Gertsamtkunstwerk

Plácido, ¡felices 70! · ELPAÍS.com

Surprise party, last night

tags: placi
"Compartir escenario con Plácido Domingo es una experiencia única". Cultura y Espectáculos, eldia.es

Interview with Nancy Fabiola Herrera: Compartir escenario con una persona y artista como él es una experiencia única. Cuando tienes la oportunidad de trabajar al lado de la excelencia, esa ocasión solo puede depararte cosas buenas. Plácido es el canto llevado con inteligencia, pero también alguien que se distingue por el trato humano. Aunque conoce a miles de personas, se acuerda de todos y para todos tiene siempre una atención y una sonrisa particulares, desde el portero al tramoyista. Como intérprete, se mete tanto en los personajes que a la vez demanda de ti lo máximo, lo que produce magia sobre el escenario.

tags: placi
Plácido Domingo es reconocido con la Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España - 20minutos.es - El medio social

Just an ordinary day, only got to receive an honorary degree and a national honour.

tags: placi
Plácido Domingo recibe el "regalo" del doctorado "honoris causa" por la UAX - ABC.es - Noticias Agencias

tags: placi
AFP: Placido Domingo receives top Spanish arts award

tags: placi
Plácido Domingo to Be Honored at Opera Ball 7 May

In Washington

tags: placi

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 15 January 2011 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Iphigenie en Tauride in Madrid

Previews

Susan Graham: Interpretar a Ifigenia es como hacer dos meses de psicoterapia

Grandes de la ópera mundial al servicio de Gluck

First-night reviews

You know when I wrote 'I hope for everyone's sake that Plácido doesn't attempt Keenlysidesque acrobatics' (eg walking up wallls horizontally)

Well, it seems that:

Y que cumpla los 70 años de edad no sólo haciendo un Orestes convincente sino subiéndose por las paredes, tendiéndose y levantándose raudo en el escenario, ágil y radiante, recuperado de un cáncer de colon, tras medio siglo de carrera y más de 3.500 funciones representadas.

Google translates that as 'climbing the walls'.

El caballero Plácido entre los Tauros

Some people have commented recently that he is looking old. To that, I can only reply: Not when it matters!

Plácido Domingo vence a los virus y lo borda de nuevo en Madrid

Basically, says that he sang despite having a cold that's going round.

Plácido puede hasta con la gripe: El tenor logra siete minutos de aplausos en el estreno de «Ifigenia en Táuride» en el Teatro Real

The reviewer didn't like the production

Plácido Domingo regala un brillante Orestes al público de Madrid

De modo que, mientras cantaba, el tenor madrileño, que el próximo día 21 cumple 70 años, tenía que revolcarse por el suelo, dejarse mantear y vapulear por el grupo de las siniestras ayudantes de Ifigenia, la traumatizada sacerdotisa de Diana, y correr descalzo por el mojado escenario en busca de la muerte, la única capaz de terminar con el terrible remordimiento que destruye a su personaje, Orestes. Hasta trepa por las paredes.

(Google Translates this as:

*** PORN ALERT ***: roll on the floor, tossing and thrashing ... and run barefoot by the wet stage ... To climb the walls. *** END PORN ALERT ***

Primera noche....

Se mueve por todo el escenario, como he dicho antes, como un hombre de cuarenta.

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 15 January 2011 at 18:06 in Placido Domingo - my hero! | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Fifteen Minute Rule

I picked up the 'Fifteen Minute Rule' from someone I know as Lynne, who some people will know as the owner of the Blogging Brits webring, one of my earliest blog 'friends' and inspiration, though we have never met.

The Fifteen Minute Rule applies largely to housework and related chores, although I suppose it can be adapted to other matters. It acknowledges that housework is never done. As soon as you've 'finished' something it will crop up again eg once you've done the washing up, you want to make a cup of tea.

It is particularly useful for Spoonies, but also for people who feel constantly pressed for time or who feel daunted by the seeming overwhelming volume of tasks to do.

So, how does it work?

Divide your household chores into large fairly clearly defined chunks. Mainly room-based, with additions for extra on-going tasks. So I have 15 minutes for each room, plus washing-up, laundry and paper-sort.

Work through them in a pre-determined order.

Using the timer on your phone* and set it to 15 minutes. Get on and do what seems the most pressing things in the first 'room'. Don't sweat the details eg if it's the living room, remove the dirty plates and the detritus of post and magazines, plump the cushions and wipe the coffee table. Don't get anxious about the cobwebs in the corner.

When the timer goes off, stop. And I mean it. If you've gathered all the rubbish into a plastic bag, obviously, you can throw that into the wheelie bin, but don't say - I just need to put those DVDs away or clean the window.

Move on to the next room, say 'laundry'. For me, that's sorting clothes to be washed, and putting them into be washed. Usually only after putting away the last lot that has been drying in the airing cupboard and/or over the bath. Again, stop at 15 minutes, and again apply that with common sense - if you're poised at the machine about to load it, carry on. And at some time, you'll need to take them out, an obvious flaw to this otherwise excellent system!

Do three lots of 15, then reward yourself with a break, also 15 minutes, where you may sit down with a cup of tea, catch up on Twitter etc, before starting again, or not.

You will never keep a house spic-and-span just using the 15 minute rule, but it stops you drowning. I try to do 3x15 on a work night, if I'm in, but don't beat myself up if I don't.

It's important to look at the tasks in manageable chunks, such as rooms, but it's also okay to flex the boundaries a little. So, for me, if the washing up is finished before the 15 minutes, I put things into recycling, even though a pedant would class that as 'kitchen'. Or if I'm vacuuming the dining/computer room, it also makes sense to vacuum the stairs.

Sometimes there are jobs that need more than 15 minutes, or only need doing occasionally. For example, if you feel the need to go through your wardrobe, cupboards and drawers to chuck out what you no longer wear, you can still break this down into 15 minutes chunks.

