My last night of 'The Last Night'.......

What a travesty!

 

The ‘Last Night of the Proms’ is an English (not British) tribal rite. As such, it must follow the rituals established by years of tradition.

 

It all happens in the second half with patriotic music, such as ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, ‘Sea Songs, ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘Jerusalem’; silly hats, poppers, squeakers and motor horns. The conductor makes a speech poking gentle fun at the promenaders. The bust of the founder of the Proms, Sir Henry Wood, is solemnly adorned with a laurel wreath. A daft, jolly and sentimental time is had by all.

 

Or at least that’s the way it was. Not anymore.

 

The ‘Last Night’ has not been the same since the incomparable Andrew Davies deserted us for Chicago. From memory he was the last English conductor for this most English of occasions. Since then, there has been a rag-bag of foreigners with scant appreciation of the spirit or significance of the performance, including the hapless and hopeless American, Leonard Slapkin. It is said that he dropped ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ as being ‘too nationalistic’. Where did he think he was?

 

And so to last night’s ‘Last Night’.

 

Another foreign conductor, an American woman.

 

We had the diamond geezer Nigel Kennedy dressed in a scruffy-looking sweat shirt looking as though he had just come out of the pub. His grotty, greasy hair-do and  3-day stubble make me want to scratch.

 

Then we had an American soprano, previously unbeknownst, to give a vapid rendering of ‘Rule Britannia’. Shades of Bryn Terfel, dressed in Welsh rugby strip, kicking a ball into the audience and then belting out the song as if he really meant it. Or the majestic Anne Evans dressed as Britannia and towering over the company like an old-style Headmistress.

 

Last night ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ might have been sung but I don’t recall it. There was no wreath ceremony for Sir Henry Wood, just a quick shot of him already garlanded.

 

To add insult to injury, ‘Sea Songs’,  Sir Henry’s own composition was once more left out.

 

The conductor’s speech, from what  little I remember of something so instantly forgettable, was some feminist drivel about ‘Why has it taken so many years to have a woman conductor?’ Because there’s not too many top women conductors about , ducky!

 

And who is responsible for this pieced of PC vandalism.

 

Surprise, surprise. The BBC!