Wagner Night was a Proms tradition that was revived on Monday. Marc Albrecht conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He seemed an appropriate choice: Albrecht/Alberich.
Marc Albrecht is no greedy dwarf. He conducted with lanky elegance and steely concentration. I’m thinking of hiring him to train Bertie. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We dined before the Prom at the Polish Club and once we were settled in, a table of eight started filling up beside us. One of the first to arrive was royalty and I would have liked to rearrange my table so my guests could get a good eyeful but thought it would have been unsettling for royalty if we played musical chairs. It’s not all its cracked up to be being royal. The party left, to go to the Prom, long before us – all those stairs up to the royal box, where the sight-lines are good, if you have binoculars, and the acoustics less so.
After the interval there was an hour of the really good bits from Götterdämmerung – bliss. Our Brünnhilde was Christine Goerke; Siegfried, Stephen Gould; both Wagnerians with lungs to fill the Albert Hall – well, maybe not as far as the royal box. If you are going to be in New York in October/November I recommend snagging a ticket to the Lincoln Center to hear them teaming up again – Gould will be Tristan. I only went to three Proms this season; not enough.
Did I mention Bertie? As I write he is being interviewed by Doggie Day Care. I put on a new leather collar and sent Robert off with him. That came out wrong – I’m not wearing the new leather collar. Bertie has been turned down by the local dog walker so I hope he gets a place. His potential Head Mistress is called Amber and as Amber Rudd is a neighbour (West Kensington) I thought she’d found herself a new job.