For Massenet's "Manon" in 1947 we had a very young and pretty American soprano, Virginia McWatters, two household name - Heddle Nash and Dennis Noble - and a production by Frederick Ashton in which the balletic movements of the players fluttering their cards in the gambling scene in Act IV earned a spontaneous round of applause on the first night... This first night had its agitating moments. The power cuts were still ruling our lives and there must have been one earlier in the evening. This meant that the solo on the Hammond organ which opens Act III, Scene II in Saint-Sulpice was very flat indeed and when the orchestra came in a startled Eric Mitchell had to transpose very quickly to get the rest of the piece to the same pitch. On stage too I felt something was wrong; Jess Walters as Des Grieux père was pacing up and down soliloquizing and I knew very well that by now he should be holding a conversation with his son. If it hadn't been all in English perhaps it would not have been so noticeable but anyway Heddle Nash finally came on at the double, having been caught by a jammed door in the lavatory. After all this we made sure that the Electricity Generating Board kept us forewarned about cuts - and no doubt the carpenter was sent to attend to the lavatory door. Rankl did not want to use a prompter but Dennis Noble was taken ill and a cheerful baritone, George Hancock, who was rather a slow learner, had to take over the role of Lescaut at short notice. There was nothing for it but to open up the prompt box which had not been used since 1939 and was filled with dirt and spiders. It was also icy cold and Norman Feasey had to go out and buy a special anorak before taking up his position there. Operatic prompting is a difficult art, the singers are not given their notes, only the words and these must be given just before the end of the previous phrase or before their next entry. Some singers like to be prompted continuously throughout the opera while others look at the prompter to indicate that they need help. In addition the prompter may have to point to various parts of the stage so the singer knows where to move next and I remember seeing the Italian prompters when the Scala came over, leaning right out of the prompt box with outstretched arms, pointing in all directions. Norman left nothing to change with George Hancock, even placing pieces of paper on the furniture in strategic positions to assist him, rather like a treasure hunt. << less