on the town with Aunt Patricia.. saw a bit of classics from stand on the high st, it was great fun, but thee streets were busy and she needs a bicycle bell on her whellchair to get people out of the way.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
terrible tracy
14.8.08
Went to the Emin exhibition today, more out of a sense of duty than excitelment. Being a prude i find too much infomation is too much.. but actually it was very thought provoking. She is ablsolutely contemporary.. in the age of Big Bother, celebrity obseessesd and drink til vomit and then spill guts on the tabloids.. her art reflects absolutely where society is at.. and as such is extemely challenging. Heard lots of snide remarks and condescension about her as I processed through, and then the visitors book said.. "how charming"
Went to the Emin exhibition today, more out of a sense of duty than excitelment. Being a prude i find too much infomation is too much.. but actually it was very thought provoking. She is ablsolutely contemporary.. in the age of Big Bother, celebrity obseessesd and drink til vomit and then spill guts on the tabloids.. her art reflects absolutely where society is at.. and as such is extemely challenging. Heard lots of snide remarks and condescension about her as I processed through, and then the visitors book said.. "how charming"
the nakbah
Joined up with Daniel to see Jane Frere's fantastic piece of work called Return of the Soul about the Palestinian Nakbah. So provocative that Daniel and Catherine and Anna and I went to hear the artist talk about her work.. which was fascinating.. She recommended a book on the Nakbah called the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by and Israeli lecturer called Illan Pappe, which I am now half way through.
3000 figures hanging in space, each one made in the memory of one of the Palestinians forced to flee their homes, hanging in space to represent their in-limbo condition which has now continued for 60 years.
And then Elizabeth Blackadder.. dbe rsa ra rsw, but I don't see why she is sooo special. Still lifes in water colour, often strange spacings in a slightly japanese style. Again very very expensive.
the backlog continues
So my next big day on the town was 8th August when I went to see Chad McCail at edinburgh Printmakers.. I don't much like his drawings as I think the people look like robots in a rather chilling sort of way..but powerful message
and then to the The Golden Record at the Collective Gallery. apparently the early rocketrs to Mars took recordings of life on earth for the Martians to learn about what we do on this planet. The Golden Record attempted to update this somewhat with contributions from various comedians here in Edinburgh during the fringe. Brilliant explanation of economics and money by Dan something.. highlighting the importance of the right sort of bank ie money bank, not blood bank or sperm bank.
Martha Rosler's library has been at Stills.. basically her books which the viewer is invited to sit and delve into.. the implication being this tells us about how brilliant and well and widely read is the artist.. hah, I bet she has hardly read any of them.. and who cares anyway.
and then to my favourite exhibition this festival
janet cardiff and george buros miller and their installation 'opera for a small room', a 20 minute looped recording in which strange things happen there is a sort of plot and noises, and some things are happening around and some within.. I have seen it four times now and may go again.. and it is FREE
and Richard Hamilton in Inverleith House, such a grand clean large daunting space in the middle of the Botanic Gardens for such a controversial artist.. or his stuff was when done. The Treatment Room was truly creepy for all of us who grew up under Thatcherism.
Huge backlog
well I've got a bit of catching up to do here.. seeing as the link has only just arrived ..hah.
As the Arts correspondent I have been to tons.. starting off on:
5th August
with Alexander Haim at the DoggerFisher Gallery with his exhibition called Doves, which highlighted a film of a couple of verminous pigeons scuttling around under the tables of a street cafe. Angie and Cara joined me for this and the next few.
Next to Richard Wilson at the Grey Gallery (actually an empty garage off Barony St). This featured a sculpture portraying a crushed hot dog van.. being dusted while we were there: just spent ages looking for it and can't find it. A brilliant video and photographs of a the artist escaping a taxi by cutting his way out of the rear..with an angle grinder.