If you know you don't have a beauty regime and figure that maybe you ought to, add certain tasks to the 15 minute rule: face mask, varnishing toenails, all that girly crap I pretend doesn't matter but sort of does. Sometimes there is something you enjoy doing but can't get back into because of 'writer's block' - for me, editing photos and hand diary writing - so add them, too.

Keep a standing list of what should be done in rotation. If you do it often enough, you will find yourself in a spiral that means that by the third rotation you are able to do more - eg tackle the cobwebs in the corner. Or focus on one specific area eg tidy the computer table, clean the cooker.

The advantage of this is that if you have casual non-judgemental visitors you never need to feel ashamed that your house is a tip. And when you realise that it's time to do a bigger job - sorting out cupboards, spring cleaning, you don't let the smaller mundane tasks become an excuse for not tackling it!

* people with iphones may want to use a mechanical kitchen timer

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 15 January 2011 at 13:20 in Gert's Cottage | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

links 01/12/2011

Plácido Domingo cumplirá 70 años actuando en Madrid | Noticias 365

tags: placi
AFP: Placido Domingo: performing at 70 'a marvel'

I'm linking to this article despite it containing an obvious piece of nonsense:\n\nDomingo will perform the role of Oreste in Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera "Iphigenie en Tauride" at Madrid's opera house Teatro Real on his birthday on January 21.\n\n"The opera will open on Thursday and run until January 27 and the performance on Domingo's birthday will feature a special concert involving singers from around the world."

tags: placi

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oreste in Madrid

It's going to to break my heart to blog about this. I love the opera Iphigenie en Tauride with a love so exquisite it hurts. I was so hoping to go to and see it in Madrid , and tried in vain to book tickets, even though reason after reason have presented that it wouldn't be good to go abroad at this time, and anyway like so many other people I am to all intents and purposes broke*.

It takes a long time to go through all the available articles and selsct the best bits, and my new years resolution is to go to bed at sensible o'clock on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. (And I'm aiming to be out tomorrow night).

But as a taster, a photo from the Dress Rehearsal of Iphigenie en Tauride, which opens in Madrid tomorrow (Thursday) night, with a second performance on Sunday and others subsequently.

Source: Comienza el maratón Domingo

Which mentions his desire to carry on singing for another 3 or 4 years - he's slipping, for the past nearly 3 decades it's always been 'another 5'!

If anyone who is going wants to write a piece to be put on the blog, full credit to the writer, do let me know!

By the way, this is the same production that I saw in London with Simon Keenlyside as Oreste (both with Susan Graham and Paul Groves...very good in their roles). Simon also did it in Chicago and San Francsico, IIRC. He spent most of the Act II Mad Scene walking horizontally up walls, much to his vocal detriment. I hope for everyone's sake that Plácido doesn't attempt Keenlysidesque acrobatics. Otherwise, I seem to recall I did enjoy the production greatly.

* Not being dramatic, certainly not seeking sympathy, still looking forward to Il Postino in Paris and Tamerlano in Barcelona. Feel enormously privileged but wish I could be in Madrid

Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 at 23:01 in Placido Domingo - my hero! | Permalink | Comments (6)

Cultural norms

Obviously, and I want to say this right at the outset: I have absolutely no qualifications in anything that relates to medicine or psychology, nor have I ever been, in any practical sense and to my knowledge, in close observation of anyone with any marked mental illness, other than depression and various addictions.

There's been a lot of kerfuffle about some sociopath plugging some so-called 'managed anorexia' pill. Best source to read about it is in this interview by the excellent Johan Hari

I've felt very uneasy about quite a lot of the kerfuffle. For a start, I feel slightly queasy about the general assumption that as anorexia is classified as a mental illness, that is a fixed and incontrovertible fact. Yet, homosexuality was classified by the World Health Organisation as a mental illness as recently as 1990. In some contexts addictions are treated thus, even when it can be clearly demonstrated that they are not - or not even addictions: such as a 19-year old male from a conservative Christian background labelled a sex addict for wishing to masturbate five times a day and being aroused by the sight of his half-naked cousin. Or women labelled and treated at considerable cost for 'sex-addiction' when the destructive behaviour is actually a manifestation of something different, more complex and much more profound. Drug addicts are regarded negatively as being agents of their own downfall and their parents blamed for poor parenting, not least by themselves.

I am also, on the whole, not one for using extremes as an excuse for banning moderation. For example, I wouldn't ban the sale of alcohol in shops and bars, despite what I have observed of the dangers of alcohol abuse and the destruction of alcoholism, but nor would I wave a bottle of whisky under their nose to taunt an alcoholic.

I want to avoid accusing 'the media' or 'people' of hypocrisy because the media is very diverse: those speaking out against something generally aren't those encouraging it in a different way, and even if individual people do happen to display double-standards, it may be because they're confused or torn, and probably not because they're malicious or hypocrites.

Given that anorexia is accepted as a mental illness, I don't think that marketing a particular pill is particularly significant. I know that people do seek out miracle pills for weight-loss (I know at least two who were given amphetamines from clinics, both in Clapham, coincidentally or not). It's almost like saying that because people get depressed, one mustn't have bad news, factual or fictional, on TV. Hmm, Eastenders, cot death. Don't go there: didn't see it.

I suppose what worries me is that while that vile little creature was getting his kicks and trying to make even more money from selling some pill from a website that people had to seek out, there is an awful lot more going on in all media which in my view is far more harmful. Terrestrial TV has run programmes - for sheer entertainment - of The World's Fattest Man and some competitive weight loss programme for morbidly obese people.

