At work, we've been told that we are realigning our holiday year to fit the calendar year.
The upshot of this is that I am having to take more holiday during this autumn period than I would normally do. I took a day on Friday which enabled me to start sorting the garden out for the winter and also allowed me to lie in after a late night on Thursday.
Ross and I had been to see English Touring
Opera's new production of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. We drove through
thick fog over the tops to Buxton to get there. Luckily it was worth the effort. Their
Traviata back in May wasn't very inspiring.
Ross liked the music and would go again to another production. For a first timer, he
found this production confusing. The directorial angle didn't really work but it
did show at least that the production team had a passion for the work (unlike the
Opera North production which was anodyne).
The problem was that, once you had made the extra doublings up (priest played badger,
poacher played dog, teacher played mosquito and cock, Mrs Forester played the
woodpecker who dislikes the foxes living in sin and marries them), it was perfectly
possible to let the audience just make up their own minds as to the nature of the
collision of the two worlds. You didn't have to add a third layer of narrative to
"explain" about transitions of power within a tribe.
The orchestral reduction by Jonathan Dove worked well emphasising the rawness and
violence of the score. The big lyric moments came off less well. I liked the fact
that this was a complete antidote to the prettiness of the WNO production. I hadn't
heard quite so much savagery and sexual disgust in the work before.
I liked Peter van Hulle's voice as the teacher - he had a nice bod as he stripped down to his boxers for the cock. James McOran-Campbell baritone was a young but rich sound for the poacher - he also had rather a cracking arse when he got down on his hand and knees for the dog. Louise Walsh was a little underpowered for the Vixen but most of her words got through. Clarissa Meek's Fox was voluptuous of sound and the Vixen/Fox's duets were truly erotic in timbre. Charles Johnston as the Forester didn't quite have the vocal resources. He was asked to play the part in a much more violent, sardonic way than I have ever seen it sone before. Mostly, it worked until the point where you get to the final appreciation of nature. And there the music was just too noble for the characterisation.
Which finally underlined what was missing from the production. All the negative things (rawness, violence, savagery, sexual disgust, sardonicism, etc) are there in the score and libretto. The one thing that is there in abundance that wasn't in the production was love.
Being away from the house of Thursday night also meant that we missed out on any
trick or treaters. Nasty American import.
Friday was a complete wash out, however. Very frustrating. I got some important letter writing done. But otherwise, it was a foul day. Ross's capitulation to a cold did not improve my mood. We watched Black Hawk Down on video in the evening. I could not make up my mind about the film. It was certainly an effective attempt at portraying what it is like to take part in a military action. But it was never clear as to whether or not we should be cheering these people on or wondering why the American military seems incapable of learning the lesson of South East Asia, that having the biggest and best shoot 'em up toys means diddly squat when you are involved in street fighting.
Saturday was better. There was enough fine weather to make a start on the garden and we worked a little on digging out the flower beds and forking in the horse manure. I took some time out in the afternoon to watch Vanilla Sky a Hollywood remake of Open your Eyes which featured Tom Cruise. It was OK. Much better was Harry Potter in the evening. What a magical movie that is!
Sunday was in a class of its own. Sunny and warm. Ross and I worked outside for most of the day and put the garden to bed.
It is very satisfying to know that the jungle I bought two years ago has now been tamed. Ross's plant have been integrated and we should be looking forwards to a fabulous display next summer.
We've reached the next stage of the bids for the European Capital of Culture 2008. The original twelve UK cities
have been whittled down to six final contestants.
It's not surprising that the likes of Norwich and Brighton went out. It's good to see Liverpool still in there though, frankly, although we are worthy of the title, we've had so much European money over the years that it would be somewhat disgraceful if we got more.
What's worrying is that Belfast went out so early. That seems to me to be a vote of no confidence in the continuation of the peace process.
