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Diary

Matthew d'Ancona

Wednesday, 24th October 2007

Matthew d'Ancona spends his week enjoying Wagner

We are outpatients, we Ring-goers, so the rest of the week is spent in a strange limbo between the forests and the bubbling Rhine on the one hand, and daily life on the other. The trouble is that the music and the drama are so mesmeric, so all-consuming, that one can think of little else. When I get an email from Helen, my producer at Radio 4, to remind me that I am supposed to be interviewing a Mr Rheingold at 6pm, I confess to a moment of Wagnerian confusion.

Mr Rheingold’s first name is not, as it transpires, Alberic, but Howard. And he is, as all webheads know, one of the great authorities on the political and social implications of the internet and mobile technology. Howard talks to me about the power of ‘smart mobs’ — crowds connected by email or mobile phones — to mobilise voters, reveal electoral fraud and counteract spin. Also this week: a ‘power lunch’ at the Adam Smith Institute at which I give a presentation on politics and the web, and then, a few days later, I am part of a panel on the very same subject at Google with the BBC’s Nick Robinson and others. This is no coincidence, I think. The web is transforming the way we behave so radically that even politics is having to catch up. There is huge energy in the intellectual space where new media and the creative industries meet: if you want to understand modern life, read blogs by thinkers such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Matt Jones, Don Tapscott and the incomparable Russell Davies (not to be confused with the Doctor Who writer). Never heard of them? Don’t worry: you will soon enough.

Die Walküre, my favourite part of the Cycle: I have watched each of the four components as they have been performed one at a time at the Royal Opera starting with Rheingold in 2004. But now I understand why they are meant to be experienced in quick succession, as was Wagner’s intention at Bayreuth. They speak to one another thematically, musically and psychologically in a way that is instantly apparent, even to this layman’s ears. Tonight’s reminder of human fragility is that Brünnhilde, in the manner of Jeffrey Bernard, is Unwell: so Lisa Gasteen is replaced at the very 11th hour by Susan Bullock. She performs the great duet with Wotan in Act III with awesome poise and deserves every last decibel of her ovation.