In what may be considered as the start of a new season of screening opera and other theatrical works, St James Cavalier cinema screened a recording of Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace from the Marinsky Theatre last Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, it was not the best of starts.

In the first place, the air-conditioning system inside the cinema was not functioning and fans had been placed around the theatre to provide some relief from the heat. To be fair, we were advised about this condition before booking and it was our choice to go ahead.

But St James management had the summer months, when there were no activities, to put this right before the start of the new season. St James Cavalier Centre of Creativity is the nearest thing we have to a cultural centre with a roof on it and it deserves proper attention.

Secondly, the screening was late in starting. The screen showed a view of people trickling into the Marinsky Theatre and the musicians were making the usual cacophony of sounds as they tested their instruments but this went on for 20 minutes before the programme started.

Thirdly, when the opera finally started, we realised to our dismay that there were no sub-titles and we almost walked out because the prospect of watching a four-hour opera sung in a language we did not know a word of, and in the absence of any sort of synopsis as is available when opera is screened, was daunting. Then, suddenly, about 30 minutes into the opera, someone realised that a sub-title track did, in fact, exist but it had not been activated.

At the end, the rousing experience of this grand opera made up for these shortcomings on the part of the management but, to use an apt metaphor, they have to get their act together.

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