Town Mouse

A musical week

IALMOST managed to ruin a birthday present this week by inadvertently double-booking myself on the same evening as a surprise ticket for Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. The happy compromise was that I left my first appointment early and joined the family after the first interval. It felt very luxurious arriving late at the ballet. I gathered drinks and nibbles in the empty foyer, secured a table on the terrace and waited for the family to turn up. The auditorium itself was thronged and the audience enthusiastic. It was impossible to believe that, only a few months ago, we would have been wearing masks and social distancing.

There has been a strong musical theme to the past few days. One of the children has also been preparing for a school concert with a performance of Handel’s Coronation Anthem, Zadok the Priest. Consequently, we have been living with informal rehearsals—including over breakfast and from the bathroom—for some time. It has been rather irritating. The performance itself, however, was magnificent and inspired a singalong encore on our return home. The child who performed joined in, but the other—understandably, in this case—retired to their bedroom overcome by the excruciating embarrassment of it all.