We left at the interval...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Friday January 18 2013 Conductor: William Christie. Production: Andreas Homoki. Sets: Paul Zoller. Costumes: Gideon Davey. Lighting: Franck Evin. David: Pascal Charbonneau. Jonathas: Ana Quintans. Saül: Arnaud Richard. Joabel: Krešimir Špicer. Achis: Frédéric Caton. La Pythonisse: Dominique Visse. L'Ombre de Samuel, premier guerrier: Pierre Bessière. Les Arts Florissants. After all they put up with, you might think operagoers would, as well as having cast-iron buttocks, thanks to Wagner, be hard-boiled all round. Yet in fact we’re quite sensitive: little contretemps of all kinds can make us less receptive. On Friday evening, not only was there unusually heavy snow in Paris (any snow in Paris is unusual), making me worry about taking off for New York the next day. But also, my two fellow-subscribers called in sick at the last minute, leaving me alone with two spare tickets in my balcony seat. These simple things may explain why, though this well-travelled...