I got my brochure today which seems slightly odd because there seems to be absolutely nothing official on t'internet.
Ooh, ain't blogging great!
To be honest, I think I shall be taking most of it in by television or radio. There's an awful lot I will enjoy this way somewhat more than being stuck in a baking hot hall with that awkward journey home.
Second is full of Mozart arias with a cornucopia of singers, including, for example Simon "Shirtless" Keenlyside. However, SOSSLED will be attending Bryn's so-called 'Opera' Gala at Kenwood, where no doubt he'll entertain us with My Old Man's A Dustman in Welsh with a Mockney accent*. It will be recorded for broadcast on BBC1. Shirtless - presumably fully clothed - et al, not Bryn, I mean.
The following day is Siegfried, which has to be done to be one Gotterdammerung short of a hat-trick of tetralogies.
Followed swiftly by Glyndebourne's Cosi.
The lovely Teddy Tahu Rhodes appears at the Blue Peter Proms. And his surfers' look will be wasted on that age group.
Then surprise surprise Belshazzar's Feast with Bryn.
One of the highlights for me will be Juan Diego Florez singing bel canto and cr***o**r.
A major highlight will be The Kings Consort performing M. Haydn''s Requiem and Mozart's Coronation Mass. With soprano Carolyn Sampson already making me drool at the prospect. She's doing an all Mozart programme, too, but it's Bank Holiday Sunday, which makes things awkward. (I'll book tickets and be be reconciled to return them if other commitments arise)
A late night Steve Reich evening is tantalising.
The Marinsky under Gergiev are doing Lady Macbeth of Mtensk.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings the Last Night, which explains the flurry of search requests for him today. Angela Gheorghiu joins Terry Wogan In the Park (I can't quite imagine her as one of Terry's Old Gits, to be honest).
There's loads of other stuff, some of it not for voices, but those are my highlights. Actually, I'd be sensible just to stick to those (but not Shirtless) and enjoy the rest by radio. Most of the concerts from mid-August onwards will be shown on either BBC2 or BBC4, quite a few live and others recorded. I wonder what would happen if the BBC chose only to show the second half of the World Cup finals, some of them recorded and shown later, and the bulk on BBC3. I, for one, would be furious.
You'll read the Mainstream Media coverage of this in due course.
* You think I jest
