Will Waspe
Theatregoers are resigned by now to having to pay 10p above the cost of their seats for an advertisement-crammed programme. I have good news for cinema managers who have long been oxidised with envy of this gravy.
The plushy Curzon cinema in Mayfair is giving incoming patrons a hard-sell line and inducing a goodly proportion of them to part with 5p apiece for a programme sheet to Costa-Gayras's film, State of Siege.
A lick or a bite
Those who believed Rodney Mines when he wrote last week that Reginald Goodall took much of The Valkyrie at " one hell of a lick," will be amazed to learn that Charles Mackerras, who conducted the " extra performance" of the same opera (replacing the cancelled Siegfried), lopped -wellover •a quarter of an hour off Goodall's time. • Elizabeth Forbes of the Financial Times — her naval background should mean that she's a stickler for stop-watched ex, actitude — reported it as being seventeen minutes faster, but quibbling Waspe's count was eighteen minutes. Milnes was unavailable to adjudicate, having already left home to attend the second complete cycle. The man is plainly deranged.
Blyth not gay
Readers of Time Out (if such there be) will have been intrigued to note that 'Ann Blyth' was down to give a lunchtime lecture on Wagner at the Coliseum on Monday. Thinking vaguely and nostalgically of bygone Hollywood movie queens, Waspe curiously turned up and must record a touch of disappointment. But admirers of the Tirnes's Alan Blyth (not to mention his wife) can breathe again: he is alive and well and has not been to Copenhagen for his holidays.
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