‘I blame Princess Diana’, was my guest’s response to it all. Certainly, there is much we might lay at the feet of our long lamented People’s Princess, but I struggled to see how the current situation was her fault.
The situation in question was as follows: a sizeable group of offended opera goers sought, with an extended imitation of disgruntled livestock, to bring the third act of the Royal Opera’s new production of William Tell to its knees. And there they were again, booing and braying their way through the curtain call, making sure the production’s director Damiano Michieletto knew their unease was intended personally.
Certainly, something was to blame. Lady Di’s candidacy, my friend patiently explained, was down to the fact that it was she, or rather her demise, that wrested loose the Great British public’s collective stiff upper lip. The immediate cause was a scene in the production in which a group of soldiers forced an innocent woman to drink champagne before pouring the rest of it over her hair and dress, molesting her with a handgun and finally tearing off her clothes as a prelude to what appeared to be a hastily executed gang-rape.
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