Why do you think it's the older ones who may not have the facility to record? I do wonder how many will watch the whole thing "live", though. I've got a concert that evening which means I have to go to the pub afterwards, so I might miss the opening, which is one of my favourite bits. I haven't seen any of this production before so it's always interesting to see what they do for the dragon.

No need to apologize, ulrica! You're probably right in general and I'm still on the younger side of 50.

I shall watch as much of it as I can although I shall probably fall asleep before the end after unwinding after that concert in the pub.

The programme on the radio about the original Mastersingers is fascinating. It's the sort of thing that Radio 3 does so well, unlike their message boards. But I've got to go for a rehearsal in ten minutes.

A tricky problem, Ron. I remember the Masur/ Shostakovich 7 getting a lot of criticism for a pretty lacklustre performance, but the Henze was interesting. I think I shall record the Wagner!

Not to mention 'Meistersinger'* on Radio 3 clashing with Acts 1 & 2.  Lucky for me I've got recording facilities but I agree with what seems to be the consensus: there's little enough music on the BBC without having to overcome conflicts like these.  Joined-up scheduling anyone?

* extremely premature applause at the end of Act 1 at the Met. They must have started 10 seconds before the music finished.

Probably a case of very slow tabs at the bottom of the two acts in question, rm: it's an age old problem.

Sometimes the action demands a quickly dropped curtain, but often such an instant guillotine cut-off will be totally inappropriate. Things are therefore arranged so that there'll be a long slow drop to the deck, timed so that cloth meets floor on the final beat of the act/scene. Unfortunately this means that the start of the descent will have to be some several seconds before, and for a reason I've never understood (perhaps even sheer relief on the part of some of the audience) it's the start of the drop which occasions applause, rather than the actual point at which the stage finally disappears from view...

GI/Mark,
I managed to record everything last night, though the whole of the day has been spent editing: the Henze is striking, but the big surprise for me (apart from the shock at Masur's frailty) was how different the Shostakovich sounded from the live radio feed we all found so disagreeable at the time, and how much more involving the performance, judging from the first movement at least.

just to rub things in, Götterdämmerung is on at the same time (21:30-02:30) next saturday.  why they've switched it to the late night slot is a total mystery - they broadcast Rheingold and Walküre in the afternoon. Of course they then had to stuff in a war film after Walküre act 1, but still it was in a much more humane timeslot.
 

Very taken with it, Tony, which slightly surprised me; but even more surprising is that I've found a second Ring opera on TV now: Rheingold's on the Performance Channel as we speak - looks as if it might be the start of another cycle - German by the looks of it; very different in interpretation - look out for more to come, catch it now if you can...