I cannot remember a jollier lunch. There are two brothers, Sebastian and Nicholas Payne, both practical epicureans. They have made a profession out of their pleasures. For many years, Sebastian was the chief buyer for the Wine Society. As he has a superb palate and is relentless in the search for good value, he is entitled to undying gratitude from tens of thousands of British wine drinkers. Nicholas has spent his career running opera companies. Sebastian knows a lot about opera, Nicholas about wine: the brothers share a cellar.
We had assembled to taste some 2001 clarets, which required concentration, and rewarded it. But there was also time for opera talk. Nicholas’s vocation must require diplomatic skills. He remained impassive while I denounced Graham Vick, who regularly performed a feat one would have thought impossible: making Mozart ugly. It might have been thought that directing Mozart was easy. You merely have to achieve a harmony between the farcical and the sublime, which is already there in the libretto and the score. Mr Vick had other ideas.
Moving on from Mozart, the luncheon party also expressed nostalgia for old-fashioned Wagner. In the Ring, the characters should be in Dark Ages costume. Yet there is a problem, which explains the silly modern productions. After the more recent German dark age, there is some neuralgia about Wagner. But Wagner cannot be blamed for Hitler. As Hitler has already inflicted enough damage upon civilisation, we should not allow further cultural vandalism in the name of bad history. It is time to rescue Wagner from the Third Reich’s shadow.
Such a rescue may be at hand. Although Roger Scruton might seem an unlikely Siegfried, he is about to slay a few dragons; his book on the Ring is almost finished.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in