Capital Trip
19 December

This year seems to have been a year for trips to London.

Ross and I visited the capital in May and I've been down there twice for operas at Covent Garden, namely Un ballo in maschera and La fancuilla del West.

This trip was built round a visit to the Coliseum for a performance by English National Opera. We had not been in the auditorium since we saw Tosca there in 2003 prior to the refurbishment of the auditorium. All in all, the tarting up does make the place look a lot better. I'm not sure that it does an enormous amount for the acoustics or the stage area.

Whatever, the performance of Britten's Billy Budd was very good indeed. This seems to be a work that I get to see once a decade or so and that frequency is about right. It's a special work that I wouldn't want to get too familiar with. This cast was about as good as you'd get anywhere. Simon Keenlyside's virile, athletic Billy is is a perfect assumption beautifully and affecting sung and acted. John Tomlinson's Claggart is nasty and baleful, quite evil. Timothy Robinson's Vere is a little more equivocal - I'm not sure he quite caught the sense of leadership but then I don't know that I've ever quite experienced anyone convince me of that aspect of the rôle.

The chorus were, vocally, on very good form but looked very ill at ease with miming their pulling on ropes. The production did most of what it was supposed to do and Andrew Litton's conducting packed appropriate punches. All in all, an excellent four stars. Ross was in raptures at the end; I clapped heartily.

The following day, We took in the Samuel Palmer exhibition at the British Museum. This was another of those really good little exhibitions comprising six to eight rooms of well chosen works which allow you to enter a world-view for an hour or so. I've always like Palmer's work and associated him with William Blake. Whilst this is correct, I hadn't realised that Palmer met an old Blake early in his life and lived well on into the Victorian age. He is, if anything, a link between Blake, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. I was very glad we saw this.

Though the lunch in the Members' Room with its panoramic view of the Thames was good, I was much less happy in Tate Modern. I'll not deny that many works displayed show great technical skill. But the thing that was lacking throughout which Palmer had in abundance was spirituality. I only sensed a groundedness in some of the more overtly political works and there the predominant emotion was that of anger and not love. So, I can only feel disposed to award one measly star.

We had a couple of good meals and a couple of easy journeys. All in all, it was a very enjoyable break.