Why you won’t catch a British politician at the opera | Martin Kettle

Unlike Angela Merkel, our leaders rarely flaunt their cultural tastes. It’s to the detriment of national life

Last Saturday I sat in something very close to rapture just a few feet away from Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel. But Merkel wasn’t making a speech. She wasn’t giving a press conference. And, although I live in hope, she wasn’t giving me an exclusive interview for the Guardian about Britain and the EU either.

Merkel was doing the same thing I was doing. She was at the opera house, listening to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. And not just in any old opera house. We were at the Bayreuth festival theatre, the legendary Wagner shrine in Bavaria. It was the opening night of the 2015 festival. Merkel was the guest of honour there, as she often is.

Related: Tristan und Isolde review – radical reimagining marks new chapter for Bayreuth

Whenever British politicians see the word ‘culture’, they make their excuses and leave

Related: Could opera improve the tenor of political debate? | Letters

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