That line over there? Yes that one. What are they waiting for in the cold. At 6 AM? Hundreds of them? Tickets for Wagner. Think you’d see this in a US city? “I was there at 6am. The box office opened at 10. There were people queueing before me. I had no thermals, but cut a dash with pyjama bottoms under my jeans and a borrowed Cossack hat. I am no wimp, and have been called brave by dentists, but it really was stark-bollock freezing.”