THE message of peace was one people could not hear too often or ever afford to ignore, the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, told a near capacity audience at the Llewellyn Hall of the Canberra School of Music last night.
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| The Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Mr Zhang Zai, reads a peace message from the President of the Republic of China to the audience at a peace concert at the Canberra School of Music last night. On the left are the USSR Ambassador, Dr Eugene Samoteikin, and the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke. Picture: DARRYL GREGORY |
The occasion was the performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, a personal statement by Britten of his abhorrence of war using the poems of Wilfred Owen, a soldier and protest poet of World War I, who was killed a week before the Armistice.
Mr Hawke said the theme of peace went to the most important issue facing humankind. His theme was repeated by a number of dignitaries who read messages of peace from world leaders before the performance.
The president of the RSL, Sir William Keys, said War Requiem was probably the most significant musical work of the 20th century. It was a reflection about war, the devastation and futility of war that made an appeal for peace.
The Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Dr Eugene Samoteikin, read a message from the Head of State of the Soviet Government which said the greatest evil for all on the planet was the threat of war.
Other messages were read from the President of the United States, Mr Reagan, the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Li Peng, the British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, the President of the Commission of European Communities, President Delors, and from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr Perez de Cuellar.
War Requiem was a production of the Canberra School of Music and the school’s opera workshop with St Andrew’s Cathedral Boys’ Choir Sydney and the Chorale from the Canberra Boys' Choir.
Originally published in The Canberra Times, July 17, 1988
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