No 42 -- Summer 1994 Edited by Michael Walters
Some months ago, I received from John Roebuck, a pile of opera libretti issued by the BBC in the 1920s as accompaniments to broadcasts of these operas. The list, is, of course, in no way complete, but it seems to me to be of interest in indicating at least some of the operas which were being broadcast in those days. The casts are not given, as presumably the libretto would have to be printed long before the final casting was decided. Alas, there is no chance that transcripts of any of them survive, as they would certainly have been broadcast live. In each case dates are indicated day/month/year, in the English style.
Rigoletto (no date), The Bohemian Girl (no date), Faust 15/10/26, Barber of Seville 10/12/26, Martha 28/1/27, The Red Pen (A.P. Herbert & Geoffrey Toye) 7/2/27 [Any reader know anything about this opera?], Orpheus (Gluck) 25/2/27, Fidelio 22/3/27, Romeo & Juliet (Gounod) 29/4/27, Magic Flute 26/5/27, Philemon & Baucis (Gounod) 17/6/27, Les Cloches de Cornville (Planquette) 15/7/27, Maritana 24 & 26/9/28, Samson & Delilah 26 & 28/11/28, The Blue Forest (Aubert [not Auber]) 17 & 19/12/28, Le Coq d'Or 28 & 30/1/29, Lakm 25 & 27/2/29, Ivanhoe 25 & 27/2/29, Flying Dutchman 22 & 24/4/29, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame 27 & 29/5/29, The Swallow 24 & 26/6/29, Le Roi l'a Dit 29 & 31/7/29 [an adaptation of Richard Temple's translation], Werther 28 & 30/8/29, Thas (Saint-Saens) 23 & 25/9/29, Aida - originally scheduled for 25 & 27/11/29, but apparently brought forward to 28 & 30/10/29 [alteration made on front cover, possibly merely a printer's error?], Louise (Charpentier) 25 & 27/11/29, Knigskinder (Humperdinck) 16 & 18/12/29, La Boheme 27 & 29/1/30, Le Roi d'Ys (Lalo) 24 & 26/2/30, The Bartered Bride 24 & 26/3/30, Cavalleria Rusticana and Gianni Schicchi 28 & 30/4/30, La Basoche 26 & 28/5/30, Shamus O'Brien 23 & 25/6/30, Madame Butterfly 16 & 17/10/30.
Web page created 31 July 1998