My youthful arrogance undiminished, I now began to long to conduct an opera and was in a position where my hopes could quite easily be realised. As a student I was able to obtain permission from the Bursar to use the Parry Theatre in the College and instrumentalists an vocalists wold, I hoped, be available in abundance. My choice was Mozart's "Il Seraglio" because I already owned a full score and it was an unusual work to do in those days when it was not in the general repertory and rarely performed in England. ... I built and painted the sketchy scenery in his father's empty chemist's shop in Kingston. I also copied all the orchestral parts and put a notice on the College board inviting anyone interested to sign. As far as I can remember only one student put his name down but as that student was Peter Pears all was well. I just had to go round and press-gang my friends in College and from the Ernest Read Senior Orchestra to help me out. Margaret Field-Hyde agreed to be the Blonda and the Osmin was Anthony Benskin who had a magnificent bass voice but no sense of rhythm whatsoever. It was a nightmare as one never knew what tempo he would adopt nor how long he would keep to it. ... I overcame the problems of the chorus by borrowing a quartet of boys from Rutledge School, Merton, where I had played in the local Gilbert and Sullivan productions since my schooldays. They were, I think, very successful. An advertisement... was placed in the "Daily Telegraph" and, as there were no charges for admission, the place was packed solid for the singe performance. There were two near-disasters...The first was caused by the timpanist from the Ernest Read Senior Orchestra who was slightly deaf and so inclined to play rather loudly, though quite well. He miscounted the Finale of Act I and went on playing louder and louder in all the wrong places, causing a certain amount of alarm and despondency. The second moment of anguish came in the last act between Aileen and Peter Pears. As often happens in Mozart, a whole passage comes round twice with a pause and a cadenza in between; as we played it for the first time I discovered that they were singing the second passage and would finish long before we did. I think I tried vainly to indicate to the orchestra to jump but I was not very experienced and it was hard to know what to do so we just went on playing and somehow finished without too much loss of face. As the Press said, we "came near enough to making a musical entertainment to justify the performance as a sporting venture." << less