Subject:  Re: Proms at the Dome |
Author:
Simon
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Date Posted: 11:43:45 12/06/2002
In reply to:
Evelyn
's message, "Proms at the Dome" on 23:50:25 10/06/2002
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!
It's not April the 1st, what's going on?
Oh no! Please tell me this is a wind-up. Please tell me that this "information" was gleaned from the Sunday Sport, right below "Elvis Found Living on Cheese in Double Decker Bus on Moon". Please tell me that it's the deranged fantasy of some gushing new-graduate "creative" type at the Beeb who hasn't got the faintest idea what they're doing, nor the power to action it.
This has to be easily the worst idea I've ever heard about the Proms, ever, ever, ever. [And there have been a few crazy ones].
I've got some sympathy with the problem of getting tickets for the Proms (having just failed to get tickets for Rattle's Mahler 8) but that's entirely not the point. Moving to the Millenium Doomed, that anodyne symbol of late 20th century pointlessness, empty gesture and abject failure would be a disaster in notional terms never mind practical.
Even after conversion to some sort of concert hall, the dome would no doubt have all the atmosphere and architectural majesty of a bankrupt slaughterhouse. Even the Festival Hall would be better (and Rattle was bang on when he described that place as "The Worst Concert Hall in the Western World").
And surely the acoustics would be worse than the Albert Hall. The Albert Hall is as big a venue as you can ever get away with for serious orchestral concerts. In fact the RAH is really too big, hence the acoustic problems (though it's still better than any of the other London halls). You just can't have proper orchestral concerts in venues holding 10s of thousands. An orchestra simply doesn't make enough noise. Amplification is fine for clone "proms" concerts of the obligatory "1812 Overture with fireworks" variety, but a hopeless disaster for anything more serious.
The Doomed is, and will forever be (until it's operation lifetime ends in the relatively near future), a big white tent which is wholly unsuitable for the World's greatest classical music festival. The location is irrelevant to me, it could be Greenwich, Kensinton or Epping Forest for all I care since I make a several 100 mile round trip each time I attend a Prom. But the idea of moving from the magnificent if idiosyncratic Albert Hall to a big vacuous tent which stands as a testament to the empty folly of recent times makes me shudder. Yeuch.
In any case, where would the Proms move to when the Doomed has to come down within a relatively few years? Birmingham's NEC? The new Wembley stadium (if it ever gets built)? A marquee in Utoxeter? The mind boggles.
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