The second performance of Oranges took place on the 5th, conducted by Smallens. I sat with Gottlieb in the back row of the stalls, from where one can see and hear very well. But from my seat (and for all I know from most seats in the hall) the orchestra, and especially the strings, sounded extremely weak. The result was a very peculiar effect, probably not unlike that at Bayreuth, where the orchestra is deliberately distanced. But the singers were ideal: every note and every word clearly audible, in contrast to passages where the orchestra should dominate, which sounded feeble, for example the Infernal scene came across as less menacing than I would have wished, and the strings could not be heard at the end of the March.