I suppose my instinct told me to despise the vile little man because of the absence of logic in his argument: basically, get thin and he'll pay you to shag him. It's part of a patriarchal view that women have to fulfil certain specific criteria in order earn the privilege of shagging a rather ordinary, nay unattractive man, whereas - gross generalisation coming up - ultimately, men aren't that fussy and it's women who get to do the choosing, except when men do the paying, which is an irrelevant point to most women. So, it's actually men who should shape up in order to be 'chosen' by discerning women.

I couldn't start to count the magazines that target women and girls in a constant message about dieting, get thin and so on. Celebrity magazines, Take A Break-style, magazines that aim to be a least partly cerebral, magazines about 'the home' and, of course, the fashion magazines. Echoed in the national newspapers and on the TV, in features as well as adverts. Get thin.

Stay thin.

Get thin.

Be obsessed by thinness.

Buy clothes for thin people.

Be thin.

Stay thin.

Don't enjoy your food.

Diet.

By this faddy diet book, this expensive food 'replacement'.

Be self-absorbed. Judge yourself by your appearance. Judge others by their appearance.

Be thin.

The body is everything. Neglect the brain. Be ignorant. Let your critical judgement decay. Be thin.

It is so mainstream, so embedded in the way we live our lives, it's almost impossible not to be affected by this. I've seen it written that younger and younger girls are becoming more and more obsessed by their body image and by a media-driven 'ideal' of a superthin woman.

Not that I'm advocating obesity. I am overweight. That is an indisputable fact. Not just because the scales say so. Not just because the tape-measure says so. Not just because it's obvious to anyone that looks at me. But for all of those reasons, and more. It is clearly in my own interests to start exercising again, having let it slip, and to re-assess what I'm eating. It is certainly not in my interests to embark on some crash diet 'rapid weight loss' eat only bananas for a week followed by lean chicken as long as you do it standing on one leg whilst incanting in tongues nonsense. I want to lose fat because of the health benefits in doing so, because I don't want to fork out for new clothes when my existing ones no longer fit me. And, to be honest, I want to look 'good', too.

But I just don't see how people can get all irate about one here-today gone-tomorrow tosser who may or may not be selling some pill which may further encourage vulnerable people into self-harm, and yet they stay quiet about the incessant brainwashing that your worth as a woman is measured only by how thin you are.

Johann describes him as a sociopath and from the little I know that would make sense. Yet, surely, sociopathy is also a mental illness, but one that we as a society, ironically, have no sympathy for. Arguably, a sociopath has as little control over and responsibility for their actions as does an anorexic. Maybe, as I say, I don't know. We must publicly display sympathy for someone who at least at some level and at some time has, like the addict, chosen to self-harm, yet many of us instinctively think of a sociopath as tantamount to evil.

New Statesman has a commentary which nicely dismiss claims to free speech based on illegality; someone being free to say something doesn't remove the right of others to criticise or condemn. I just find it unconvincing that selling a 'weight management pill' can cause someone to become anorexic, especially considering it is a mental illness. And regarding people with an existing condition, who should be avoiding 'triggers', shouldn't we focus more on the constant brainwashing by Big Business rather than the rather amateurish marketing attempted by one obviously very disturbed individual.

Perhaps if we confront the brainwashing of Big Business, we would also have to examine our won complicity in it and our own desire to be manipulated. Just because I understood and long ago accepted my curvaceous figure and my superior intellect, doesn't mean that just sometimes I'd like to buy that top and be satisfied with unchallenging pursuits.

Posted by Gert on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 at 21:54 in Health, Spare rib | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday, 03 January 2011

Joanna's Restaurant

We've walked past Joanna's on Westow Hill, Crystal Palace many times but have never gone; it's been open for years and gets good reviews. So what could possibly go wrong?

We arrived and did the usual 'table for two'. The front-of-house bloke asked whether we wanted a drink at the bar. In my experience, one is generally shown to the bar if you need to wait until a table becomes available or if it's the practice to present the menu and take orders before leading you to the table. Neither was the case here, so I just ended up sitting on a too-high bar stool drinking an aperitif I didn't particularly want in a howling draught. Eventually we had to tell Mr FoH we wanted to go to our table - like we had wanted to when we first arrived, and like everybody else was doing.

We ordered and that was fine. The order included 'some tap water', so the waitress brought us each a wine glass of water. It was fine, it was chilled, but I thought it was petty and grudging. Either you use a wine glass with a jug of water, or at least bring half pint tumblers.

We ordered wine as well, which was placed in an ice bucket beyond our reach. It's a long time since I've been in a restaurant that does this. It's very old-fashioned and it's rude to customers to forbid them from controlling the wine they've ordered and intend to pay for. I had taken about three sips from my glass when the FoH came over, poured some more wine in, without pausing long enough for me - cutlery in hand, food in mouth - to react.

I asked for the wine to be put in our reach (they were woefully understaffed and I sure wasn't going to sit around waiting to catch their eye when I did want my glass refilled). His response alone was enough to spoil the meal and make sure we will never return.

"I'll put it in a cooler on the table shall I? None of the staff will lay a finger on it again"

in the most sardonic withering tones of contempt. I thought he was an arrogant jumped up cock; Jimmy's view was that he was an arsehole.

The food was of startlingly poor quality. It was as if they'd tried but not quite understood what they were trying to achieve.

I ordered a Sweet Onion & Parmesan Tart with rocket & walnut dressing. The walnut dressing was a smear of tasteless sludge far away from the rocket. The rocket had some parmesan grated on it, looking like they'd use the bit of the grater most people would use for cheddar. The actual tart tasted rather nice despite the pastry being burnt. It seemed odd that it came in a triangular lump cut from a whole pie. Just looked very dated and amateur. Jimmy said his marinated ribs were very nice; again, they looked to have been dumped unceremoniously on the plate.

Unfortunately, there is nothing good to say about the mains. I had a crab linguine which tasted mostly of the cheap olive oil the linguine had been tossed in, and I had to abandon it. It looked completely unappetising, just a sludge thrown into a bowl and hope for the best. Home-cooking, I guess, but not in a good way.

