I’ve often wondered what it must be like to hear a great piece of music the first time it is performed. What must the crowds have been thinking the first time they heard Handel’s “Messiah”, or Mozart’s “Requiem”, or Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” or “Carmen”? (Well, actually, in the latter case, the critics were so bad that they drove Bizet to an early grave. Yet another reason I take them all with a pinch of salt.) Tonight, I got to be in one of those crowds. The Royal Opera House is putting on a brand new opera called “The Minotaur”. Tonight was its third showing, so I had to go along and see it. The critics have been positive, but the reviews talk in very technical terms about the music. I wouldn’t know an F flat if
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