2020-02-29 New Zealand Listener

64 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

The Best of the Week

SUNDAY MARCH 1

Opera on Sunday (RNZ

Concert, 6.00pm). Well,

the Metropolitan Opera is

having an excellent season:

a splendid new produc-

tion of Porgy and Bess, said

the New York Times, which

rained praise on leads Eric

Owens (“one of the finest

performances of his distin-

guished career”) and Angel

Blue (“radiant, capturing

both the pride and fragility

of the character”). Not

only that, but “every singer

in the cast was outstand-

ing” and it was the finest

conducting of Porgy, by

David Robertson, that critic

Anthony Tommasini had

heard.

THURSDAY MARCH 5

Music Alive (RNZ Concert,

8.00pm). The spotlight falls on

the Auckland Philharmonia’s

principal flute and principal

harp in this live broadcast

from the Auckland Town Hall.

Melanie Lançon and Ingrid

Bauer will perform Mozart’s

Concerto for Flute and Harp, the

only work that the composer

wrote for the harp, possibly

because it was not considered

a standard orchestral instru-

ment at the time. The concert,

called Cityscapes, begins with

Jennifer Higdon’s tribute to

Atlanta, her home town,

City Scape: river sings a song

to trees, and ends with Ralph

Vaughan Williams’ portrait

of his adopted city, A London

Symphony.

by FIONA RAE

Send comments, queries or complaints about radio or tele vision

to: [email protected], or Talkback, NZ Listener, Private Bag

92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141.

ONLINE GAP

It is disappointing to see

quality programmes such

as Rebecka Martinsson: Arctic

Murders and The Disappear-

ance available only on TVNZ

OnDemand, which many

viewers do not have access

to, when free-to-air TV is

chock-full of reality pro-

grammes and repeats.

Chris Mowatt

(Tawa)

DIFFERENT STROKES

You can’t please all of the

people all of the time. Unlike

Karen McCarthy (Talkback,

February 8), I find Matinee

Idle on RNZ National to be

an inane, immature jumble.

Unlike Bill Halvey (Talkback,

February 8), I wouldn’t

watch Jack Irish on Choice

TV, because there is no way

Peter Temple’s superb crime

novels could be done justice

on television.

As Ray Calver pointed out

(Talkback, February 15), Kobe

Bryant was an international

superstar. To at least be aware

of such figures is surely a

part of a rounded general

know-ledge, whether or not

you are a sports fan. In the

words of Frank Bailey (Talk-

back, February 8), I can’t see

many Kiwis over 40 know-

ing a thing about motorcycle

speedway, so admired by

Halvey.

But fortunately for all of us

with widely varying tastes,

both television and radio

sets have an off button.

Alison Richards

(Tauranga)

VEGELICIOUS

Why has it taken this long

for someone to tell us to eat

veges because of their taste?

Is Jamie Oliver (Jamie’s Ulti-

mate Veg, TVNZ 1, Thursday,

7.30pm) really the only

person to think that promot-

ing vegetables as food that

tastes good is a good idea?

For decades we’ve been told

we should eat more vegeta-

bles because they’re good

for us, and if we don’t, we’ll

get horrible diseases. This

reminds us of our mums tell-

ing us to eat our veges or we

won’t get any pudding.

As a motivator, the stick

only works for a while;

it takes the carrot for the

change to stick. And I actu-

ally like carrots, especially

with a bit of hummus. Yum.

Jenny Hammond

(Ngaio, Wellington)

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

It’s said all publicity is good

publicity, so let’s hope the

recent management-created

fiasco over RNZ Concert has

at least led to more people

discovering the attractions

of that network. Some of the

music I enjoy and some of

it makes me turn down the

volume (songs from counter-

tenors, for instance).

However, one thing I

always appreciate is the

ability of the presenters to

create a calm, companion-

able oasis of sanity in what

can feel like an increasingly

demented world.

Martin Green

(Whangārei)

G
ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

Radio

Your comments on TV and radio

Talkback

PODCAST OF THE WEEK

Environmental sounds

Listening to podcasts

about the environment

may not be the same as

actually saving the envi-

ronment, but it’s a start,

and there are plenty to

choose from. In Think:

Sustainability, from Sydney community station

2SER, Julia Carr-Catzel covers everything from

plastic straws to climate refugees. Two recent

episodes looked at where eco-fascists, as two

recent mass killers styled themselves, get their

ideas. 2ser.com/thinksustainability.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Music

Alive, Thursday.

Julia Carr-Catzel