Unless the native composer can see some definite reward for his labour, it is scarcely to be expected that he should devote his genius and energies to the composition of a work that may, perhaps, take the greatest part of his time for a year or more.
And yet no return, in the least degree equivalent to the labour expended, could be looked for as things are now.
If a committee of influential personages could be formed, and a scheme for the furtherance of English opera be inaugurated, with a work from the pen of Sir Edward Elgar, there is every reason to believe that an interest would be aroused in the country sufficient
to guarantee immediate success, and settle, once and for all, the question whether, given fair conditions, the English people were in the disposition to welcome, not only opera in England, but English opera in England. I think the response would be of a character that every one interested in English music would ardently wish for.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Not long before this greatest of Conductors retired, he directed a performance of "Der Ring" under these conditions.
[29] The date, February the 9th, 1912.
[30] This remark does not, of course, apply to such performances as those given by Dr. Richter or Mr. Thomas Beecham, which were purely temporary in their nature.