Well, he was not quite a baby, but only 12 years old when he
wrote his first opera, La Finta Semplice which is showing for a couple of
nights a the Queen Elizabeth Hall. I met David, ever ready with a spare ticket in the stalls,
at the South Bank last night on a beautiful sunny June evening.
My mentor and adoptive mother Princess Lulie* used to say that Mozart saved her life
many times. ‘Yes, but not this Mozart’ said David, who thought the opera was ‘totally
pointless’ and did not see any of his later genius in embryo in this comic and
absurd opera, so full of formulaic commonplaces and entirely predictable
music. However, he did think that it was
beautifully performed. I am of course no
Mozart buff and drank it all in thankfully. I remembered my Lulie’s words, as the
lovely singing started to soothe my jarred nerves. The Timbuktu situation of
which I cannot speak is unresolved and it is bringing me down. I will have to
travel to Timbuktu in a couple of weeks without any clarity – it will feel as
if I am going to set out into the Heart
of Darkness all alone... having to resolve a very difficult situation.
But there was Mozart, even just Baby Mozart, and I was becalmed. I walked over the bridge towards the Embankment in the soft night over the dazzling river
Thames in the company of others who were elated by the performance, and even on
the tube home total strangers struck up conversations; ‘you were at the QEH,
were you not? What did you think?’ And we all loved it. Sometimes it is better
not to be a music critic like David... here is his review:
https://theartsdesk.com/opera/la-finta-semplice-classical-opera-qeh-review-consummate-musicianship-stokes-early-mozart
*my obituary of Princess Lulie: (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lobituaries/princess-lulie-flamboyant-art-historian-and-friend-of-freya-stark-and-anthony-blunt-8434225.html)
I do take issue with the knowing 'sometimes it is better not to be a music critic...' (wink, wink, we know what they're like). Were you touched? Did it bring tears to your eyes? That's 'real' Mozart. Everyone's a critic, all the time. And most critics are really trying to express the view of an informed member of the audience. Anyway I gave it four stars for the performance.
ReplyDeleteDon't be upset please! If you are a critic it is your job to be critical after all- and you do a great job. But I can be allowed to be pleased with more ordinary things, like just being there and listening to music which I find lovely to my relatively untrained ear...xxS
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