Tangerine Skies
22 February

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So far, this winter had been quite mild.

Other places have seen snow and ice. Here in the angle between the Welsh hills and the Pennines and the Cumbrian hills, we see little of that sort of weather.

I can tell that it's cold when the tiles on the kitchen floor become unpleasant to walk on in bare feet. Mostly during this January gone, I've been padding across them with impunity. And then there's the matter of the nighttime micturation. Trotting down the landing at three in the morning hasn't been a chilly endeavour.

Now, as well as the milder weather, I think that Ross and I also have to take some praise for the various improvements around the house like getting the sash windows fixed, getting the chimney balloons inserted, getting the bedroom ceilings fixed, getting the insulation in the loft replaced, etc, etc.

However, the upshot has been that our home has been fairly toasty warm all over the dark and winter months. And the last few days have put that to the test. At last, we've had a cold spell to match that of November of last year. In fact, it's been even colder since the garden pond has frozen solid for the first time in this time of dark and it's been frozen for five consecutive days.

This has been much to the consternation of Nutkin and Jemima who are not used to stiff water. They tended to regard we humans with some disgust as either the instigators of this nefarious deed or the uncertain saviours through ice-breaking activities.

Nevertheless, the brisk brightness has been a tonic to everyone. And a particular feature of the clear Nordic skies has been the tangerine tinge first thing in the morning and last thing of an evening in the growing and the dying of the light.

Thursday was a light and resting day.

Come Friday, we were off to the Lowry again. This time for a recent opera. I hesitate to say contemporary or modern because those two words strike me as carrying certain connotations with them. That would have be fine for, as an example, James MacMillan's The Sacrifice last October. However, Jonathan Dove's Pinocchio was conceived specifically as a work for children.

I can say that it was a tremendous company achievement. Chorus and soloists worked their socks off on stage through the three hours' traffic of the storyline. They took on multiple rôles and led us through multiple locations. Costumes and sets were of a high standard. The music was apt, successively reminding me of Janacek, Bernstein, Weill, Britten and others. The whole enterprise kept the audience, which included many under 10s, in rapt attention.

So, why don't I feel as though I can be more positive?

Maybe, for me, it just didn't gel as an opera. I think that Jonathan Dove have crafted a very impressive work. But it felt more like a theatre piece with a movie score and added voices than it did an opera. There was no moment when everything stopped for a extended lyric moment and I felt the lack of that. It was good but I really feel from the individual constituent parts that I should be able to go further than that but I can't.

There were a number of excellent performances.

For example, Jonathan Summers as Pinocchio's father, Gepetto. Firmly sung and characterised, this was several miles away from the characterisation we had witnessed earlier in the week when he played Balstrode in Peter Grimes. I took a glimpse through the search facility and discovered that he's been in a number of recent performances which I have enjoyed. For example, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci and Il tabarro.

And that got me thinking about how many of the rest of the cast I had seen elsewhere. It reminded me of a comment I made towards the end of a posting about Welsh National Opera a few years back that it was good to watch careers progress.

Again, for example, Rebecca Bottone was impressive as the high flying cricket. I don't even remember her as Nanetta in English Touring Opera's unmemorable Falstaff but she was there. Graeme Broadbent certainly sounded much better than he did in Lakmé last summer. He proved his versatility in a number of well-defined cameos. And, apparently, he was also in La vida breve and Der Zwerg.

James Laing was splendid as the Fox. I really like the sound of his counter-tenor. We saw him to good effect last year in Dido and Æneas and, again apparently, he took a small part in English Touring Opera's 2004 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which we saw in Buxton. He'll be Oberon later in the year in Opera North's production of the same work. Mark Wilde partnered him as the Cat.

I really enjoyed Mary Plazas's performance as The Blue Fairy - truly show-stopping at various moments - and such a contrast with her tour de force as Elizabeth I in the Buxton Festival production of Roberto Devereux. I find that I've seen her now in a number of performances such as La vida breve, La Bohème, Falstaff and The Elixir of Love.

Finally, I should mention Victoria Simmonds in the title rôle. She was on stage for most of the time and sang with unstinting tone and gave a performance that was generous to the whole company. Would I go and see it again? Possibly, maybe. It would depend on the rest of the surrounding repertoire. Would I avoid it? No, definitely not.

Earlier in the month, I had problems with a concert performance of Richard Strauss's Salome. On Saturday night, I took myself over to the Pacific Road Arts Centre in Birkenhead for a performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro given by the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra with soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music. I'm not going to hang about. It was poor.

The orchestra was limply conducted and not very well balanced - I really should have been able to hear more of the inner parts and the woodwind than I did. The soloists were averagely good but not the first team as fielded for the RNCM's own staged performance in December of last year.

I was very dissatisfied and left during the central interval. But I did get to book our tickets for George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill for April of this year. Hopefully that will be a lot better.

Monday was a family gathering to celebrate my parent's 58th Wedding Anniversary. Linda and Mary joined us from Epsom. There's been a celebration tea on the Sunday which my cousin Joe attended but I was busy with the second of our Quaker Testimonies Workshops and so couldn't get there for that.

Tuesday was back to work after a little break. Wednesday my External Verifier came and looked over my work for City and Guilds. I got a clean bill of health and a good write up. Thursday I had a meeting with Richard which augers well for the possibility of doing some work as an NVQ Internal Verifier (and that won't do my CV any harm for the future). Friday Steve and I were running an assignment for our unemployed students.

It was good to start the weekend on Friday night with a refreshing glass of Pinot Grigio.

And now, it is time for catching up on a bit of male totty.

Joey Barton is a soccer player, currently playing for Newcastle United although he hails from this neck of the woods. As far as one can gather, he probably isn't a very nice person. However, he has come to the attention of the gay bulletin boards in the past by getting his buns out for the lads.

Also, we were surprised to discover that he has provided us with proof positive that Cristiano Ronaldo is a shirt lifter.

We are also now proud to present a whole new episode of...

SamWatch

being the ongoing, high-voltage escapades of Ross's younger brother.

Well, what can I say! He's in the Liverpool Medical Student Society's production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. Cole Porter was gay. Which may account for the rehearsal photograph below (Sam wears the light blue top).

And if it's not Anything Goes, then it must be the first preparations for Liverpool's annual Buns of Steel competition.