The Roberto Gonzalez Fernando at the Open Eye Gallery.. who had done a series of paintings of green bottles each with a small piece of paper with a message written on it. Paintings were beautifully executed, and the title of the painting was the content of the message, which took away the mystery.. shame
and then to the Bourne Gallery to see the Emily Young. Angie, Cara and I did not impress the gallery staff as potential buyers, they did not even look up, forget about standing. Beautiful statues carved in very precious pieces of special stone.. I found them cold, classical and exorbitantly expensive.
6th August.. Pittenweem Arts Festival .. a brilliant day out ..in the rain.. with Angie.. a reallly good suggestion. My favourite painting of the day is the picture above, there were lots and lots of pictures of sailing boats in small harbours and masses of other paintings.. the ones with bright colours seemed to be selling bes on such a dreich day.
Friday, 22 August 2008
Two Widows reviews
The Scotsman:
SCOTTISH OPERA: THE TWO WIDOWS EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE Three Stars
FESTIVALS are excellent for bringing obscure works back to life. An enquiring audience will respond well to such endeavours, as did Saturday's crowd for the opening night of this joint production by the Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Opera of Smetana's late two-act opera The Two Widows.It was, apparently, a favourite of Richard Strauss, who would often make his visits to Prague coincide with a performance. Smetana takes a typical tale of womanly intrigue and male buffoonery and wraps it up in a character piece that, under the direction of Scottish Opera's newly-appointed musical director Francesco Corti, has moments as bucolically stirring as the same composer's The Bartered Bride. These are well-expressed in overtures to both acts that are loaded with Slavonic energy and colour, but more especially in one beautifully extended scene featuring Jane Irwin as the love-troubled widow Anezka in which Smetana's emotional characterisation, with Irwin's heart-tugging portrayal, is genuinely show-stopping.Irwin is the cream of a cohesive cast that includes Kate Valentine as a vibrant Karolina (the "brighter" widow and chief protagonist), David Pomeroy as the inoffensive love object Ladislav, Nicholas Folwell in the clown role of Mumlal, and Ben Johnson and Rebecca Ryan as a token manifestation of young love among the menagerie of fun-loving villagers.But oh dear, what a production. Given this team's history with Scottish Opera – director/designer Tobias Hoheisel and co-director Imogen Kogge were responsible for last season's mind-numbing sterilisation of Mozart's Seraglio – perhaps we should have guessed the outcome. The recurring ruse with the mirrors – where character doubles act out the mirrored (or not) "reflection" – is not only unoriginal, but completely aimless in dramatic terms. The doe, appearing in the distant rural landscape for its figurative paean, looks more like a kangaroo. And even within the vast expanse of the gaudy green set, crowd scenes seem downright mob-like. Subtle, imaginative stagecraft is not this production's priority. Which is a pity, as a genuine effort to restore a serviceable opera to the repertoire should not be damned as a result.
and the Guardian:
Edinburgh festival: The Two Widows
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Erica Jeal
The Guardian,
Tuesday August 12 2008
Article history
Irresistible good humour ... The Two Widows. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod
Operas do not come very much lighter than The Two Widows, Smetana's comic successor to The Bartered Bride. This is the second time it has been championed by Scottish Opera, and although it might seem flimsy stuff on which to hang the recently beleagured company's Edinburgh Festival appearance, this new production, by Tobias Hoheisel and Imogen Kogge, brings it off with gentle, irresistible good humour.
Essentially, this is a drawing-room comedy spiced with a few rousing peasant choruses and some scenes for a young couple sung by Ben Johnson and Rebecca Ryan who provide light relief - not that it is needed. The familial relationship between the two widows of the title, the carefree Karolina and her more upright cousin Anezka, is nicely observed in the byplay between soprano Kate Valentine and mezzo Jane Irwin.
Valentine is a good head taller than anyone else on stage - when she sings "I'm an Amazon" she's not joking, and the nose of Ladislav (David Pomeroy) ends up in her cleavage more than once. But she has presence to match, and though her soprano is a little grainy, she is well cast as the serial flirt turned matchmaker. Elsewhere, blustering gamekeeper Mumlal receives a well-judged portrayal from Nicholas Folwell, who delivers each word of the English text with lip-smacking relish.