Jimmy abandoned his seabass which was undercooked on one side and on the other side, burnt, and imbued with the residue of everything else that had been cooked on the griddle. That was just thrown down on a plate. Separately he was given two undercooked boiled potatoes, with skins still on - but they weren't new potatoes - and some boiled spinach, without any sauce or even a knob of butter.

From where I was sitting, I could see the pass, and most of what was coming out looked burnt and generally unappetising. The chips looked greasy, singed and lack-lustre.

We remained painfully polite, but when we asked for the bill and it was clear we weren't staying, it was thrown down on the table and we were glared at.

This was our first time out for two weeks and the night before Jimmy's first whole day off work in three. The place wasn't cheap - although not especially pricey, either. We were just astounded at how rubbish it was. But even if the food had been acceptable, we wouldn't return because of the rudeness of the front of house man.

Posted by Gert on Monday, 03 January 2011 at 14:10 in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sunday, 02 January 2011

links 01/02/2011

UPCOMING OPERA FOR 2011

Useful preview from, surprisingly, the Express

tags: opera
Placido Domingo: The Spellbinding Voice Of A Titan Tenor | WBUR & NPR

tags: placi
Gerald Finley, Baritone With Broad Repertory - NYTimes.com

(I'm still trying to clear my backlog of links etc!)

tags: gerald

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Sunday, 02 January 2011 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday, 01 January 2011

Meh To AV

Someone started a hashtag on Twitter Meh2AV

It brilliantly summarised my feelings about the forthcoming UK referendum on the voting system.

I used it once, to state:

It's not proportionate but may either hasten or delay PR. Assuming that one has a view either way on PR.

And I was lectured by someone describing himself as a 'first year student at Cambridge University'.

I resisted saying: 'I was thinking cogently about voting systems before you were born' because I hate the implication that being older necessarily confers greater knowledge.

(Below the body of the post, I insert tangential ruminations about the essence of politics).

The discourse ended when he said:

You'll make your own mind up will you?

To which, naturally, I replied:

No, I'm a middle-aged bloody woman. How on earth can I make my fucking mind up without having it explained to me by a teenager?

My indifference to AV is: it changes the electoral system and appears more representative when it's not. (Not that I especially support PR: it's logical, but in weakening the local link it may create MPs divorced from what they represent).

I consider AV to be inferior to FPTP because it caters for negativity and cynicism in politics. It's brilliant for those who want to vote for the party most likely to unseat the incumbent but can't identify which party this is.

I suspect this will lead to more negative campaigns: rather than 'Vote for our package of life-improving measures' it will, even more, be 'Vote for us because we're not as evil as the other lot'. Hmm, that argument is probably enough to convince me of the need for a properly proportional system.

In its favour, it can allow for tactical and true voting where there is a risk of BNP being elected - the only circumstances I can envisage myself voting Tory would be to stop the BNP (or similar). In doing so, I am sort of disenfranchising myself. Under AV, I could vote Labour 1, Tory 2. Even so, I'd have to cross my fingers and hope that BNP didn't exceed 50% of first preferences. If I was unsure of this, I'd end up voting Tory 1; my Labour 2 would be eliminated before Tory, so I'd still have disenfranchised myself.

It would lead to different results in some constituencies. I suspect under AV, where I live, Streatham, would have elected a LibDem, as the anti-Labour and anti-Tory voters combined in a ill-defined mealy-mouthed centre. Elsewhere, it would further reinforce the inherent 'natural' majority.

It is difficult to see how it would advance the representation of smaller parties, whether it be the Greens - whose growing influence enriches politics - or the BNP - who earn the votes of significant numbers of people however repugnant I find this.

If one supports a change to the electoral system from FPTP to PR, a move to AV may not help this. Granted, it will demonstrate that change is possible. Conversely, most people who aren't political geeks will think 'we've already changed the voting system once, I can't be doing with this constant meddling'.

In all the years on-and-off that I have been politically active, PR has only been an issue on the doorsteps inside student Halls of Residence.

There is no ideological argument for or against AV. I see no reason to get out and campaign for or against. I probably won't return to the subject on blog, certainly not with new insights, before May. I don't know how I shall vote in the referendum, because I don't care.

My 'don't care' isn't the product of apathy. There exists a strong case for constitutional and electoral reform. We still have an unelected Upper House of Parliament and an unelected, hereditary Head of State. Applying patches to the First Past the Post system of voting is a spit in the ocean. It does not further a debate about how we should be governed or how society should be arranged. It is just a numbers game to fascinate the geeks. (And coming from me...!)

Continue reading "Meh To AV" »

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 01 January 2011 at 14:06 in UK Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday, 25 December 2010

links 12/25/2010

SFist Reviews: Cyrano at SF Opera - SFist

Added to my round up blogpost

tags: placi
Placido Domingo/Cyrano de Bergerac Bows and Cast Party

From 24 October. Photos. Lots of them

tags: placi
Domingo Still Soars

Blog Review of Cyrano in San Francisco, added to my October round up!

tags: placi
Placido Domingo - Plácido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel together for the first time - Los Angeles Times

Article from October

tags: placi
Les Pêcheurs de Perles | Opera review | Music | The Guardian

3 stars

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
Gerald Finley interviewed

Janet from geraldfinley.info publishes a delightfully long and wide-ranging interview she carried out with Gerald

tags: gerald
Il Postino, Starring Plácido Domingo, at the Los Angeles Opera | When Postman and Poet Meet | Opera Review by Heidi Waleson - WSJ.com

A belated review, added to my September round-up post

tags: placi

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 25 December 2010 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, 24 December 2010

links 12/24/2010

CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST: Bizet Pearl Fishers in concert ROH

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
Les Pêcheurs de Perles needs to catch more drama | Music

Evening Standard 3 stars

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
Les Pêcheurs de Perles in concert, Royal Opera House - The Arts Desk - Arts Reviews, Features and News

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Royal Opera House, review - Telegraph

3 stars

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
Bizet Les Pecheurs de Perles, Royal Opera House - Reviews, Classical - The Independent

From the Independent 3 stars

tags: Pecheurs de perles gerald
A conversation with composer Daniel Catán | Crescenta Valley Weekly

(I'm catching up with my links from October!) Daniel Catan is of course the composer of Il Postino

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Friday, 24 December 2010 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Tannhauser - Wow!

