Malcolm Hopwood reflects on CSO's Last Night of the Proms

The CSO has a long and intimate relationship with Last Night At The Proms, probably longer than any other orchestra or musical group in New Zealand.

Its association began one bleak meeting of the CSO Board in the late 1980s. New Zealand was experiencing a depression caused by high mortgage rates, low returns for farmers and Rogernomics. It influenced every strata of society including loyal CSO followers and patrons. There wasn’t the discretionary dollar to go round and the orchestra was struggling to encourage an audience to its concerts in the Town Hall.

It wasn’t the programming, just the state of the economy. I was lecturing in journalism at Canterbury University and a new member of the CSO Board. I’d lived in London for a few years and my favourite Sunday night venue was the cheap seats at the Royal Albert Hall.

I attended some magnificent concerts, even sang in a few, but the Proms season was beyond my budget. Instead I watched them on my black and white TV and loved the Last Night, its music selection, audience participation and the sheer joy of singing along in my basement flat.

If it could cause such pleasure in London, why not Christchurch? The CSO Board was cautious. It was heading in a different musical direction and Last Night wasn’t part of the journey. But I persisted and a combination of the Englishness of Christchurch, meeting costs and paying salaries saw the Board approve the event the following year.

I’d done some brief research and couldn’t find anyone else who’d attempted the razzmatazz of the Last Night in New Zealand. We were the first and felt proud about it. But would it attract an audience?

We shouldn’t have been apprehensive. My memory tells me we sold out. The audience dressed in their Last Night gear, waved flags, bunting, programmes and their chorus singing of Rule Brittania filled the auditorium.

I looked out on them and was so glad they were ours. The following year we did something that defied logic. There were two Last Nights and no first night.

Last Night At the Proms became part of the rich fabric of Christchurch society but then we encountered a major problem in 1993. Well after we’d programmed Last Night for that year, the government decided to hold the election on that night.

What could we do to attract an audience and tell them Jerusalem was far more important than the fate of New Zealand.I felt obliged to come up with an answer.

At about 4am one morning La Donna Mobile from Rigoletto came into my mind. It was straightforward, didn’t pose a problem for orchestra or soloist and I could write some appropriate words for it.

The lyrics “Labour is winning, Mike Moore is grinning” came into my mind and the rest of the words followed. I suggested the soloist came on to the stage every half hour and gave a political update. But then what about National? So I wrote “National is winning, Bolger is grinning.”

On the night the soloist, Judy Bellingham, strode the stage and sang alternative verses. BY the end of the night, after we’d repeated Land of Hope and Glory, probably twice, there was still no decision but that was the fault of the voters, not us. It wasn’t until days later than Jim Bolger finally grinned for the next three years.

Those pioneering days came back to me 30 years later when Ludwig’s 5th clashed with the two Chrises and there wasn’t a soloist to sing “Labour is winning, Hipkins is grinning” or National is winning, Luxon is winning.”

As I write it, he still is.

Malcolm Hopwood.