The orchestra is at its ebullient best under new music director Francesco Corti, throwing out polkas every which way with light-footed crispness. If not all the wind solos are ideally mellifluous, the same could be said of Pomeroy's tenor, and yet his foppish geniality and ease with the high notes compensate for his reedy tone, making him a sympathetic love interest for Anezka. Her doubts over whether to admit her feelings to this old flame make for the opera's one really serious monologue, to which Irwin brings convincing intensity.
Hoheisel's set, covered in gaudy green and orange wallpaper, is backed by a supposed mirror, and there is a recurring laugh involving Mumlal's reflection, who would rather sit and drink than bother to keep up with his flesh-and-blood counterpart. It could have spilled over into corniness, but Hoheisel and Kogge know just when to stop. Smetana, who wrote perhaps 10 minutes more music than required, didn't quite, but, in the circumstances, that is impossible to begrudge.
and the Indy:
SCOTTISH OPERA: THE TWO WIDOWS EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE Three Stars
FESTIVALS are excellent for bringing obscure works back to life. An enquiring audience will respond well to such endeavours, as did Saturday's crowd for the opening night of this joint production by the Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Opera of Smetana's late two-act opera The Two Widows.It was, apparently, a favourite of Richard Strauss, who would often make his visits to Prague coincide with a performance. Smetana takes a typical tale of womanly intrigue and male buffoonery and wraps it up in a character piece that, under the direction of Scottish Opera's newly-appointed musical director Francesco Corti, has moments as bucolically stirring as the same composer's The Bartered Bride. These are well-expressed in overtures to both acts that are loaded with Slavonic energy and colour, but more especially in one beautifully extended scene featuring Jane Irwin as the love-troubled widow Anezka in which Smetana's emotional characterisation, with Irwin's heart-tugging portrayal, is genuinely show-stopping.Irwin is the cream of a cohesive cast that includes Kate Valentine as a vibrant Karolina (the "brighter" widow and chief protagonist), David Pomeroy as the inoffensive love object Ladislav, Nicholas Folwell in the clown role of Mumlal, and Ben Johnson and Rebecca Ryan as a token manifestation of young love among the menagerie of fun-loving villagers.But oh dear, what a production. Given this team's history with Scottish Opera – director/designer Tobias Hoheisel and co-director Imogen Kogge were responsible for last season's mind-numbing sterilisation of Mozart's Seraglio – perhaps we should have guessed the outcome. The recurring ruse with the mirrors – where character doubles act out the mirrored (or not) "reflection" – is not only unoriginal, but completely aimless in dramatic terms. The doe, appearing in the distant rural landscape for its figurative paean, looks more like a kangaroo. And even within the vast expanse of the gaudy green set, crowd scenes seem downright mob-like. Subtle, imaginative stagecraft is not this production's priority. Which is a pity, as a genuine effort to restore a serviceable opera to the repertoire should not be damned as a result.
and the Guardian:
Edinburgh festival: The Two Widows
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Erica Jeal
The Guardian,
Tuesday August 12 2008
Article history
Irresistible good humour ... The Two Widows. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod
Operas do not come very much lighter than The Two Widows, Smetana's comic successor to The Bartered Bride. This is the second time it has been championed by Scottish Opera, and although it might seem flimsy stuff on which to hang the recently beleagured company's Edinburgh Festival appearance, this new production, by Tobias Hoheisel and Imogen Kogge, brings it off with gentle, irresistible good humour.
Essentially, this is a drawing-room comedy spiced with a few rousing peasant choruses and some scenes for a young couple sung by Ben Johnson and Rebecca Ryan who provide light relief - not that it is needed. The familial relationship between the two widows of the title, the carefree Karolina and her more upright cousin Anezka, is nicely observed in the byplay between soprano Kate Valentine and mezzo Jane Irwin.
