Tempest Tossed
18 November

So, we picked Roland up in the car and headed off to the Lowry.

We drove along the M62 into the teeth of a storm. The rain lashed down and the winds blew. Like most sensible people, we stayed in the nearside lane a cruised at a steady 50mph. Aside from anything else, the flying spray was enough to make driving difficult in the dark.

I was glad to arrive in Salford and settle down to an excellent meal at Café Rouge. And then it was into the theatre for another storm.

Ross had never seen Peter Grimes before. His track record with Britten is pretty good though, having already enjoyed The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Billy Budd. I don't think he was quite prepared for what the evening brought, however. I don't think that any of us were.

Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts was quite soul-stirring as Peter Grimes. I suppose that, following on from Jon Vickers, I've always heard the rôle sung by an heroic tenor. I've never heard it sung by a lyric voice - which is, of course, what Peter Pears was. It was quite sensational. He wasn't a poetic visionary but neither was he a bluff, gruff force of nature. He was a sensitive soul with a bear of a man's strength but attached to the social skills and adeptness of a child. His descent towards a guilty torment was harrowing.

The hypocrisy and small-town small-mindedness of the Borough was well delineated from Mrs Sedley's nosey laudanum addict to the priggish lawyer Swallow. Yvonne Howard's Auntie made me realise for the first time her rôle in the community as offering solace and comfort to men doing a difficult and dangerous job.

Christopher Purves gave another sterling performance, this time as Balstrode, the moral centre of the work. Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford gave the best performance I have heard her in (others include Cunning Little Vixen and Rusalka).

The orchestra under Richard Farnes played like demons. With his background in Kurt Weill and the Broadway musical, I heard sounds and shapes in the music that would move forwards into the works of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. But this is not perhaps surprising for a work that was conceived in America even if it smacks of the sea around East Anglia. Four stars all round.

The other thing that Ross and I have been doing is catching up with some cinematic entertainment at the Plaza cinema. First up was The Queen, which was most notable for a stunning central performance by Helen Mirren as our current reigning monarch. The whole piece is centred around the time of the death of Diana (Ross and I were in Sitges at the time) and purports to give a look at the human emotions behind the establishment façade. It's mostly believable and very human. Once you accept the extraordinary lifestyle, pretty much everything follows smoothly thereafter. Three stars.

I'd not particularly wanted to see Casino Royale. For one thing, I'm increasingly uninterested in action films where the plot staggers from set piece to set piece; for another, I felt as though I'd practically seen the film from all of the trailers and TV spots. In the event it was a rather good film, stronger on characterisation and motivation than most. It still went on for about twenty minutes more than it should have but it was mostly good value for money and it stayed within the realms of the believable - I loved the sinking Venetian palazzo.

Before I forget, I do need to mention the leaves.

The leaves have stayed on the trees much later than usual this year. And they have much more colour in them than is usual. I noticed it first a couple of weekends back on the drive through North Wales as I was on my way to see Tristan and Isolde. Now around Crosby, there are rich russets and golds and acid yellows in the foliage. It is glorious.

I blame it on the weather.

Following a blisteringly hot July, there was a cold August and then a nicely warm September which merged into a pleasant but dry October. Now November is being very warm and wet.

I have a theory. Last year we had Hurricane Katrina which drained the energy and the moisture out of the weather systems. This year, the hurricane activity in the Caribbean and South Eastern seaboard of the USA has been minimal. The result is that there has been a lot more energy and moisture working its way across the Atlantic to drop on us. And, in keeping with that, the winds have predominantly been from the warm West keeping the chill Easterly winds at bay and delaying the first frosts.

As people say, in Britain, we don't have a climate; we have weather.