ARTS / Cries & Whispers

RADIO 3 was in a state of anxiety last weekend when it broadcast WNO's Tristan und Isolde live from Cardiff. Why? Because the start of the opera neatly coincided with the end of the Wales v Ireland rugby international along the road, and the New Theatre has notoriously thin walls. The BBC had in fact planned to avoid the risk of interruption by pre-recording a performance earlier in the run, but had to scrap the tapes. According to Sir Charles Mackerras, the conductor, there were 'technical problems' - not least the siren of the ambulance that passed by at the crucial moment when the lovers drink the magic potion and fall lifeless to the floor. Some heartless members of the audience apparently saw fit to laugh.

IF YOU hear a background noise elsewhere at the moment, it is probably the sound of people complaining about violence in films. I'm more concerned about drunkenness in films. The worst bit in Peter's Friends - not counting Tony Slattery's scenes, it wouldn't be fair - comes when Kenneth Branagh's character hits the bottle. The worst bit in A Few Good Men is when Tom Cruise's character hits the bottle. In both cases, I felt a hot flush of embarrassment and a powerful desire to slither under the seat in front. I still haven't worked out whether this is because the two men act drunk badly or because they act it well. Anyway, they act it embarrassingly. Whereas Bruce Ford, Count Almaviva in the revival of The Barber of Seville at Covent Garden, actually improves when he has to impersonate a drunken soldier. It adds a slur to his formidable voice which, to my uneducated ear, lends it a welcome character.

IT HAD to happen, but even so it's a shock. Britain will soon have its first non-smoking jazz club. It's called the Mayfair Jazz and Blues Club and it really is in Mayfair - an area that I thought now existed only on a Monopoly board. It opens next month at the Chesterfield Hotel in Charles Street. Happily it is not entirely opposed to guilty pleasures: the menu for the opening gala includes sticky toffee pudding. And one shouldn't poke fun when said gala is being held in aid of the Orlando Fund - a charity which gives succour not to distressed art-film makers but to children with cancer, whom it takes on trips to Disney World. Smoking will be allowed in the bar. All the same - what would Billie Holiday have said?

THE NOMINATIONS arrive for the Olivier Awards, sponsored by the Observer. There are two opera categories, with four nominees each. Eight nominations, and they have all gone to the Royal Opera. This would be surprising if it happened to a company held in the highest esteem, such as the National Theatre. With Covent Garden - viewed with respect by some, exasperation by others - it is peculiar. If I were the head Gardener, Jeremy Isaacs, I would be a shade embarrassed. Especially as the arts pages of the Observer - though not the awards - are run by Gillian Widdicombe, Mrs Jeremy Isaacs.

TWO OF the Campaign's doughtiest opponents have been Music Week, the industry's parish magazine, which considers us 'tedious', and Jon Webster, former boss of Virgin International, who prefers 'ludicrous'. So it's heartening to pick up Music Week and read about a speech given by Webster at the Radio Academy Conference, containing this line: 'We have comprehensively lost the PR battle on CD pricing.' I think that speaks for itself. So please: carry on not paying full price if you can help it.