Valentine is a good head taller than anyone else on stage - when she sings "I'm an Amazon" she's not joking, and the nose of Ladislav (David Pomeroy) ends up in her cleavage more than once. But she has presence to match, and though her soprano is a little grainy, she is well cast as the serial flirt turned matchmaker. Elsewhere, blustering gamekeeper Mumlal receives a well-judged portrayal from Nicholas Folwell, who delivers each word of the English text with lip-smacking relish.
The orchestra is at its ebullient best under new music director Francesco Corti, throwing out polkas every which way with light-footed crispness. If not all the wind solos are ideally mellifluous, the same could be said of Pomeroy's tenor, and yet his foppish geniality and ease with the high notes compensate for his reedy tone, making him a sympathetic love interest for Anezka. Her doubts over whether to admit her feelings to this old flame make for the opera's one really serious monologue, to which Irwin brings convincing intensity.
Hoheisel's set, covered in gaudy green and orange wallpaper, is backed by a supposed mirror, and there is a recurring laugh involving Mumlal's reflection, who would rather sit and drink than bother to keep up with his flesh-and-blood counterpart. It could have spilled over into corniness, but Hoheisel and Kogge know just when to stop. Smetana, who wrote perhaps 10 minutes more music than required, didn't quite, but, in the circumstances, that is impossible to begrudge.
and the Indy:
The Two Widows, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Festival
(Rated 4/ 5 )
By Raymond MonelleWednesday, 13 August 2008
Francesco Corti, the conductor of Scottish Opera's new production of Smetana's The Two Widows, may have had an easier task. But this does not detract from his achievement. It was an object lesson in how to direct an opera, and the orchestra sounded transparent and lithe.
The cast was ideal for the task. As the gay Karolina, Kate Valentine was light and buoyant; David Pomeroy, as the romantic hero Ladislav, fielded a rich high tenor that never flagged.
Unfortunately the piece was let down by the translation of David Pountney and Leonard Hancock, which had too many rhymes and not enough wit. Otherwise, it was a simple solution to a simple problem, warmed by Smetana's unsinkable lyric invention.
If it's Friday it must be the Usher Hall.............
............again............we've been to this................
ISRAEL IN EGYPT****USHER HALL
IF EVER Handel wrote a showcase for the chorus, it was this 1730s oratorio. The onus was on the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to deliver the goods, and that it did, to an extent we have rarely heard in recent years.The transformation can be pinned down to one man, Christopher Bell, who took over the chorus directorship last year. Last night's performance was effectively the full chorus's maiden voyage under his charge.The impact has clearly been immediate. Diction that was as clear as a whistle, rhythmic energy and precision and, for the most part, bright and accurate intonation, coloured this operatically-charged jigsaw of mainly short, dramatic choruses with enough stylish piquance to call this a genuinely vivid Handel performance.But such a bristling account of the oratorio was ultimately down to the sum of its parts. At the helm, the refined but animated presence of Emmanuelle Haim shaped the work with a gutsy combination of tautness, flexibility, definition and refinement.A cohesive solo team – among them the glowing voices of soprano Lucy Crowe, tenor Mark Tucker and bass Matthew Brook – contributed to the slickness of the performance, not least in the exquisite duos, as did the ever-reliable Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
and this.....................
