Andrew Clements praises the newly released recording of the opening night of Otto Klemperer’s Die Zauberflöte from the Royal Opera House in 1964 as “a snapshot of what a company performance at Covent Garden could be in the 1960s” (Reviews, G2, 24 April). For someone whose first visit this was to an opera house, it was an extraordinary occasion, still distantly recalled every time I see the opera – and now miraculously available in audio time-travel.
I was on a first visit to London as a student from Belfast, and passing through Covent Garden saw a queue, which I joined. I discovered it was for standing tickets for this prestigious opening night. When I returned in the evening, wearing my tweedy sports jacket, I was surrounded by first-nighters in evening dress. I remember it as a very long performance, with Klemperer on a stool and Joan Sutherland vociferously encored for her Queen of the Night arias. And when I returned late to my youth hostel in Holland Park, still elated by the evening’s unreal experience, I had to knock loudly to be let in.
Professor Ian Christie
Birkbeck, University of London
