Peter Allen RIP

[underthecountertenor]

Peter Allen, the announcer for Met Opera broadcasts for 29 years, has died, aged 96. https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...cc0_story.html

This quotation from the excellent Washington Post piece will no doubt resonate with FoR3 forumistas, and Met Opera listeners in particular:

While recognizing his indebtedness to his predecessor, Mr. Allen said that he sought to distinguish himself from Cross, who retained the floridity of 1930s radio broadcasting long after the decade was out.
"No flamboyance, no phoniness, no deliberately putting a chuckle into my voice,” Mr. Allen told the New York Times in 1975. “If I can honestly convey a sense of the drama, in a way that’s intelligible and attractive, that should be enough.”

[hafod]

Sorry to 'hijack' this thread, but there is some good advice here from Mr Allen when he says:

"No flamboyance, no phoniness, no deliberately putting a chuckle into my voice,”

Certain R3 presenters may care to take note.

[Stanley Stewart]

Sorry to hear this news. Peter Allen always spoke with an individual resonant voice and reserved his gentle wit for many enjoyable interval quiz features. RIP

[underthecountertenor]

Sorry to 'hijack' this thread, but there is some good advice here from Mr Allen when he says:


Certain R3 presenters may care to take note.

No apology needed - I think I foreshadowed the relevance in my OP!

[underthecountertenor]

Sorry to hear this news. Peter Allen always spoke with an individual resonant voice and reserved his gentle wit for many enjoyable interval quiz features. RIP

A good age, though, unlike poor Margaret Juntwait, who died in office.

Did Peter Allen ever in fact host the quiz? I thought the hosts were entirely separate (including the confusingly named Edward Downes, the American musicologist, not the English conductor).

[underthecountertenor]

Well, this has gone rapidly off-piste!

[french frank]

I have belatedly joined the forum this morning afternoon courtesy of something called BT FON as my telephone and ergo broadband had ceased functioning. Complying with a complaint, I have removed an embedded sub-plot here.

I would just add that Peter Allen could have no better epitaph: ""No flamboyance, no phoniness, no deliberately putting a chuckle into my voice. If I can honestly convey a sense of the drama, in a way that’s intelligible and attractive, that should be enough.”

[underthecountertenor]

I have belatedly joined the forum this morning afternoon courtesy of something called BT FON as my telephone and ergo broadband had ceased functioning. Complying with a complaint, I have removed an embedded sub-plot here.

I would just add that Peter Allen could have no better epitaph: ""No flamboyance, no phoniness, no deliberately putting a chuckle into my voice. If I can honestly convey a sense of the drama, in a way that’s intelligible and attractive, that should be enough.”

Not my complaint, but, as the OP, thanks from me for tidying up the thread. And how right you are.

[jean]

Better tidy away your #6 then, which refers to the deleted sub-thread!

[vinteuil]

I always enjoyed Peter Allen's presentations at the Met

[vinteuil]

"No flamboyance, no phoniness, no deliberately putting a chuckle into my voice ... If I can honestly convey a sense of the drama, in a way that’s intelligible and attractive, that should be enough.”

... would that that were carved into stone on the inside walls of all Radio 3 studios!

[Sir Velo]

... would that that were carved into stone on the inside walls of all Radio 3 studios!

Oh no! She's not presenting again?

Edit: Apologies to those of a nervous disposition.

[underthecountertenor]

Oh no! She's not presenting again?

Could we try to stop heading down the same path which led to ff's intervention above?

[bluestateprommer]

Did Peter Allen ever in fact host the quiz? I thought the hosts were entirely separate (including the confusingly named Edward Downes, the American musicologist, not the English conductor).

I believe that you are correct, that PA never hosted the Met Opera Quiz. Since he was separately located from List Hall (the room where the Opera Quiz takes place at the Met), it wouldn't have been practical logistically for PA to do both regular hosting of the radio broadcasts and the Quiz. None of the tributes that I've seen mention PA ever hosting the quiz, although articles at the NYT and WQXR mentioned how PA had to fill in unexpected gap time:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/arts/music/peter-allen-a-voice-on-the-radio-for-the-met-opera-dies-at-96.htm

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/remembering-broadcaster-peter-allen/

[underthecountertenor]

I believe that you are correct, that PA never hosted the Met Opera Quiz. Since he was separately located from List Hall (the room where the Opera Quiz takes place at the Met), it wouldn't have been practical logistically for PA to do both regular hosting of the radio broadcasts and the Quiz. None of the tributes that I've seen mention PA ever hosting the quiz, although articles at the NYT and WQXR mentioned how PA had to fill in unexpected gap time:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/arts/music/peter-allen-a-voice-on-the-radio-for-the-met-opera-dies-at-96.htm

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/remembe...r-peter-allen/

Thank you in particular for the link to the lovely tribute by Mr Plotkin on the wqxr site. I'd love to have heard the Parsifal 'masterclass'.