Pratchett's world works on stage
By THOM DIBDIN
Wyrd Sisters Mayfield Salisbury Church
IT'S a weird job, but someone had to do it – bringing Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels to the stage. And Stephen Briggs' adaptation serves just fine in pulling Pratchett's strangely warped imaginings off the page.It's not an easy play to stage, however, and while Arkle Theatre Company have a blast bringing the characters to life, their presentation leaves a lot to be desired.Leading the way are the Wyrd Sisters themselves, three witches who inhabit the far distant mountain land of Lancre. It's a backward country, still close to nature, where witches still mediate the relationship between humans and the land.Bev Wright is in top form as chief witch, Granny Weatherwax. There's enough of the Morningside about her manner to indicate a woman who is not to be trifled with.Her scabby and odorous sidekick, Nanny Ogg, is strongly characterised by Carol Davidson, while Charlotte Bunting is equally good as young Magrat Garlick, who might be naive in the ways of men, but is far from simple.The actual plot revolves around Lord and Lady Felmet who have just killed the old king in a Macbeth-like orgy of blood. Saving the king's infant son, the Wyrd Sisters send him off to be brought up by travelling players until he is old enough to regain the throne.Gordon Craig needs to be a touch more deliberate as Lord Felmet, although his troubled nature is perfectly rendered. Fiona Main could afford to echo her outrageous Goth costume with her mannerisms. Tony Sehgal succeeds in appearing both wise and foolish as the court Jester. However, having created a brilliantly layered playing area, in which at least three different scenes could be played at the same time, Arkle singularly fail to make full use of it. So, instead of a production which glides smoothly along, this jumps back and forth with interminable blackouts as the stage is reset, again and again.Director Rae Lamond has helped his large cast conquer the tricky knack of playing Pratchett, from the sisters themselves down to the lowliest sword carrier. Sadly the production does not do the performances justice.
and this..................
MONTEVERDI CHOIR***USHER HALL
LET'S just pass on the fact that the Usher Hall was not the ideal location for Schutz's opulent Musikalische Exequien, which formed part of this rare Scottish sighting of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, his Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. You simply don't get the right aural or visual experience in a concert hall that a cathedral or large church would provide. And it robbed us of something potentially thrilling, given the piercing clarity and rich antiphonal properties of the music.You could argue, too, that Brahms's Begrabnisgesang – another burial hymn – lost impact for the same reason, although its pungent wind and brass accompaniment, together with an expressive range almost Brucknerian in scale, left it relatively unscathed.The real triumph of the evening – and a revelation, too, given this specialist band's feisty affinity for period performance – was undoubtedly Brahms's Requiem.How many times do we hear it turned into a dirge? In Gardiner's hands it possessed an ecstatic warmth, despite some iffy wind entries and the odd discrepancy between choir and orchestra.But we'll remember this more for the edgy brilliance of the horn playing and choral singing of impeccable beauty.
Don't agree with any of the reviews of course..................the Handel was great and the EFC were indeed better than they've been for years...........you could tell the bits they'd gone over and over by the expressions of intense concentration..............and the plagues of Egypt were graphic, we loved the Flies and Lice!...............there was almost nothing for the soloists to do, and Marion's old classmate Clare de Bono had barely four lines to sing, hardly worth climbing into the frock for.
Rae's show at Mayfield was really good we thought and the review is unfair. the cast couldn't really have done much more with it than they did, all very well to criticise the production but i don't suppose they had any money so they did well and bits of it were very funny.
the Monteverdi Choir were just amazing..........real quality stuff, so perfect it hurt. but the Brahms sounded very odd and took a bit of getting used to..............again performed with absolute perfection, superb diction, crisp endings etc etc............just not how we're used to hearing it. we had Alice King with us, having been to hear her talk on her book "High Sobriety" along with Stepahnie Merrit on her book "The Devil Within"...............haven't read that one and it doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs. nor was she..................very intense, like an extremely well-bred and highly-strung greyhound, and possibly a bit snappy with it..............the Book Fest is always such an oasis of civilization in the midst of the frenzy, even though it was lashing with rain as it has done for most of the Fest off-and-on. Gail and Rachel borrowed our sailing kit to go to the Tattoo, that's how bad it's been...............
Tonight it was off to the Usher hall yet again to see Anne-Sofie von Otter with Les Arts Florissants and a programme of French baroque............i suspect there's an album in the offing. i've never seen her before and she's quite a performer...............much to our disappointment she didn't do "The Winner takes It All" as her encore, just some soppy thing in which the theorbo player caused great excitement by bashing the mikes with the neck of his instrument so the whole audience were torn between being hypnotised by the beauty of the diva's voice and by the swaying of the mike which had started to move in time to the music..............we took John with us as Marion had pulled out (AGAIN!!), he's the sort of guy who would enjoy anything you took him to, so he duly did.............and we met Kate in the interval for a discussion of bustles...........
