I never met Georg Solti. It would be tedious to list all the other famous people I have never met, so I won’t. I will tell you how I didn’t meet Sir Georg and that he insisted his first name be pronounced George.
Last March in a post titled Wiggers you may remember that the Wigmore Hall was called the Bechstein Hall until it was seized under the 1916, Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act. However, the Steinway Hall that opened in 1875 is flourishing and I went there this week for a lunchtime recital.
After yesterday’s post about Eton it’s Winchester’s turn. I was at a dinner at my club last week at which entertainment was provided by close-harmony sextet, Cantores Episcopi. Two of them are still at Winchester and the others have left recently; at least three of them are in the picture.
This year I became associated with Fulham Opera. We perform in St John’s Church near Fulham Broadway. Obviously I don’t perform and in fact have not yet made any contribution.
Bruce Springsteen was on Desert Island Discs yesterday. I knew very little about him so found the interview interesting. He spent a lot of time chuckling and being self-deprecating, both attractive traits. He also spoke about bouts of depression he has suffered.
This is the interior of Les Invalides chapel in Paris. Funny to call it a chapel when it is such a monumental edifice. Louis XIV started building Les Invalides in 1670 as a retirement home and hospital for his old soldiers.
The first time I came to Wexford was in 2005, the last season in the Theatre Royal before the new opera house was built. The Theatre Royal had been a cinema. It had a narrow auditorium with a balcony reached by a narrow staircase.