I feel as though I have been on a pilgrimage and emerged at the end as a changed person.

I spent an amazing evening at the Royal Opera House, a true red-letter day which will be forever etched in my memory, right from the first two notes when I gasped - and thought 'all the other notes have a lot to live up to after that' - until the final climax where I gripped the handrail in front of me, my body in convulsions as the tears ran down my face.

For a long time, I have owned a CD of Tannhauser highlights - I'm sure you know the one - and the work has frightened me. Even in highlights, the emotional intensity of the music is something I find daunting. I vowed not to get a complete CD, nor to seek out a DVD. This awesome work needed to be approached on its own terms. It was like I had made a pact with the devil or a vow with myself. I can't now remember how my logic went, but, call it intuition, it made last night a truly special occasion.

Finally, the Royal Opera House announced they would be staging a new production. I looked at the cast. Not exactly starry but attractive enough. Well, let's be honest, other than the Angie/Jonas/Bryn Toscas at year-end, nothing in the ROH season appeals like this.

There was a logic to choosing the night, which escapes me now, but it turned out to be the right night. No more work until after Christmas. Take a deep breath, sit back and relax. Only, I can't relax because the music is so powerful, so emotionally gut-wrenching, so able to overcome me.

If Pikova Dama, Lohengrin and Don Carlo weren't already enough, last night's Tannhauser was the absolute proof that Semyon Bichkov is a truly remarkable conductor who turns already amazing scores to gold. There were three outstanding principles in Johan Botha, Eva-Maria Westbroek and Christian Gerhaher. An orchestra that was singing and a chorus that was on fire. It may get better than that, but not often and not by much.

I'm not sure how to judge the production. It worked, in as much as it generally helped and rarely hindered the delivery of the story. Most of the 'production' - apart from the ballet - lay in the sets. Based on the proscenium actually at yer actual Royal Opera House Covent Garden, I suspect their impact were lessened by my having read about them previously. As many people have commented, it was largely a static production, with considerable amounts of standing about. It has been suggested that the production was deliberately static, in order to accommodate Johan Botha. Not to mince words, he is enormous, and seems to have expanded sideways since I last saw in him Lohengrin a year and a half ago. He's a leaden lump, with almost zero acting skills, who moves awkwardly round stage, and has as much eroticism as a sack of potatoes. For a production to be designed around someone like that, Pavarotti-style, he has to have a very special voice.

And oh boy, what.a.voice. I truly burst into tears in the first act when his voice hit my 'T-spot', and I actually panicked that I wouldn't hear it again. I could listen to him for hours. At one stage, for a few phrases, he sounded strained and wavery, but taken in the context of the lead role in a long Wagnerian opera, that was fluff. A friend commented that she doesn't usually much like heldentenors. I started saying something about bottoms, and we started sniggering, but my point was going to be that he is an exceptionally lyric heldentenor, as far as can be imagined from a Bayreuth Barker.

I simply don't think that the production would seem so impressive at a fourth revival with a leaden conductor and strainy/wobbly/squawky singers.

Christian Gerhaher was outstanding: I've only heard him once before, over five years ago in Creation, and I recorded that he was 'very special'. An exquisitely beautiful voice: during O Du, Mein Holder Abendstern time stood still for me, and each beat of the ceaseless chorus of coughs from around the house was painful, as this astounding singing was almost ruined by the inconsiderate philistines.

I haven't got a lot to say about Eva-Maria Westbroek. I think I just took her for granted. In retrospect, this may have been because she fitted the part so well and it all seemed so effortless and pleasing.

The first half hour to forty minutes is orchestral, with the curtain rising after about ten minutes, when a ballet begins. This could well be a recipe for awfulness, but was in fact just one of the many awesome elements. The ballet depicts the debauchery of the Venusberg, and if handled badly could have been an exercise in 'OMG are they trying to shock us, if so how lame, or are they trying to avoid shocking us, if so why!'. It was fantastically choreographed for about a dozen dancers, male and female who never stopped moving in vibrant flowing movements, an ensemble entirely comfortable in their bodies and oozing with barely restrained erotica. I was almost disappointed when the ballet ended and the singing began. A useful lesson in how an emphasis on the sensual can be more powerful than the crudely sexual. A lot of people are scared of sensuality, much more so than sexuality. Sexuality can be avoided by lifelong dull abstention, or by making lame schoolgirl jokes, or by taking dogmatic religious/political positions, but sensuality happens when we're least expecting it, in awkward places, and is difficult to avoid. And is so powerful.

My overwhelming memory of the evening will be of an amazing powerful sensual interpretation of emotionally gripping music. Using words like 'visceral' is easy; claiming to have been on the verge of orgasm is a literary conceit. But I really was gripping the handrail and I was not really sure what my body was doing, except that I wanted to lie back, stretch and maybe even scream with ecstasy. I suspect that of all operas I have ever seen, this will lose least (except for the ballet) by translation to radio. And I believe this actual performance will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and no doubt available afterwards on iplayer and the usual other internet archives! I think I will record it and turn it into real tangible CDs!

