Finally, I went out to conduct. The orchestra and the audience greeted me with applause, I bowed, and began. As the first bars of music sounded the house curtains arose and the Tragicals made their entrance. How the chorus performed their actions in the Prologue I do not remember, so preoccupied (even though I was not particularly nervous) was I with conducting, but the singing was good. I do know that the Eccentrics, when they appeared, were not very impressive. The Herald had such stage fright that he sang everythinga  tone sharp and could not stop himself beating time with his hand. After this everything went smoothly and there were no untoward incidents until the third scene, when Leander came in with 'I will feed him a diet' a bar early. But I kept my head and kept going, and the prompter soon got him back on track. For the first time I realised what an ally the prompter can be!

The act came to an end and I left the podium to applause.