in fulness of expression and tone, but the voices were never obscured.

'The cast again called for great praise.  Mr Parry Jones sang magnificently as Siegmund, and the ''Spring Song'' was a glorious climax to the first act.  The Brünnhilde of Miss Monica Warner, the Sieglinde of Miss Odette de Foras, and the Fricka of Miss Enid Cruickshank were full of distinction, while the Wotan of Mr Horace Stevens and the Hunding of Mr Norman Allin had the true heroic note.'