ISRAEL IN EGYPT****USHER HALL
IF EVER Handel wrote a showcase for the chorus, it was this 1730s oratorio. The onus was on the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to deliver the goods, and that it did, to an extent we have rarely heard in recent years.The transformation can be pinned down to one man, Christopher Bell, who took over the chorus directorship last year. Last night's performance was effectively the full chorus's maiden voyage under his charge.The impact has clearly been immediate. Diction that was as clear as a whistle, rhythmic energy and precision and, for the most part, bright and accurate intonation, coloured this operatically-charged jigsaw of mainly short, dramatic choruses with enough stylish piquance to call this a genuinely vivid Handel performance.But such a bristling account of the oratorio was ultimately down to the sum of its parts. At the helm, the refined but animated presence of Emmanuelle Haim shaped the work with a gutsy combination of tautness, flexibility, definition and refinement.A cohesive solo team – among them the glowing voices of soprano Lucy Crowe, tenor Mark Tucker and bass Matthew Brook – contributed to the slickness of the performance, not least in the exquisite duos, as did the ever-reliable Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
and this.....................
Pratchett's world works on stage
By THOM DIBDIN
Wyrd Sisters Mayfield Salisbury Church
IT'S a weird job, but someone had to do it – bringing Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels to the stage. And Stephen Briggs' adaptation serves just fine in pulling Pratchett's strangely warped imaginings off the page.It's not an easy play to stage, however, and while Arkle Theatre Company have a blast bringing the characters to life, their presentation leaves a lot to be desired.Leading the way are the Wyrd Sisters themselves, three witches who inhabit the far distant mountain land of Lancre. It's a backward country, still close to nature, where witches still mediate the relationship between humans and the land.Bev Wright is in top form as chief witch, Granny Weatherwax. There's enough of the Morningside about her manner to indicate a woman who is not to be trifled with.Her scabby and odorous sidekick, Nanny Ogg, is strongly characterised by Carol Davidson, while Charlotte Bunting is equally good as young Magrat Garlick, who might be naive in the ways of men, but is far from simple.The actual plot revolves around Lord and Lady Felmet who have just killed the old king in a Macbeth-like orgy of blood. Saving the king's infant son, the Wyrd Sisters send him off to be brought up by travelling players until he is old enough to regain the throne.Gordon Craig needs to be a touch more deliberate as Lord Felmet, although his troubled nature is perfectly rendered. Fiona Main could afford to echo her outrageous Goth costume with her mannerisms. Tony Sehgal succeeds in appearing both wise and foolish as the court Jester. However, having created a brilliantly layered playing area, in which at least three different scenes could be played at the same time, Arkle singularly fail to make full use of it. So, instead of a production which glides smoothly along, this jumps back and forth with interminable blackouts as the stage is reset, again and again.Director Rae Lamond has helped his large cast conquer the tricky knack of playing Pratchett, from the sisters themselves down to the lowliest sword carrier. Sadly the production does not do the performances justice.
and this..................
MONTEVERDI CHOIR***USHER HALL
LET'S just pass on the fact that the Usher Hall was not the ideal location for Schutz's opulent Musikalische Exequien, which formed part of this rare Scottish sighting of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, his Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. You simply don't get the right aural or visual experience in a concert hall that a cathedral or large church would provide. And it robbed us of something potentially thrilling, given the piercing clarity and rich antiphonal properties of the music.You could argue, too, that Brahms's Begrabnisgesang – another burial hymn – lost impact for the same reason, although its pungent wind and brass accompaniment, together with an expressive range almost Brucknerian in scale, left it relatively unscathed.The real triumph of the evening – and a revelation, too, given this specialist band's feisty affinity for period performance – was undoubtedly Brahms's Requiem.How many times do we hear it turned into a dirge? In Gardiner's hands it possessed an ecstatic warmth, despite some iffy wind entries and the odd discrepancy between choir and orchestra.But we'll remember this more for the edgy brilliance of the horn playing and choral singing of impeccable beauty.
