Sentence:  But then , after the little operetta had been given its feeble amateur rendering , everyone insisted that it was too good to be lost forever , and that the Royal Academy of Music must <WSD>now</WSD> have the manuscript in order to give it the really first-rate performance it merited . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events