Here’s a quick catch-up from Australia.
Life imitates art.
Mmmmm now you’re giving me ideas!
Oooh, I have that on CD and haven’t listened to it for ages. Love that chopping sound!
I was told that some kind of scaffold had been rigged up offstage complete with block and tackle to provide the definitive thud as nun by nun, they fell to the floor.
The stage was littered with dead nuns by the end.
It is a real shocker at the end. Liked Poulenc’s music, and the singing was good (Monday performance).
Attended the performance on Thursday. Particularly liked the voices of Mere Marie(Elysia Leech) and the Father Confessor(L’Aumonier), James Geer.
Tim Dean led the performance admirably and there was hardly any poor casting although obviously with a student performance some were better suited to their roles than others.
James Geer is to be singing the Male Chorus in Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” at Aldeburgh-a favourite opera of mine with the Pagan story offset and contrasted with the choruses commenting from a Christian perpective.
It was good to see(at a distance) Donald Maxwell and Linda Ormiston in the foyer before the performance, both professional singers of some distinction. I remember them both from Good Shepherd Chorus performances at St Mary’s years ago.(Donald Maxwell sang the baritone part in a performance of Elgar’s “The Light of Life” and Linda Ormiston, who studied maths at Glasgow Uni and singing with the late Winifred Busfield who taught me, sang the alto part in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody under Christopher Seaman.
The staging of Dialogue des Carmelites was very effective and succeeded in conveying most of the pathos of the final scene without gross exhibitionism, which would have made it unbearable to watch.
It’s a great work – saw it at ENO.
Congratulations to Sheilagh Kesting. It was announced yesterday that she will become the next moderator of the Church of Scotland. Sheilagh has a passionate commitment to working ecumenically – she believes it more than most these days. No doubt that will be one of the key features of her moderatorial year. How delighted they must…
Here is the playlist from the MP3 player for today’s trip to Edinburgh… (in no particular order of precedence) 1 – Tammy Wynette – Stand by your man 2 – Folk och Rackere – Stjärnhästen [Fond memories of Sweden in December]. 3 – Zelenka – Missa dei Patris 4 – Runrig – Heartland 5 –…
Learned an excellent new word this morning – Lappet. The Lappets are the thingies that hang down from the back of a mitre.
Oh no, my computer does not work. ME: What’s wrong does it need to be healed? It won’t connect to the network. ME: Let me see…. [Hands are gently laid upon the keyboard. The computer connects to the network] How did you do that? How is that possible? You just touched it and it worked!…
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