Prom 64: Berlioz - Les Troyens, ORR / Monteverdi Choir, Sousa, Sun. 3 Sept. 2023

[Bryn]

Does it never occur to people that the conductor may not have waited for the agreed red light, and that I was left stranded? I didn’t glance up at the nanno second when Dinis started - not least because I believed all was well. And by the way, the team managed to fill all the other spaces without you being aware that all sorts of things were going on. Give me a break!

From a letter to the Guardian by Derek Parker, quoted by the composer John Paynter, and in turn, often thereafter by John Tilbury (e.g. here - http://www.users.waitrose.com/~chobb...ew.html#_edn21 :

"Having sat through most of Act 1 of a ballet at the Royal Opera House while two ladies next to me talked incessantly I risked a polite remonstrance. One of them replied, 'But it's only music.' Is there any reply to this?"

[Letter from Derek Parker, February 1980; quoted in John F. Paynter, Music in the Secondary School Curriculum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p.133.]

It happens. Perhaps I should have stuck a or at the end of my most recent previous post.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thank you Heldenleben, that's very kind and makes me feel better after a day starting at 5am for BF….and now with a cancelled train at Victoria.

Incredible - what a shift . What a pleasure to be in contact with you . I have to say that this has been one of the best Proms seasons I can remember and it has been marked by some superb presentation and wonderfully atmospheric sound balancing. Good luck with the trains.

[ARBurton]

To be fair he might not have been aware if he was reading a script and had his headphones turned down.

Well I admit I don`t know how they work in the presentation box but I`d have thought he could and should have been able to keep an eye on the conductor....

[french frank]

Well I admit I don`t know how they work in the presentation box but I`d have thought he could and should have been able to keep an eye on the conductor....

Now you are aware that you were wrong, perhaps you might offer an apology? Since Martin has himself unveiled his identity, I can certainly confirm it.

[I think the internet might very well cause the human species to eliminate itself before the planet becomes unliveable - just an idle thought while returning from gym this morning ]

[Ein Heldenleben]

Well I admit I don`t know how they work in the presentation box but I`d have thought he could and should have been able to keep an eye on the conductor....

Although like you I’ve never been a radio announcer I have produced and directed very many live TV progs. I can confirm that it’s sometimes very difficult to look at two things at once particularly if you are reading a script. That’s why you rely on others in the team to either act as your eyes and eyes and also to stick to the script and not jump their cues.

Martin is a consummate professional who yesterday appears to have put in a 17 hour day . The BBC is lucky to have him.

Last night was one of the great.nights of the Proms
and that’s what I will remember long after cue lights are forgotten

[Sir Velo]

That’s why you rely on others in the team to either act as your eyes and eyes and also to stick to the script and not jump their cues.

Martin is a consummate professional who yesterday appears to have put in a 17 hour day . The BBC is lucky to have him.

Last night was one of the great.nights of the Proms
and that’s what I will remember long after cue lights are forgotten

I presume the announcement can be edited out of any subsequent broadcasts?

[Ein Heldenleben]

I presume the announcement can be edited out of any subsequent broadcasts?

An interesting question. That would depend on whether a version upstream of the live mic announcements was recorded, That might happen these days because recording costs have come down so dramatically.. in TV it’s not uncommon to have several iso (isolated ) recordings of each camera so that you can “sort it out in the edit.”

All this has reminded me why I got out of live directing . You do 9,999 things right and all people go on about is the one thing that went wrong even when it’s not your fault (in caps)

Last night was a performance triumph please some one comment on that.

[Pulcinella]

I was travelling home yesterday so didn't listen (Classic FM wins when in a car!), but had read earlier that William Thomas had also withdrawn from the performance.
Was this the case?
If so, I hope it wasn't because of any adverse or additional publicity he feared.

[Bryn]

I presume the announcement can be edited out of any subsequent broadcasts?

I doubt that very much, though it might just be worth checking for any updates to the BBC Sounds version in a few days, Frankly, the overrun of the introduction to the 2nd Act was not that disruptive, indeed, I wondered whether Berlioz, familiar with the behaviour of audiences of his time, might have used the opening chords of the 2nd Act, before the melodic material got fully under way, to get the audience to shut up and listen. Also, it is by no means unknown for some conductors to launch into a performance before the applause welcoming them to the podium fully dies down.

