Proms

[liadnan]

I suddenly realised last night that I still hadn't bothered to go down to the Royal Albert Hall and buy a Proms season ticket, which was cutting it just a tad fine as the First Night (bits of Mozart operas, Smetana, Ma Vlast; Dvorak Te Deum and Shostakovitch 5) is tonight. Cue, once this morning's slightly confused injunction application was dealt with, a slightly rushed journey to South Ken at lunchtime and the collection of a rather dodgy looking temporary pass while they make up the real one. I doubt I shall break even this year: I never have before and the break-even point works out at 34 concerts (out of 72), which is pretty hard going though fewer than it used to be. Still, the guaranteed entry up to ten minutes before the start makes it worth it these days, otherwise I'd rarely manage the really popular concerts. They said there's a full house in the seats tonight: memo to self, change to shorts and t-shirt before going down there as it'll turn into a sauna.

Apropos of something completely different, I was, rather randomly and for want of anything better, reading West End Extra (central London's free local rag), specifically the official notices (insolvencies, winding up applications and the like, (intriguingly placed on the opposite page to the classified "adult services", an unrivalled page in a newspaper whose central distribution zone is Soho, of course), and discovered that both the Bafta main offices in Piccadilly and the ICA have applied for wedding licences, in both cases specifically including the cinemas. I can't really see the fun in being married in a cinema, even an artsy one, but I suppose it takes all sorts.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Do you actually prom, or is your season ticket for another part of the auditorium?

Promming struck me as being really uncomfortable; it was hot, crowded, and there was always someone in the way.

[liadnan]

Arena yes, and have done since about 1989, though it's only in the last few years I've had a season ticket rather than going for a few odd day passes. The only other season tickets (outside owning a box) are gallery, which is acoustically awful. I'd rather be in the arena than anywhere else in the hall: if anything it's less hot and stuffy, the sightlines are better than all but a small sector of the seats and boxes, and it's the best place for the Albert Hall's notoriously difficult acoustics.