First Up
6 January

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Well, the new year has begun.

And, almost immediately, I was back into the routine of waking up to the alarm at 6am and driving into work by 7:20.

This first week has been mostly easy. There's not been that many cars on the road and the journey time has been down to about 30 minutes each way. But, of course, it has been dark. Headlights all the way both ways. But I do know that the journey home will begin to lighten up very soon.

Mornings have one new excellent thing about them. My Rossi bought me a new shaving brush for Christmas - one made with proper badger hair. And it's really good. It makes me realise just how moth-eaten my old one had become. Anyhow, it does make shaving much more pleasant when you can work up a rich and creamy lather with very little effort.

One of the immediate joys of the New Year was attending a performance of Donizetti's early opera Emilia di Liverpool in the newly re-opened concert room in St George's Hall. The venue was splendid - bit of boomy acoustic and a bit on the cold side - but I'll be pleased to attend some more events there as the year unfolds.

The opera is a mish-mash despite the special pleadings of some of the newspaper critics. It's a young man's work; it's experimental; it gives a promise of things to come; it has some splendid moments but not very many achieved sections. Still, I'm glad that I've heard it even if I would not race to witness the work for a second time during the rest of my life.

Of the young singers, I liked the baritone Marc Canturri who had a real stage charisma as well as a baritone voice that should develop. Philippe Talbot's tenor already has a real Rossinian ping to it, so he may well have a flourishing career as well. Francesca Park tossed off the coloratura of the title rôle with aplomb but I did not warm to the overall sound of her voice as much as others in the audience did.

People stood and cheered at the end. I certainly wouldn't have gone that far but it was a jolly curtain raiser for our Capital of Culture year to come. It was good.

After the success of Cranford just before Christmas, it seemed improper to expect another classic serial of quality to come along so soon but Sense and Sensibility has beggared expectations.

It has been expertly played by a very fine cast. I've particularly liked the contrast between the doughty and inept Edward Ferrars (as portrayed by Dan Stevens; last seen by me in The Line of Beauty) and the believably dashing and entrancing Willoughby (portrayed by Dominic Cooper; last seen as another cad - Dakin - in The History Boys).

Everyone is saying that the series exposes the dark underbelly of Austen's work but that seriously underestimates her work. The fact that seduction and a teenage pregnancy are present in the television series simply shows that they are present in the book. If we've chosen not to register the reality of Jane Austen's world, then that says a lot more about our wish for the eighteenth century to be viewed in a glow of heritage rather than as the rough place it really was. And Austen writes for a specific class at a specific time in history and expects her readers to understand the social nuances.

It's an early in the year four stars for excellence.

We've also caught up with The Last King of Scotland on DVD from the local library. It's very good and Forest Whitaker deserved his Oscar for his portrayal of Idi Amin.

However, we rented the film for yet another chance to see man of the moment James McAvoy, who has graced us in the last year with Atonement, Becoming Jane, downloads of the first series of Shameless and Children of Dune. And it was most wonderful to see him again and, particularly this time, his cute buns pounding away in a scene of simulated heterosexual activity.

Well done, that man.