Live Opera - Only in Season.

Starved opera-goers and all music-lovers can expect a rare treat next month. Under the direction of Ross Harris and Adrian Kiernander on June 15th to 18th, the VUW Music Society will present Gluck's comic opera L'yvrogne Corrigne (The Reformed Drunkard or The Devil's Wedding).

Christoph Gluck (1714-1787), the father of German opera, was born in Bohemia and never wrote a German opera in his life. His first operas were written in the Italian style while he was studying in Milan.

When he visited London in 1746, Handel is reputed to have remarked that his own cook knew more of counterpoint than Gluck. Whether or not the story is true, the fact remains that unlike Handel, Gluck was not a master of the contrapuntal style but of the new operatic style - melody plus accompaniment.

The Reformed Drunkard is Gluck's fifth 'comic opera' and was first performed at Schoenbrunn - the summer palace of the Viennese Court - in 1 760. The French opera comique was then the vogue in Vienna and Gluck was quick to take advantage of this new style which featured more natural melodies, spoken dialogue and the use of chorus and ballet. Prior to this work, Gluck had written over twenty operas though his best known works Orfeo ed Euridice and Iphigenie en Aulide were still to come.

Musical director, Ross Harris has kept principle singers hard at work for several weeks already and as one who was lucky enough to sit-in on a rehearsal, I am confident that audiences will find Gluck's music quite delightful. A museum-piece it may well be, but a live performance of a charming eighteenth-century opera shouldn't be missed.

The Musical Lunch

Thursday lunchtime concerts have resumed for the second term. On 25th May we have a programme featuring works by Handel and Copland, and performed by Richard Giese (flute), Mike Rose (guitar) and Margaret Nielsen (piano). For anyone who missed his solo concert in Wellington on May 11th, here is an opportunity to hear Mike Rose, winner of the 1977 National Cup for Classical Guitar. See you there.

Sunday at Old St Pauls.

The Friends of Old St Pauls have organised a series of concerts to be held on the first Sunday of each month. On May 7th the Wellington Chamber Orchestra gave a concert which was marred only by the presence of a couple of restless children.

Conductor Bill Walden Mills kept tight control of the orchestra and inspired lively performances particularly in the Mozart Violin Concerto in D major. Soloist, Valerie Rigg, played with profession al assurance.

The other major work in the programme was Haydn's Symphony in E flat major - Drumroll - with Paul Barrett on timpani. Prokofief's March from the Love of Three Oranges gave the concert a bright and breezy finish. If this concert is anything to go by, future Sunday afternoons could be well worth a trip down to Thorndon. Admission is free.

Julia Millen