I may be able to help Martin Kettle, who was worrying in Bayreuth (July 30) about the cultural desert of British politics. I write as one who played second cornet in the Hebden Bridge Brass Band and second violin in the Todmorden Orchestra, and supported my native Calder Valley’s choral tradition by attending an untold number of Sunday school anniversaries (otherwise known as “sings”) and the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah. Indeed, my brother and I pumped the bellows at Hope Baptist Church for nearly a year when a flood knocked out the electric motor. The Hallelujah Chorus in full throat is very taxing.
Against this background, I venture to suggest that reality is hidden from Martin Kettle in his Bavarian cultural eyrie. British politicians like tunes and are far too busy to hang around waiting for them to come along in the average opera. As I told opera buff Lord Moser, to his obvious discomfort, I love the melodic oases in the cacophonous deserts that are many operas.
In fact, I have sat patiently through two operas at Glyndebourne – Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – waiting in vain for a recognisable tune. The British like good tunes, not pretentious noise.
Bernard Ingham
Purley, Surrey
