I went somewhere timeless yesterday. The banks of the Rhine. We saw Valhalla go up in flames. We were always conscious of Neibelheim being not far away.
It was the third day; the trip began three years ago with a Prologue on period instruments. The first day, two years ago was rather memorable. For me, the best live performance I have ever attended - and I have no expectations of ever attending any better (by my estimations, listening to the many recollections of everybody who claimed to be there, there were actually 20,000 people in the Albert Hall that night). I skived Day 2 last year. To endure 'The Boring One'* in the South Kensington Tin Hut when external temperatures were hitting 35 was more than this soul can endure.
The day didn't start well when I realised it was already 1.15pm. I had woken at 10.30, then Jimmy brought me a cup of tea. I must have drifted off to sleep twice. I thought the Prom started at three. I was already resigning myself to having to wait until the interval. Which is a bloody stupid attitude to take considering that it is two hours until the first interval. There are whole operas over in that time. I checked the BBC website to find out when the intervals occurred and was delighted to find that kick off was actually 4pm. And, in the end, I arrived with plenty of time to spare. I had eaten brunch but not prepared a packed lunch. Which is silly. At Covent Garden or the Colly, there are numerous cheap cheerful and fast places nearby ideal for Wagnerian long intervals. Not so the SKTH.
A whole day passes. It really is an extraordinary experience. Entering in the remnants of the heat of the day, picnicking in the early evening, emerging into the darkness of night. Time ceases to have any meaning. Meeting up with friends, some by pre-arrangement, some by chance. Meeting 'online' friends for the first time (hello Dominic!). Seeing acquaintances in the distance. Audit clients from the past, former political adversaries, faces that are familiar just from coincidences of attendance. For those that know who I mean, a certain Russian Soap Dodger was seen in a brown suit, not the quotidian navy.
At quarter past five I checked the time and thought, oh my god, it's still 45 minutes to go until I get a fag and a pee. I checked the time ten minutes later and it was two minutes to six! In Act II, I was thinking, this is just the beginning, I'm sure there's a longueur coming, then the music began to build to a climax, and I realised an hour had passed in the blinking of an eye. And Act III was over all too quickly.
On the whole, my neighbours were extremely well behaved. After the first interval, a couple took the empty seats in the box adjoining mine. I thought for a while they would be anti-social: she was obviously a Blackberry Addict, but she put it away once the music got going. To my right were a young couple. He was one of those who appears to be about 18 at first glance although closer scrutiny suggested he might have been a bit older. They were sipping wine, and seemed to have the bottles lined up in their box. When Siegfried's Funeral March began, he leaned over the parapet his arm out-stretched, wanting to conduct the orchestra. I can sympathise - it is utterly glorious music. And then, at the end, before the conductor had even lowered his baton, he was on his feet. His subsequent manner of applause suggested that he was well gone. Not actually obnoxious, just a bit obvious. Later I was in the loos and realised I was able to eavesdrop on a phone conversation in the next cubicle. It was a young woman calling her Dad to say the concert was over and she would be home in due course. She went onto say 'He's taken me out for a meal and bought me bottles of champagne. It's very nice but it's a bit...I'm not really that sort of person, I don't want everything to be a big deal, I'd be happy with a bag of chips..." When I emerged from the Ladies, I was not surprised to see the young drunk would-be back-seat conductor waiting outside!
* it's not really boring. Any opera that contains the Forging Scene, the Woodbird and that incredible Love Duet can't be boring, but relative to the other three it is, in my personal opinion, the least satisfying
