Returning home from a lecture on the future of conventional film-making (not bright) by director, Mike Figgis, at the ICA, I walked up to Bond St and got on the tube there. The Underground has a policy of playing classical music in their stations to scare away young yobos. Lots of Mozart and Beethoven but tonight we got Wagner's exquisitely tender Siegfried Idyll, the piece that I use several times in my script to denote moments of serenity and contentment in love. Wagner composed this music for Cosima to mark the birth of their son, Siegfried. He rehearsed it with a small orchestra in secret and arranged to have it played outside her bedroom on the morning of her birthday, December 25. Anyone who has seen Tony Palmer's film, Wagner, will recall the beautiful sight of the line of musicians walking in single file through the snow , cellos and tubas under their arms, to the door of the villa in Tribschen on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.
What would Wagner make of its current use? I was delighted and wafted through the station in high spirits. I commented to the Indian ticket seller on how lovely it was. He agreed and said he loves it too, but that it also seems to do its job of keeping the kids moving right along...
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