DÉJÀ VU History just keeps on repeating itself…

King’s College, Cambridge (left), has received permission to install 492 solar panels on the roof of its famous chapel. Able to supply around 105,000 kwh of energy a year and so cut annual carbon emissions by more than 27 tonnes, the panels will supply all of the chapel’s energy, making it the latest in a growing number of buildings where the performance of music comes with minimal cost to the environment… King’s follows the lead of Chester and Gloucester cathedrals – both home to excellent choirs – which have installed 200 and 150 solar panels on their respective roofs. The Church of England in general aims to become net zero by 2030, as does the recently refurbished Bristol Beacon concert hall, whose early moves in that direction include replacing its diesel van with an electric one. Since 2013, there have been 558 solar panels on the roof of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, US, and they are also central to the design of the new Ostrava Concert Hall in the Czech Republic, which is being constructed from recyclable materials such as zinc and maple. At Glyndebourne, meanwhile, a 67m wind turbine has been helping the opera venue to reduce its carbon footprint by more than 50 per cent since 2012. And talking of opera, in 2018 Gothenburg Opera, which also has solar panels on its roof, announced a production of Wagner’s Ring that aimed to be as sustainable as possible, from costume designs to interval snacks – appropriate for an opera cycle that, ending in rising waters and flaming skies, hints at its own environmental message.