Sir, - I have just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable performance of Friedrich von Flotow's lighthearted opera Martha, in the company of seven friends and family at the Gaiety Theatre.
I'm an ordinary, middlebrow opera enthusiast with little musical knowledge or skill, so I wouldn't dream of taking on one of your critics in relation to the musical standard of singers, conductor or orchestra.
But I feel it only right to inform your readers, with respect to Michael Dervan's negative comment in his review of the opening night concerning the German language delivery, that the two German native-speaker lecturers, as well as the two Irish lecturers in German in our group, all felt that the singers (with the exception of the opening chorus) pronounced the words very accurately and articulated them clearly.
Seated in the parterre, three and four rows from the back, we found the libretto, unfamiliar to us all, very easy to understand. Credit where credit is due. - Yours, etc.,
Dr EITHNE O'CONNELL,
Senior Lecturer in Translation
Studies (German),
Centre for Translation and
Textual Studies,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.