Music
More than a yard of tickets to the Proms!
Royal Opera’s production of Gounod’s “Faust” should come with a warning: it beguiles you, opens you up and then packs a series of precision punches in the last act, just like Méphistophélés in the story. The programme warns just about the single gun shot near the end of Act II.
Charles-François Gounod’s “Faust” is one of the grand operas. it’s also the opera of the Faust story that is most often performed. It’s grand in the sense of long, grand in scope because it deals with the big and universal themes of life and death, love and betrayal, and grand because the cast is the soloists, chorus, extra chorus, actors, acrobatic dancers and ballet dancers. It’s not a cheap ticket either but it’s worth it, certainly this Royal Opera production from 2004 is worth it.
Quite a change from the Albert Hall last night: I went to St Andrews church, Greystoke, near Penrith, Cumbria, for the last night concert of the Greystoke Music Festival.
Glorious string sound from the Pittsburgh Orchestra in the big tunes of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 was a pleasant surprise after the interval in tonight's Prom. This followed the Pittsburgh Orchestra's rather stiff accompaniment to Hélène Grimaud’s mawkishly tragic interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 which echoed her renowned performance at the Prom of 11th September 2001, when the Proms played on, as in World War II,
Read more: Prom 68: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Hélène Grimaud
Here are some views of The Proms that you don't see on the BBC.
The gradual convergence of the audience as you walk from South Kensington or High Street Kensington tube stations.
The typically British picnicing on the steps of the Albert Memorial.
And of course the queue to Prom in the arena.
A dance with the devil, a romantic escapade and a death dance, followed by a titanesque performance of Mahler’s First Symphony that filled the Albert Hall: this evening’s Prom from the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, was a Proms treat.
