Upon St Crispin’s Day, a show fit for future king with a deep love of arts
On Thursday, in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace, Britain’s artistic establishment celebrated the Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday with a Royal Gala Concert. I positioned myself on the red carpet to jot down who went in: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jonathan Dimbleby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jeremy Irons, who, seeing that I was writing, shouted: “Have you got a pen?”
As he scribbled a phone number on a scrap of paper, the actor asked what I was doing there. “To write about the Prince’s relationship with the arts,” I said. “Thank God he has a relationship with the arts,” replied Mr Irons, suggesting, I think, that without it, half the guests would be unemployed. I observed: “We’re lucky to have a monarchy who are so cultured. Imagine if Donald Trump was president of Britain.”
“Please!” exclaimed Mr Irons, “I want to sleep tonight.” After a few minutes, the Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall rounded the corner. “Do you know where we’re sitting?” the future king whispered, as if he were a visitor himself, a spell that broke when he entered the ballroom and the trumpets began.
The evening brought together some of the Prince’s oldest patronages, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, and was designed, according to David Whelton OBE, former managing director of the Philharmonia Orchestra, “to reflect the best and breadth of his interests”.
Sir Kenneth Branagh recited the opening prologue from Henry V (this happened to be St Crispin’s Day). Simon Russell Beale delivered a speech by Prospero from The Tempest. Dame Judi Dench, wearing a nightie, played a sleepy Titania to Joe Dixon’s Bottom, the latter replete with donkey’s ears and a Brummie accent.
The music was stunning, with a mix of Mendelssohn, Handel and, a particular favourite of the Prince, Wagner. Stuart Skelton and Emily Magee’s electric performance of the moment in Die Walküre when Sieglinde and Siegmund declare their love for each other transported us to a forest in Germany. Stephen Fry, wearing a green velvet dinner jacket, gave the vote of thanks, holding up a list of more than 70 artistic organisations supported by the Prince that was long enough to touch the floor. The name at the bottom was The Goon Show Preservation Society.
Charles’s patronage is partly about keeping old traditions going – he is, for instance, a devotee of the Welsh harp – and, historically, that’s always been a key role of royalty. Wagner’s work was supported by Ludwig II; Handel’s Water Music (we got to hear Suite No 2) was commissioned by George I.
Gregory Doran, artistic director of the RSC, said that Charles’s love for Shakespeare dates back to his childhood, with an early memory of “playing Macbeth at school and his father roaring with laughter in the front row as his son rolled about on a bearskin rug”. But also, Mr Doran noted, Shakespeare had deep resonance for any royal: the subject of so many plays are his predecessors.
“When the actors and performers know that he’s there, some of the lines get people looking at him to see his reaction and perspective.
“Whenever he comes to see something there is excitement [among the cast] because they feel they are giving something special,” said Sir Bryn Terfel, the Welsh tenor.
Crucially, he added, the Prince’s work is also about identifying new talent and encouraging fresh interest. Despite the lavishness of the event there’s an egalitarian edge to the work it celebrated. The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts began after a visit to a school in Birmingham, at which Charles met a class studying Romeo and Juliet but had never seen it. He arranged for them to visit a production at Stratford-upon-avon. Afterwards, some wrote to him to say it was the best thing ever to happen to them.
The gala ended with Sir Bryn as Verdi’s Falstaff, an appropriate choice. Falstaff was a servant to the crown and represented a merry old culture the Prince has done his best to preserve.
‘Whenever he comes to see something there is excitement [among the cast]’