Don't agree with any of the reviews of course..................the Handel was great and the EFC were indeed better than they've been for years...........you could tell the bits they'd gone over and over by the expressions of intense concentration..............and the plagues of Egypt were graphic, we loved the Flies and Lice!...............there was almost nothing for the soloists to do, and Marion's old classmate Clare de Bono had barely four lines to sing, hardly worth climbing into the frock for.
Rae's show at Mayfield was really good we thought and the review is unfair. the cast couldn't really have done much more with it than they did, all very well to criticise the production but i don't suppose they had any money so they did well and bits of it were very funny.
the Monteverdi Choir were just amazing..........real quality stuff, so perfect it hurt. but the Brahms sounded very odd and took a bit of getting used to..............again performed with absolute perfection, superb diction, crisp endings etc etc............just not how we're used to hearing it. we had Alice King with us, having been to hear her talk on her book "High Sobriety" along with Stepahnie Merrit on her book "The Devil Within"...............haven't read that one and it doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs. nor was she..................very intense, like an extremely well-bred and highly-strung greyhound, and possibly a bit snappy with it..............the Book Fest is always such an oasis of civilization in the midst of the frenzy, even though it was lashing with rain as it has done for most of the Fest off-and-on. Gail and Rachel borrowed our sailing kit to go to the Tattoo, that's how bad it's been...............
Tonight it was off to the Usher hall yet again to see Anne-Sofie von Otter with Les Arts Florissants and a programme of French baroque............i suspect there's an album in the offing. i've never seen her before and she's quite a performer...............much to our disappointment she didn't do "The Winner takes It All" as her encore, just some soppy thing in which the theorbo player caused great excitement by bashing the mikes with the neck of his instrument so the whole audience were torn between being hypnotised by the beauty of the diva's voice and by the swaying of the mike which had started to move in time to the music..............we took John with us as Marion had pulled out (AGAIN!!), he's the sort of guy who would enjoy anything you took him to, so he duly did.............and we met Kate in the interval for a discussion of bustles...........
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Fringe Sunday
.......so it is..........it was certainly a good idea to take the wellies. we have our first set of Festival visitors in the shape of Wendy and Helen who arrived yesterday, but they don't seem particularly interested in the culture side of things and have gone off to Aberlady...........
...........off to OSP on Friday to support our local Fringe show........"Murder in the Cathedral" with Richard Holloway as the Bish.............they made a very good fist of it, i agree with Ross that it is a bit wordy and i realised i hadn't a clue what the whole Thomas Becket thing was about so had to come home and look him up on Wikipedia. bu the play poses an question which had already come up at Gene's talk..............about knowing whether what's driving you is really "God's will" or pride - in Becket's case the spiritual pride of deliberately seeking martyrdom in putting himself on a collision course with the King. don't suppose you can ever know really................
..........last night back to the "Two Widows"...............Festival Theatre almost full, we took Carol along and were away up in the Gods............hearing it again confirmed my impression that it's really nice music, although the second act is weak compared to the first. Jane sounded lovely but the little Kiwi soprano failed to hit her top note again so obviously wasn't just having a bad day at the rehearsal. the chorus were vastly improved even if the dancing was still a bit leaden............a good time was had by all and we bumped into Gail and Rachel on the way home, gazing mystified into Old College and wondering what was going on in there. some surreal open-air "experience" no doubt............
