As were all tigers once!

Many a true word spoken in jest...

That looks like a fierce pussycat to me, albeit still of student age.

Well, he was fine as the Wanderer.  Without giving too much away, you people with tickets for the cycles proper should be spared the technical hitch that stopped Friday's preview.  I thought the production was becoming too unconventional for words when the Wanderer's first lines were sung from offstage but it transpired that, as far as I can work out, JT simply couldn't get on stage ! Anyway, they went back and did it again - I presume that won't be necessary next time.

One thing that does need sorting out, imho, is the timing.  I think the intervals are too long anyway but given that 'Siegfried', for example, has 100 minutes of scheduled intervals they really ought to try and keep to the plan.  Friday's performance overran its 2245 estimated ending by a good 20 minutes.  The inevitable result of this is that some people will be literally unable to stay to the end and still get home and, indeed, people were drifting off from 2240 onwards. 

Well, last night tonight and that's me off to Germany first thing in the morning.  I won't go into my opinions about the production itself for fear of sppoiling it for those going to the future performances; all I'll say is I think you'll enjoy it.

He seems jinxed by this sort of thing!  The very first time I visited the "new, improved" ROH was for Gawain in January 2000, when the show was stopped for over half an hour while the stage lift was fixed so JT's Green Knight and his fake horse could get out of the basement...

Oh dear.  The longest delay I had at the ROH was when Haitink stopped in the middle of the Meistersinger overture because, iirc, he suddenly realised there was a major problem with the power.  Don't think it was as long as half an hour, though.  On the other hand, I was at a Goetterdaemmerung in Stuttgart where Hagen lost his voice in Act 1 and they couldn't start Act II until they'd helicoptered another Hagen in from Mannheim.  Such resourcefulness; but it was still getting on for 0100 before I got back to my B&B.

Must dash now.  Just thought I'd mention that after the success of Opera Cape on Rheingold day, I couldn't resist reinvesting a portion of my winnings on The Crooked Ring in the 1640 at Bath this afternoon!

If it was the same occasion that I remember (and I assume it doesn't happen all that often) the whole place went totally dark part way through the overture and the orchestra carried on playing for some time before finally giving up hope of the lights coming on again. I'm always impressed when that happens .