Which performance in history do you wish you'd been at?

[kernelbogey]

Wouldn't it be true to say that all these wishes (fantasies) of being present in the past would be dependent on being there with the hindsight of 2011? If we'd been naive contemporaries, we'd likely have been huffing and puffing with our peers...?

[amateur51]

Also I would have loved to see the looks on the faces of the audience at the 1936 concert featuring the premieres of RVW 5 Tudor Portraits and Brittens Our Hunting fathers.

Excellent stuff Rob

[Eudaimonia]

Since IGI already mentioned the Rite of Spring, I suppose I'd want to be there for the riot at the 1923 premiere of Varèse's Hyperprism...Oh, and one ticket for the Miraculous Mandarin premiere riot, please. Seat me as close to the composer as possible...haha! Wouldn't you give your eye teeth to see his reaction as events unfolded?

[DracoM]

First perf of The Ring.

[Tevot]

Mahler: The premieres of Das Lied von der Erde (October 1911) and the 9th Symphony (June 1912) and the proms perfomance of Cook's performing edition of the 10th Symphony (1964)

The premiere of Peter Grimes (1945) and how about Tippett's 2nd Symphony ;-) ?? Also I'm sure that premieres of John Cage's works must have engendered some interesting responses!

[Nick Armstrong]

....the proms perfomance of Cook's performing edition of the 10th Symphony (1964)

... is this the only one of the desired performances listed above that we can at least revisit on CD? (For example, was the Grimes première recorded?)

[Petrushka]

There are a fair number of myths associated with some first performances and I'd like to be sure that Beethoven really was turned round to face the audience at the premiere of the 9th; that the audience really did sit there 'like stuffed pigs' at the fp of Elgar 2; was there really a riot at Le Sacre; did the orchestra really break down and Boult blame himself at the fp of the Tippett 2nd and so on.

[Anna]

The Rite of Spring has already been mentioned but for me, Shostakovich Lady MacBeth (because I love it) in 1936 when Stalin walked out. Of course, if I had been there I wouldn't have been aware of the significance at the time

[Flosshilde]

The Ring for me too, & perhaps the Siegfried Idyll?

Monteverdi's Orfeo would be interesting, too.

all we need is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ2_shlaKNA

[Petrushka]

all we need is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ2_shlaKNA

Or the Tarnhelm.

[Flosshilde]

Or the Tarnhelm.

Could the Tarnhelm transport the wearer through time? Space, yes; change shape, yes; render the wearer invisible, yes (the last two would have been useful for the Idyll first performance); but I don't remember any mention of time. Bert, can you help us out?

[Richard Tarleton]

Berlioz Requiem - the composer snatching the baton from Haberneck, as the latter paused to take snuff just at the entry of the Tuba Mirum...(ch 46 of Memoirs).

[Petrushka]

Could the Tarnhelm transport the wearer through time? Space, yes; change shape, yes; render the wearer invisible, yes (the last two would have been useful for the Idyll first performance); but I don't remember any mention of time. Bert, can you help us out?

Good point, Flossie. Looks like I could be wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarnhelm

The Tardis it is then.

[bluestateprommer]

Have to add seconds (or thirds, or whatever) to wanting to have been at the premieres of Mahler 8, Le sacre du printemps, Beethoven 9 and that December 1808 "monster concert". But my extra contribution to this list that I've not seen from anyone else is the January 16, 1938 Carnegie Hall concert by Benny Goodman and his big band, with special guests Count Basie and others.

[Flosshilde]

Good point, Flossie. Looks like I could be wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarnhelm

The Tardis it is then.

Which has the benefit of being able to take us all. Unfortunately, it's a bit wayward in where it will take us, so we could be in for some surprises.