A Real Let Down
12 July

Things don't always turn out as you might want them.

Yesterday, I travelled over to Buxton to see The Barber of Baghdad by Peter Cornelius. Over the years, I've remarked on a number of occasions that, with modest means, the company have provided me with a treasurable list of excellent performances of little-heard operas.

Sadly, this was not one of those occasions.

Firstly, I don't think that the work itself was really as good as they were hoping it to be. Sometimes, there are really good reasons why works fall out of favour which are not just to changing tastes.

Secondly, the production really was limp. I had been handed over to Alessandro Talevi who is seen as a rising star in some quarters. Not here, I have to say. And he's been given Opera North's new production of The Turn of the Screw this autumn so I'm not making a booking until I have seen the reviews.

Thirdly, Stephen Barlow's conducting really felt lacking in energy.

Fourthly, and really worst of all, I could not cope with the voice of the main singer tenor, Michael Bracegirdle. I've heard him sing once before with English Touring Opera in that very house in Janacek's Katy'a Kabanova. Since then he's sung at The Coliseum in London and basically his voice sounded completely fucked.

Neither Jonathan Lemalu nor Frances McCafferty could save the show. I didn't stay for the second half. I know from photographs that the set looked a little more interesting in the second half. I know that I didn't give Rebecca Ryan a chance as she only appears in the second half. But I really couldn't be doing with it.

Next year, they are doing Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Handel's Saul and Thomas's Mignon. I'd be happy to attend any or all of those; I'm sure that they'll be better next year.

I was a little underwhelmed by a small exhibition at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery as well. In keeping with my current policy of making use of being based in the centre of town, I stepped out one lunchtime. High Kicks and Low Lives displayed posterwork and other graphics by Toulouse Lautrec. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood but I couldn't find anything to latch on to and left quite quickly.

I did manage to clear up one small matter, however. Last month in Vienna, in the Belvedere, I encountered a painting by Giovanni Segantini called Evil Mothers. I had been sure that there was something very similar in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery and I was right. Below is Giovanni Segantini's The Punishment of Lust hanging on the Walker's walls.

Just to prove that life hasn't been completely pants of late, I've had a visit to the Asthma nurse and at least all of that is under control.

And I made a small purchase of this disc - Songs from A Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth - and it is quite superb. Roderick Williams sings with unforced emotion and a clear concern for the words and Ian Burnside is a persuasive and attentive accompanist.

I've played it over to myself now on numerous occasions.

There has been an important ruling by the Supreme Court concerning gay asylum seekers who feared prosecution in their home countries. Since 2006, it has been standard practice not to grant asylum and to return people to their home countries with the advice to hide their sexuality upon their return.

The court reviewed the case of HJ and HT, both homosexual men who had been persecuted in their home countries (Iran and Cameroon respectively), after their sexual orientation had been discovered. In the Court of Appeal the men's barrister had referred to this as an "Anne Frank" policy, in that, like Anne Frank, the men would be safe if they hid from authorities but not if they didn't. The Supreme Court ruled that the policy was unlawful as it breached their human rights.

In his summing up, Supreme Court judge Lord Rodger made the point that both heterosexual men and homosexual men should be free behave with equal spontaneity without having to feel guarded in their every action. He was of the opinion that gay men should "free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically coloured cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates". I agree with him although not I don't necessarily agree with the order.