[LHC]

An interesting question. That would depend on whether a version upstream of the live mic announcements was recorded, That might happen these days because recording costs have come down so dramatically.. in TV it’s not uncommon to have several iso (isolated ) recordings of each camera so that you can “sort it out in the edit.”

All this has reminded me why I got out of live directing . You do 9,999 things right and all people go on about is the one thing that went wrong even when it’s not your fault (in caps)

Last night was a performance triumph please some one comment on that.

I was in the Hall yesterday afternoon/evening and certainly agree that the performance was a triumph. Fantastic performances from the soloists, choir and orchestra and very well led by Dinis Sousa in what must have been difficult circumstances for him.

Although included in the programme cast list, William Thomas didn't appear. Alex Rosen, who covered for him as well as singing the other parts he was scheduled to perform was very good and you would never have guessed there had been a cast change. Alice Coote commanded the stage both physically and vocally as Cassandra in the first half.

The warmth of applause for all involved was very well deserved. One of the highlights of this season.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I was in the Hall yesterday afternoon/evening and certainly agree that the performance was a triumph. Fantastic performances from the soloists, choir and orchestra and very well led by Dinis Sousa in what must have been difficult circumstances for him.

Although included in the programme cast list, William Thomas didn't appear. Alex Rosen, who covered for him as well as singing the other parts he was scheduled to perform was very good and you would never have guessed there had been a cast change. Alice Coote commanded the stage both physically and vocally as Cassandra in the first half.

The warmth of applause for all involved was very well deserved. One of the highlights of this season.

I suspected you and possibly Simon B might be there. I would love to have been. It was exceptionally strongly cast vocally and I will definitely be listening again when I have five hours to spare. I started listening while watching the T20 cricket but soon got fed up with the usual cliched tale of unfolding tragedy , suicidal decision making and implausible theatrics and switched the cricket off.

[silvestrione]

I suspected you and possibly Simon B might be there. I would love to have been. It was exceptionally strongly cast vocally and I will definitely be listening again when I have five hours to spare. I started listening while watching the T20 cricket but soon got fed up with the usual cliched tale of unfolding tragedy , suicidal decision making and implausible theatrics and switched the cricket off.

[Nick Armstrong]

Well I admit I don`t know how they work in the presentation box

Your ignorance duly noted. I’m sure forumites will read your judgemental outburst upthread in that light…

[edashtav]

You mean like knocking a few of their teeth out?

A permanent solution. My time as an amateur trumpeter ended after a bicycle accident: I was carrying a clothes horse , it swung into my front wheel. From 10mph to zero in a moment. Inevitably,I shot over my handlebars and crashed on my jaw. My upper front teeth were scattered to the four winds. No teeth, no embouchure.

[RichardB]

A permanent solution. My time as an amateur trumpeter ended after a bicycle accident: I was carrying a clothes horse , it swung into my front wheel. From 10mph to zero in a moment. Inevitably,I shot over my handlebars and crashed on my jaw. My upper front teeth were scattered to the four winds. No teeth, no embouchure.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that, it must have been seriously traumatic. No more jokes about trumpeters' teeth from me.

I still haven't had a chance to listen to the broadcast though, and I still have to listen to Endgame too. In fact I also have a DVD of JEG conducting Les Troyens but I never got round to watching that either, it arrived on the scene too late, some time after I had spent a couple of years obsessing about Berlioz. Poor Hector isn't very popular in our house because of his lack of consideration for harpists - they have to sit around for ages doing nothing in the Symphonie fantastique, with their instruments gradually slipping out of tune, and then make a grand entry in unison... (there are only two parts but each is to be played by at least two instruments). Berlioz found an innovative use for the instrument after performing a work by Meyerbeer, as he says in his Memoirs: "I was in such a state after this scene that the concert had to be stopped for some time. They brought me some punch and a change of clothes. Then they formed a kind of little room on the platform itself, by putting together a dozen harps in their linen cases, and, by slightly stopping, I was able to undress and even change my shirt, in the very face of the public, without being seen." As you were.