The younger one gets—the more, that is, one sheds those inevitable, almost instinctive prejudices with which one's civilization, especially if it happens to be an old one, has burdened one almost from birth—the more easily things go right for one when they go wrong for the civilization in general and for the critic in particular. Criticism tends to misfire in proportion as it is civilized, as it instinctively, pre-consciously judges the present in terms of the past: the law of precedent is the death of art—or, if art survives its application, the death of criticism. What is an opera? 1 don't know: it all depends on the next one, not the last one.

For those of us who were too young to see any of the original Covent Garden performances of Gloriana, the Sadler's Wells production on October 21 was a genuine revelation—not necessarily of a work of ineffable stature, but of one which had been almost completely misrepresented by the ebb and flow of reaction in the thirteen years since its composition. So far as judging the opera on its own terms is concerned, the criticisms of that gala première can be discounted, though one might register some distress that they were not confined to the distinguished diplomatic guests (whose musical opinions would naturally be suspect), but were echoed, in similar terms, in many corners of the informed press. Gloriana's submergence was practically a political event. Its subsequent rescue was thus bound to be accompanied by panegyrics of the work and polemics of its critics. Sadler's Wells did it proud, with one of the most spectacular and accomplished of its recent productions (by Colin Graham). QED: the work is a masterpiece.

“Meine Musik ist gar nicht modern: sie ist nur schlecht gespielt.” So protested Schoenberg after a hostile and unsatisfactory performance of the Kammersymphonie, Op.9; and while few audiences, even today, let alone the contemporary audience of Vienna, 1913, would be entirely ready to agree that this music was “not at all modern”, we can readily concede that it almost certainly was vilely played: it almost invariably is.