The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers

Wilton’s Music Hall

Aldgate East Underground station is something of an enigma: emerge from its depths, and you find yourself at a crossroads. Which way to turn? All the roads look the same. Yet all the dozen or so members of the Company, and their friends and relatives, managed (some perhaps with a little hesitation) to find their way south to a steak restaurant for lunch one Saturday in March. Yes, it was directly into sun, but all the very high rise buildings in the vicinity cast no shadows at all.

Then after a leisurely meal, we headed further south to the mysteries of Graces Alley, and Wilton’s Music Hall. Dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, some cheekily ask themselves today, whenever is it going to be finished?

It is a fun place, and we were going to see the penultimate performance of Rossini’s Barber of Seville, locally adapted to portray the original plot, but set against the backdrop of the Wild West, Stetson hats and all. No big cast, and the music emanated from a solitary piano, played most energetically. We enjoyed it, as had the reviewer in The Times a few days previously, who had rated it worthy of four stars:

“….this Barber is a reminder that arguably the most famous operatic comedy draws in many respects from the same well of goofy humour and virtuosic patter-song as the Savoy Operas (of Gilbert and Sullivan)”.

The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers has not paid a visit to Wilton’s for quite a while, but for sure we will be returning again ere long, especially at its most reasonable prices, and in mid-afternoon when it is perfectly feasible to visit from far-flung parts of the country in a day.