Secret pleasures

Should a secret pleasure ever be shared? Spoiler alert: Susanna’s secret, unknown to her husband Gil, is that she smokes. And when, in his opera Il segreto di Susanna, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari finally gets her alone with her longed-for cigarette, he makes it feel like nothing in heaven or earth could top the sensuous bliss of that first solitary drag. Clarinet and flute coil languidly upwards, the air hazes over with muted strings, and the celeste adds the little spasms of tingling pleasure that Wolf-Ferrari’s contemporary Richard Strauss saves for love at first sight. Salome has nothing on this. By rights, Il segreto di Susanna ought to carry a government health warning.

Anyway, here’s Opera Holland Park, hanging around in a West London playground and just handing out this addictive stuff like it’s the most harmless thing in the world. If I sound aggrieved, it’s because Il segreto di Susanna used to be my own private operatic vice.