Floored by opera

The Upper Slips are not a cricketing position but a celestial nook in the Royal Opera House further out (from the stage) than the orbit of Pluto. They have supplied cheap tickets for opera fans with good hearing and no great desire to study the facial features of the principal singers. But under the creative direction of Oliver Mears, the world will be turned upside-down. The stalls, which command fabulous sums, will be emptied of seats for some productions and given over to cheap promenade tickets. Some people will bring picnic blankets to sit upon (no doubt joined by Jeremy Corbyn complaining the Balcony is “rammed”). It’s a return to a scheme under Sir Colin Davis from 1971 to 1986. Whether it will bring in new operagoers, who can say? But it is good sometimes to tempt les enfants du paradis down to earth.