Picture taken from Telegraph: Dramatic whole: Johan Botha (Tannhauser) and Michaela Schuster (Venus) Photo: Alastair Muir

Posted by Gert on Thursday, 23 December 2010 at 22:50 in Wagner | Permalink | Comments (4)

Overheard

Last night I was at Tannhauser at the Royal Opera House. I am currently in the middle of writing about the substantive matter, including several utterances of words like 'amazing' and 'awesome'. Even though the effect was partly the result of the cumulative awesomeness of three acts, nevertheless I emerged from Act I in a heightened emotional state, somewhat akin to tripping. Just about everyone I have discussed this with, in person or online, is full of praise.

Within inches of the auditorium, moments after the curtain descended on a stunning Act I, I heard a conversation between two people. Their accents were those of people who seem to think that mangled vowels makes them sound grander than could be achieved by use of mere thoughts or vocabulary.

Woman: "Must dry clean your green jacket sometime"

Man: "What"

Woman: "Your green jacket sometime"

Man: "What"

Woman: "Green jacket before Christmas."

It sent my brain reeling. The quotidien can always seem like a comedown, but I fully accept that comments along the line of "I'm going to the loo/we must pick up our drinks/I'm meeting Fred on the terrace" are part and parcel of interval life in any cultural event.

Not only did she sit there during the incredible music thinking about the dry-cleaning, but at the first opportunity she felt compelled to share the results of her wandering mind.

I know that people get frazzled at Christmas. Maybe I can even imagine a situation where the wife is there under sufferance at the husband's behest, when she would rather be at home stuffing mushrooms.

But if you can't compartmentalise and insist on thinking about the dry-cleaning during Wagner, I'd really rather you didn't share. And if you have to share, please not in such stentorian tones. Is it showing off? Trying to prove to those around you that you are so marvellous? Because it really doesn't work!

Posted by Gert on Thursday, 23 December 2010 at 12:17 in The British | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Rush Common

I like this. If you didn't know, you couldn't guess that Rush Common is just a thin strip of land that runs alongside Brixton Hill! It looks much better full screen on the PC, but I'm not that daft: I only publish massively compressed photos.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 21 December 2010 at 23:31 in Photography, South London Parks | Permalink | Comments (0)

Messiah at the Barbican

I decided I would condescend to the inexorable call of Christmas by attending one of the great Passiontide musical works, entirely consistent with my total indifference to the veracity of the story it tells.

I booked my seat only 48 hours beforehand, but in between my booking and the performance, the main attraction, Carolyn Sampson, cancelled due to illness. If I had been in a different mood, I might have decided not to go after all, but I thought 'It's Messiah. What could possibly go wrong?'

These days, when you someone says or writes 'What could possibly go wrong?', it's usually a wise-after-the-event knowing warning of tales of doom and disaster. And, certainly, when I was unable to get into Victoria underground station and was wandering Victoria Street in the sleet, with less than an hour before the overture, I did wonder whether it was meant to be.

But I got there with sufficient time, and it turned out to be an enjoyable evening. Not a classic, not something I'll remember for ever. But a good, dependable Messiah from the ever-excellent Sixteen under Harry Christophers. I do like the Sixteen but I do wonder about their recruitment policy. All the women, choir and orchestra, are thin and almost all of them are young. There may be rational reasons - connected with touring perhaps - that explains their youth, but I do wonder if body-fascism is at play.

I am a sucker for the interpretation given by an early music ensemble such as The Sixteen. I love the delicate touches that are brought out, and I'm not really sure that I could bear the large scale symphony orchestra-style Messiah I grew up on.

Of course, if you attend a Messiah in December, even in London, you're not going to get a star-studded cast, and we didn't! A good solid reliable set of regular Messiah singers. Sophie Bevan was the stand-in soprano. I've heard her a few times now. She's good and possibly she could go a long way. I first heard her about five years ago when she was still at college, so I guess she's still in her twenties. It was a shame for me that Carolyn couldn't make it; in her absence Sophie was fine.

I was pleasantly surprised by James Gilchrist. I like him in several recordings I have, but he's never just done it for me live, so it was delightful to hear such a convincing and powerful performance. I also thought Christopher Purves gave a good performance.

I simply don't like Catherine Wyn Rogers . I don't want to spoil other people's pleasure and I certainly don't want to be to cruel to a singer who is clearly a committed and presumably hard-working performer. I simply don't like the way she emphasises her words; it makes me think she doesn't really know what they're about, and so I don't care. And she bored me during He was despiséd, which is not good. Thankfully, the orchestra was sublime!

It was a pleasant Messiah and the highlight of the evening was seeing Ian McKellen in the audience. I know it's a bit silly getting so excited at a celeb-spot-from-a-distance. But when it's a legend! Well!

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 21 December 2010 at 22:02 in Handel | Permalink | Comments (1)

Saturday, 11 December 2010

The future of the blog

I'm thinking about closing this blog down. It's become more of a burden than a joy in recent months, anyway.

I don't like being bossed around. It really puts my back up when people tell me what to do or have unreasonable expectations of me.

And I certainly don't like being told that 'many people' are complaining about me on Skype, because I haven't been updating the blog as often as they want. I don't know who these people are: it's not like they've contacted me to say 'Are you okay? We noticed you haven't been updating the blog as frequently.'

Yes, I am okay as it happens, thanks for your concern. I haven't been updating the blog because I've been made to feel that I have a duty and obligation to do so, and that stops things being a pleasure.

I gain nothing out of writing this blog except personal pleasure and goodwill from nice people. I don't get free tickets to performances. I can't remember the last time I received any pay out from Google ads or Amazon links, and they were never enough to cover the basic hosting costs.

I receive the occasional comment from a small number of people, for which I am very grateful, but I feel I would be be better off scrapping the blog and collecting things into a paper journal or cuttings book, for my own pleasure.

If I do a blogpost bringing in several links and copying and pasting quotes from articles and uploading photos, it can take a couple of hours, a couple of hours that I could better spend doing something else.

So I just want to say a big 'thank you' to the individual who not only bores me stupid as soon as she starts talking about Plácido Domingo, but has managed to make me averse to reading about him. You really should be proud of yourself!

