72 LISTENER NOVEMBER 5 2016
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6
Opera on Sunday (RNZ Concert,
6.00pm). The San Francisco
Opera Season concludes with
another archive performance,
Bellini’s Norma from 1982,
starring Joan Sutherland. She
became known for tackling
the taxing lead role – after
her debut as Norma in 1964,
Luciano Pavarotti called her
“the greatest female voice of
all time”.THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10
Settling the Score (RNZ
Concert, 6.00am).
Now that nasty
US presiden-
tial election
is over, time
for a vote that
won’t destroy
the free world
as we know it.
The annual classical
listeners’ poll is counted down
all day today, culminating inby 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.Your chance to comment
on TV and radio
Talkback
GUEST, INTERRUPTED
Why so much fuss over RNZ
National’s Morning Report
presenters? All they’re doing,
and doing well, is observing
the maxim “Please do not
talk while I’m interrupting”,
something that most of us
would find difficult to do.
Garry Whincop
(Napier)LAUNDRY LIST
I feel sad that TV reviewer
Greg Dixon is unable to
appreciate the core qualities
of new local drama series
Dirty Laundry (TV Review,
October 1), namely the relat-
ability and moral dilemmas
that engage our empathy.
Such dramas are not just
commodities to be con-
sumed, or spat back out and
spat on, as he does. They
reflect the concerns and
“what if?” quandaries we
may confront, fear or fanta-
sise about in our real lives.
Anything that gets us asking
“What would I do?” is surely
good value as entertainment
that interrogates the world
we live in and our place in it.
The premiere script,
compellingly authentic
performances, recognisable
design elements and unob-
trusive directing combine
seamlessly to provoke our
empathy, and empathy
is arguably crucial to the
survival of humanity. That’s
why drama, be it on screen or
live, is essential to us.
John Smythe
(Mt Victoria, Wellington)GREAT STUFF
I’ve been watching (recorded)
The Hard Stuff with Nigel
Latta. Thank heavens for
excellent in-depth journal-
ism. More, please.
RB Manger
(Church Bay)MISSED IT
Congratulations to the fellow
who does the NewstalkZB
weather forecast on weekend
mornings; he’s clearly won
the speed-babble contest
from Mike Hosking. His
one-breath burst of verbiage
is so fast that a listening brain
can’t convert sound into
comprehensible words before
his performance is over.
Announcers such as the
traffic informant seem not to
have learnt that the purpose
of language is communica-
tion. It’s not a race to cram as
many words as possible into
a brief spot between the ads.
Don Boswell
(Eastbourne)TAKE A SEAT
Both radio commentators
and TV news presenters
keep saying that All Blacks
halfback Aaron Smith had
sex in a disabled toilet. But
the toilet was not disabled, it
was still usable; it was a toilet
limited to disabled people.
Readers will spot the differ-
ence. Still, slip-ups happen to
the best of us, and it adds a
bit of humour to what can go
on in the “water closet”.
Brian Collins
(Aro Valley, Wellington)GETTY IMAGES
Radio
RNZ Concert’s
Folk inspirationMusic Alive
Saturday, 7.00pmSettling the Score Live!, direct
from the Auckland Town
Hall, at 8.00pm. Some of the
top works as well as the final
five will be performed by the
Auckland Philharmonia in this
concert.FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11
Music Alive (RNZ Concert,
8.00pm). Remembrance Day
is marked by Somme Parade at
7.00pm, in which Roger Smith
talks with Kate Kennedy about
composers and poets who
were sent to the Somme,
and by Music Alive,
which features
a concert from
the Dunedin
Arts Festival.
Anna Leese,
Martin Snell,
the City Choir
Dunedin and
Southern Youth Choir,
and the Dunedin Symphony
Orchestra perform Anthony
Ritchie’s new oratorio, Gallipoli
to the Somme, which takes its
title from a memoir by
Alexander Aitken, a New
Zealand mathematician
who took his violin
to the battlefield.
The programme also
includes Le Tombeau
de Couperin, Ravel’s
piano suite dedicated
to the memory of
friends who died in WWI,
and Elegy for Strings: In
Memoriam Rupert
Brooke, by Austral-
ian composer
FS Kelly, who
fought at Gal-
lipoli and died
at the Somme.Joan Sutherland,
Opera on Sunday.