Well, it's been a head down and let's get on with it sort of a month. Late February, we met up with Roland, who came down for a meeting and stayed over to see Lohengrin at Covent Garden (I passed), and Chris, who was in town for the day so we had an early evening drink with him. Good company both.
Early March brought a new production of Orpheus and Eurydice at ENO. Michael Chance and Lesley Garrett sang the title roles. Jane Glover conducted. Martha Clarke directed and brought many of her dancers into an integrated production. Works like "austere", "dedicated", "worthy" spring to mind when thinking about the evening. There were some searing moments and appropriately so. There were also some longeurs.
The dancers were a vigorous addition to the proceedings.
The Underworld was a harrowing creation and Blessed Spirits were a
tranquil Arcadia. Disturbingly, the dancers in this section were naked.
Not that I have anything against seeing beautiful bodies in motion.
It's just that they were a distraction. Most distracting were an
almost androgynous Asian dancer, Shen Wei, and a black dancer, Paul
Liburd. I wouldn't have minded performing a horizontal pas de deux
with either of them.
Mothering Sunday weekend brought at separation for Ross and I. I went up to Liverpool to see my folks and Ross's folks came down to see him. Apparently, his side of things went well and so did mine.
Ross's folks slept in our bedroom so I should imagine that our secret love's no secret any more - to quote Doris Day. Ross slept on the bed settee and found one of Cyril's secret weapons. When he wanted feeding at seven in the morning, he simply stuffed a paw in Ross's mouth.
I guess the only other thing of note to mention would be the passing of
the comet Hale-Bopp. I've been hanging around in the back garden trying
to catch sight of it but haven't seen anything so far. I have, however,
managed to see Nathan, one of the boys next door, in a state of undress
by his bedroom window on a couple of occasions thus fulfilling the old
Persian proverb Naked boys are more common than comets.
