Promming at the Proms

Once again, I'll be missing out on many many quality concerts at the Proms this summer. However, I'm planning to go the the Last Night of the Proms on 11th September (hmmm why this date?), not for the cheesy and cliché union jack-waving during Rule Britannia, Jerusalem, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 (aka "Land of Hope and Glory") and the National Anthem etc etc... but for my favourite operatic diva - Renee Fleming!, who'll be singing Richard Strauss (Fleming is one of the celebrated interpreter and performer of Strauss's songs), Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka (one of her signature songs), and "You'll never walk alone" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, which Fleming sang at the inauguration of President Obama. Gosh I'm excited already just by looking at the programme on the internet!

Prom 71 featuring the Orchestre National de France, whose programme includes Debussy (naturally) and Stravinsky, also tempts me - although I don't know if I'll be in London on 7th September... I still have no idea when I'm going back.

In all this excitement I'm fully aware of the many other concerts (the majority of the Proms really) which I'm missing out on:

Prom 2 (17th July) - Bryn Terfel and Amanda Roocroft (remember her from the University of Manchester Chorus performance of Britten's War Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall last May?) in a concert performance of Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg with the Welsh National Opera

Prom 3 (18th July) - Placido Domingo, almost a Saint in the operatic world, in a semi-staged Royal Opera House production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra

Prom 4 (19th July) - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra plays my eternal favourite piano concerto, Rachmaninoff's piano concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18

Prom 14 (27th July) - violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn plays Beethoven's violin concerto in D major

Prom 19 (31st July) - Bryn Terfel (again) performs excerpts from Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (in which the Welsh bass-baritone plays the title role). Other Sondheim works to be performed include A Little Night Music.

Prom 23 (3rd August) - former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Nicola Benedetti, makes her Proms debut, performing the hauntingly beautiful and ever-British The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams.

Prom 35 (11th August) - Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, my favourite violin concerto, ever.

Just by listing these highlights of the Proms here already starts to make me feel depressed...