BTW, this is is definitely one of those blogposts where I shall delete hostile or confrontational comments.

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 11 December 2010 at 17:06 | Permalink | Comments (21)

Thursday, 02 December 2010

Snow!

St John's Gardens, Horseferry Road

Posted by Gert on Thursday, 02 December 2010 at 21:20 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

More photos

I have added two new photo albums, both of which represent thwarted ambitions.

I set out to photograph a lot of the elephants that were distributed across London for the Elephant Parade, but failed, because life got in the way. We spent two weeks if June in Spain.

For some of the time, the weather was exceptionally hot. On the penultimate Monday in May we went out to Virginia Water in Surrey - train to Sunningdale Station and cab from there. We had a really good walk round the lake, which made me feel more confident I would be able to do some walking on holiday.

It was hot and bright and I still wasn't really comfortable with the camera I'd bought three months earlier. So, I can't say I am particularly happy with any of the photos, but after some reflection, I have decided to publish them. I think that it isn't always necessary for photos to be visually stunning, if you want to tell a story.

And the story I want to tell, I suppose it's the leitmotif of this blog, is get out there, seize the opportunities to see the world on your doorstep, wherever your doorstep happens to be.

I didn't tweet very much when I was there

13:46 Walking round Virginia Water
15:10 Seem to have bitten off slightly more than I can chew walk-wise
15:58 That walked was signed as 4.5 miles but suspect after hesitation, deviation & repitition more like 6. Now relaxing with pint of Adnams.

We finished off with an above-average meal in the Wheatsheaf which is the obvious drop-off place for the cab on the way in and close to the carpark.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 at 20:24 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Amuse bouches

A supplement fell out of the Radio Times. It was a Jamie Oliver guide to Christmas food. I quickly flicked through it and my eye was caught by something he calls Party Forks, which seems to be a suggestion for amuse bouches. I mentioned it to Jimmy, and he immediately said - oh, you can put them in vol-au-vents.

You cannot imagine how much that annoys me. Amuse bouches seem to be somewhat fashionable at the moment; vol-au-vents were fashionable sometime in the 70s. Okay, I know they pop up time and again on buffets, but I reckon that is so that a tiny quantity of ingredients can be disguised by a great big wodge of puff pastry.

I think there are some interesting ideas for presenting amuse bouches. Skewering them with forks looks fun - the picture that accompanies the article has a selection of non-matching foks with eye-catching handles. Other ways of serving that spring to mind include shot glasses, espresso cups and Chinese soup spoons. I suppose you can also use small saucers or ramekins as well as rather less exciting cocktail sticks and crostini.

But at home, when you're already creating unnecessarily fussy work by creating the amuse bouches in the first place, it seems silly to create even more fuss by stuffing them into a vo-au-vent case, which, basically has nothing to attract the eye. And some of the ideas for mini-appetisers should either be served raw or as liquid!

In so many ways that just sums Jimmy up. And it annoys me!

Pictures from the internet: if I have breached your copyright please let me know and I will remove the picture or give credit where it is due

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 at 18:48 in Food and Drink, Things my fiance and I argue about | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday, 20 November 2010

On getting a new sofa

Months ago - and I mean months ago - we finally got round to getting new sofas. I had a bought a couple of cheap sofas when I first bought the house, with the intention of replacing them within five years. Fourteen-and-a-half years later, they remained.

We realised that in order to get the old 3-seater out of the house it would have to be broken up. I said I would do as much as I could in Jimmy's absence at work; he could finish it off in preparation for its removal on the Monday, when we had the new ones delivered.

Being me, I couldn't resist photographing various stages of the process. I don't think the photos require further explanation:

Posted by Gert on Saturday, 20 November 2010 at 16:18 in Gert's Cottage | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday, 19 November 2010

Do I want a cake or pastry?

I'm usually very polite to serving staff in shops, cafes and pubs. I've been the other side of the counter and it's horrible when customers are rude to you, especially considering the low wages. If you're polite and a regular customer, it comes back as good karma. Actually, those sentences are merely post hoc justification of what should be unthinking natural instinct.

But today, I was snappy with a serving person in a coffee shop, and it's not the first time in recent weeks.

I go into a coffee shop and I look around before I order. This may be because there's a queue to be served, or just because I look anyway. I decide what I want. If it's in an accessible display cabinet, I pick it up and present it to the server. If it's not accessible, I request it.

This morning I went into Caffe Ritazza, but it could have been Cafe Nero, because I no longer shop there for this same reason. There was quite a queue, so I had some time to peruse the goods on offer. Not just hot drinks, but cold drinks, sandwiches, paninis, cakes and pastries. Eventually, it was my turn.

"Hello! Can I have a large latte to take away please!"

"Large latte!" says the server to her colleague, who proceeded to heat the milk, whilst the server did the espresso. Whilst we were waiting, the server faffed around behind the counter. She said something, but it didn't particular register with me, because I was waiting for her to say "£2.65", or whatever. Next thing, she's waving her hand in front of me to get my attention, and asking if I wanted a cake or a pastry. I wasn't entirely with it at that point, so I said,

"Erm, no, I ordered a coffee..."

"But do you want a pastry or cake?"

"No. I would have asked if I did," I snapped.

Okay, I know she's 'only doing her job', but, actually, she's not. If she had any nous at customer service, she would have heard my coffee request as a closed sentence. Not one where there's clearly an 'and a cake or pastry...' lurking. My being miles away really should have suggested that I wasn't waiting anxiously for an opportunity to order a cake or pastry.