...........off to OSP on Friday to support our local Fringe show........"Murder in the Cathedral" with Richard Holloway as the Bish.............they made a very good fist of it, i agree with Ross that it is a bit wordy and i realised i hadn't a clue what the whole Thomas Becket thing was about so had to come home and look him up on Wikipedia. bu the play poses an question which had already come up at Gene's talk..............about knowing whether what's driving you is really "God's will" or pride - in Becket's case the spiritual pride of deliberately seeking martyrdom in putting himself on a collision course with the King. don't suppose you can ever know really................
..........last night back to the "Two Widows"...............Festival Theatre almost full, we took Carol along and were away up in the Gods............hearing it again confirmed my impression that it's really nice music, although the second act is weak compared to the first. Jane sounded lovely but the little Kiwi soprano failed to hit her top note again so obviously wasn't just having a bad day at the rehearsal. the chorus were vastly improved even if the dancing was still a bit leaden............a good time was had by all and we bumped into Gail and Rachel on the way home, gazing mystified into Old College and wondering what was going on in there. some surreal open-air "experience" no doubt............
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
day off
phew.............thought we were having a slow start but been to two more things...........Gene Robinson's talk at St John's and the play "Deep Cut" at the Traverse. Gene was interesting but not a firebrand speaker..........the surprise was how conservative he is and were it not for the "gay thing" he would just be a totally obscure middle-of-the-road bishop like loads of others we've never heard of. certainly nothing to frighten the horses..................no placard-waving loonies at the event fortunately, but it must be a worry wondering what nutcase is going to surge up out of the crowd wherever you go and what they're going to do............
..........the play was fantastic, very well performed...........therefore very sad and distressing. it was completely gripping..........but left you with feelings of impotant rage and nowhere really to take them............there doesn't seem to be any ongoing campaign for a public inquiry. the forensic evidence was lost or destroyed and it's probably too late now to find out what really happened..........but the official explanations certainly aren't credible............
..........the play was fantastic, very well performed...........therefore very sad and distressing. it was completely gripping..........but left you with feelings of impotant rage and nowhere really to take them............there doesn't seem to be any ongoing campaign for a public inquiry. the forensic evidence was lost or destroyed and it's probably too late now to find out what really happened..........but the official explanations certainly aren't credible............
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Let the madness commence..............
...........even though it hasn't actually started yet. however the atmosphere certainly has...........the Udderbelly is up and the streets are thronged with people who have just arrived and are wearing that slightly glazed and gleikit "where am i?" expression as they wander vaguely around getting in the way. However Fest started for us in Glasgow................wee trip to Theatre Royal to see Scottish Op's "Open rehearsal" of "The Two Widows". Bit of a risk for those of us who've already loyally bought tickets................what if we hated it. i certainly hated the sets and the chorus costumes were vile.................screaming lime-green and orange versions of the dreaded Peasant Skirt, o God, how many shows has that been in? the chorus looked embarrassed and well they might...................not only looking like refugees from the D'Oyly Carte but they had to dance like them as well and with one or two noble exceptions most of them looked as though they had never stood on a stage before. and indeed wished never to stand on a stage again. unfortunately Jane Irwin had a sore throat or attack of the vapours or whatever, at any rate couldn't sing, but walked through while her cover sang it in, very nicely. it's a pleasant enough show...............nice tunes...........lots of vaguely G & S-sounding bits, but it felt as though they didn't quite know whether to send it up or take it seriously and the comic touches just weren't very funny. also G & S-like in having the supposedly comic baritone character who was tediously unamusing, the second-act solo was torture, maybe it would have been funnier in Czech. hope Jane is OK for the first night................it would be nice to see her play some less depressive characters occasionally but at least she gets a happy ending instead of topping herself this time..............pity also that the understudy didn't get to take a call...............
............coming home, first surreal Festival moment............a group of musicians at the east End spot clad in Native American outfits with feather headbands and pan pipes and so forth............playing that well-known old Native American tune, "The Dark Island"....................
............coming home, first surreal Festival moment............a group of musicians at the east End spot clad in Native American outfits with feather headbands and pan pipes and so forth............playing that well-known old Native American tune, "The Dark Island"....................
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