It is enjoyable to invite friends to something. The criteria are: it should be something they could reasonably be expected to enjoy, it should be something they might not do themselves, it should be something I can afford to pay for.
Accordingly, as I don’t have a beat on a salmon river, a pheasant shoot, grouse moor or even a snipe bog, a box at Cheltenham or Ascot, a second home somewhere sunny or a desire to cook for dinner parties, I buy tickets for the Royal Opera House, LAMDA, the RCM, the Proms and Opera Holland Park. Let’s concentrate today on RoHo as it’s known, apparently.
”It should be something I can afford to pay for.” Ay, there’s the rub! I do cheerfully buy tickets to go to Covent Garden, only for me + 1 and for a weekday matinee. There are two drawbacks: ROH tickets are expensive and there are seldom matinees – at least this winter. I was lucky with the ballet double bill I saw recently but the operas coming up have around five performances – all in the evening.
I am, of course, fortunate to be able to splash out on two tickets to Covent Garden but the purpose of this website is not to drive you into a greenness of envy that would make a healthy gherkin look albino. I lay out the problem and – hey presto – deliver the solution. The answer is: ‘Recitals at Lunch’. These typically last 45 minutes but build in a bit longer for an encore. Yesterday I heard American countertenor, Patrick Terry, sing Songs for Ariel, music by Michael Tippett. He continued with lieder by Franz Schubert and finished with Chansons grises; words by Paul Verlaine, set to music by Reynaldo Hahn.
To put it briefly, kick off is at 1.00 pm, tickets cost £12 and you are are out in Covent Garden by 2.00 in time for a late lunch. A top Cheap Lane recommendation.
Some of my best recent musical experiences have been had at lunchtime concerts. The National Concert Hall, Dublin has an excellent series, and one can usually find some admirable vocalists/instrumentalists at one of many city centre Churches. Forty-five minutes of exquisite music, performed to a nanoscopic audience, which leaves the listener wanting more, is by far preferable to a bum-numbing three hour programme.
Yesterday the author noted that he didn’t get out much, and I was rather concerned he had transformed into a London hermit. Today I can assume such comments are merely more tainted mockery. You are such a razz Christopher.