In my favourite coffee shop, I would have paid and got my change, and been able to put my purse away before the coffee was made. Instead, she's so busy faffing around desperately trying to push a cake or pastry, she's failing to serve customers promptly and there's a queue building up behind me. Multiply that by every customer and the queue just gets longer and longer, when the process of taking an order for coffee, preparing and serving the coffee, and any other requested product, and taking the cash should be a smooth operation. All the time I've heard this ridiculous routine in a cafe, I've never heard anyone say:

"Well, yes, now you mention it, I wasn't going to buy an overpriced baked good, but now you've persuaded me."

I have often witnessed people spending a long time ordering assorted baked goods. Baked goods which are already laid out to tempt the eye. It's even worse in Nero, when they don't just nag you to buy a random cake or pastry, but they select a pastry of the week, leaving me to wonder why I would specifically want an almond croissant, when there are apricot danishes, double choc-chip biscuits etc also on offer. And that's after she has failed to add the extra-shot to the coffee I had specifically requested.

I suspect that either I am totally unique in getting very annoyed by this pushing onto me of goods I don't want, or else, there are legions of customers getting just as annoyed as me, but not snapping.

As a sort of post script, last Saturday we went into Starbucks in Fleet services. I grabbed the only available table whilst Jimmy went to order. It wasn't until we were leaving that he told me he hadn't paid. The server took his order, walked away, told the espresso maker, and then took the order of the next person, so he thought he had to pay the person who pours the milk and shouts what's being served. Who didn't request money, either! It would have been quite funny to take the coffees back and say they were shit, which they were (but they were just much-needed caffeine on the motorway).

And as a post post script, on holiday we went into a coffee shop that looked tempting from the outside, but turned out to be a bit rubbish. I think it was set up in the 80s and they've only reluctantly moved into the late 90s. My scrambled egg was an insult. But what made me laugh was that the menu included 'expresso'. So Jimmy ordered a double espresso, and the serving woman - a bit posh, thought she was a cut above mere customers - corrected him like a school teacher, almost with a glare 'Double exxxx-presso'.

Like when I was on Cape Cod years ago with my friend who at the time worked at CERN, speaking French day-in day-out. She ordered a croissant and the server corrected her to 'croy - santttt'.

Posted by Gert on Friday, 19 November 2010 at 21:59 in Customer Service | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday, 04 November 2010

links 11/04/2010

Nasal artistry turns Plácido Domingo into Cyrano

Makeup artist Tim Santry puts the finishing touches on the fake nose that tenor Plácido Domingo wears for the title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac."

tags: placi

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted by Gert on Thursday, 04 November 2010 at 23:30 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, 02 November 2010

Don't tell me how I feel!

Imagine a scenario where a well known white person gives an interview to a specialist magazine,which is reported in the national press, where they opine that there isn't any discrimination against or harassment of black or Asian people.

Imagine if hundreds of black and Asian people think: "Blimey!" and write on Twitter "I've been on the receiving end of racial discrimination more often than you can possibly know."

Imagine then if several white people take to the internet and declare "I've discussed this with several of my white friends and we can categorically reassure you that that white celebrity was right, there is no racial discrimination. Now, you uppity Ethnics, please remove the characteristic chip from your shoulder and know your place"

This is in effect what has happened since Saturday night. Except that, instead of it being about race, it's about gender, and it's men - not all men, just some men - assuming to know about being a woman , and to mediate the supposed views of women without listening to women, unaware that women can express their own views and are doing so.

The celebrity in question is Stephen Fry and he has, at best, behaved foolishly and arrogantly. Not liking the uppity women contradicting him, he resorted to the standard Celebrity Pathetic Excuse 'I was quoted out of context' and went off in high dudgeon at being 'bullied'.

The parade of apologists for Fry is predictable. They discount one woman's personal testimonial because 'personal testimonial' is meaningless anecdote. In their world, the truth can only out when authoritative people make sweeping generalisations. The combined aggregate testimony of hundreds of women is bullying - the word 'hysterical' hangs there unsaid but implied. And yet the cumulative spontaneous testimony of hundreds of women was glorious!

I gave personal testimony because I cannot presume to speak for any other woman. I can guess what some other women think, at least partly. And I read other women giving similar personal testimony, not presuming to speak for me. Of course, there is always the one voice of a woman who says "Well, I've never had sex, therefore Stephen Fry is right", probably a woman with more psycho-sexual hang-ups than Fry himself - famously 'celibate' for, what, 15 years.

What does 'celibate' mean, anyway? An active choice, a vow to be broken when temptation becomes too great to resist, a public admissions of one's own inadequacies, or a prosaic acknowledgement of one's reality for the time being? Probably lots of people are, short-term or for most of their lives, but don't make a thing of it!

Fry does rather take on the persona of Renaissance Man, the person who knows about a great breadth of subjects. It's unclear what research is there, scholarly or otherwise, his own or that of unheralded lowly researchers, to support his jack-of-all-trades dominance of the media; he is but a dilettante. I really can't imagine the arrogance that can drive someone like him to believe that he has anything whatsoever to contribute about female sexuality.

He seems to have made his career out of being a rebel against his background. How often do we hear how he was expelled from two public schools? Presumably not to hang round drear shopping parades sniffing glue, vulnerable to predators and drug dealers, allowed three hours a week at Pupil Referral Centre.

Emerging from Cambridge University in a blaze of glory, he displayed his rebellion by behaving as if he's been to a state grammar school and 'Russell Group' university. In the advanced stages of middle-age, he probably still thinks he is anti-Establishment as he floats through gilded palaces, frequently congratulating himself on his iconoclasm, oblivious that the world has moved on past him, and the internet is stuffed with people from comprehensives and Polytechnics, women and black people, who don't have to negotiate the Old Boys network to be published, writers, many of whom write well, some of whom write brilliantly. And can bear witness to their own lives without needing Mr Establishment to mediate their opinions and translate them for an audience imagined to consist only of equally privileged men.

Posted by Gert on Tuesday, 02 November 2010 at 21:38 in Spare rib | Permalink | Comments (3)