So glad you dug it. Funnily enough I made the same mistake. First two parts were fine but I had not realised that they had inserted the entirety of the violin concerto into the opera and thus in effect extended it by a full hour. Having been up since 4am to get the 9am flight over I was in no fit state for a four hour show and nodded off. Hannigan was amazing, orchestra was amazing. I was less excited by the staging but very well worth the trip.
It is an interesting time for new music. Went to see Alison Balsom at a packed RAH yesterday afternoon. Numbers alone would suggest that this was an audience more attuned to Classic FM than the avant garde, but to her credit, alongside the Vivaldi, Handel, the Piaf, the show tunes and the hard bop stuff, Balsom played music by three modern composers (all of it fairly challenging) including a piece by Gabriel Prokoviev that sounded like Miles Davis accompanying Burial. Or a grittier version of Jon Hassell's "Power Spot". All things considered these pieces went down brilliantly. Just goes to show that you can turn people on to unfamilar stuff if you give them half a chance. And you don't have to lure them to Dalston to do it!
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