The Long Interval

20 June 2026

At Glyndebourne black tie is expected, which means that for one evening a year everyone else is as overdressed as Whitmore. He has attended for nine seasons and has never quite known what to do about it.

Featuring Whitmore

The black rooster stands on top of a low stone ha-ha wall at the edge of the lawn, regarding three white sheep in the field below, who look back at him

The sheep beyond the ha-ha have attended for longer than he has. They have never once dressed for it, and he has come to admire them for that.

At dusk the black rooster perches on a wooden folding chair beside a small table laid with a white cloth, a wicker hamper, an ice bucket and a single champagne glass, the Downs violet behind him

The same small table and wicker hamper beside an empty folding chair with a folded napkin on the seat, the country house glowing with lit windows behind and sheep grazing beyond the ha-ha at blue hour

The long interval lasts ninety minutes. He spends it as the founders intended: outdoors, upright, and at a respectful distance from the strings.

Act two. The lawn is left to the sheep, the chair and the evening.

At night the black rooster stands alone on the dark lawn, lanterns on the grass and the lit windows of the house behind him

By the final curtain the lawn was his alone. The sheep had retired some time before. He considered it a lapse.