Ballet Cymru - Under Milk Wood

At Stamford.  Lovely performance and characterisations.   The backdrops and the music were excellent, the dances conveyed the humour and sadness, and Gwyn Vaughan Jones as the narrator was very impressive.

I had doubts about a ballet interpretation of this work before we went, but none whatsoever once it had started.


Music: Thomas Hewitt Jones

Choreography: Darius James

Costume Design: Yvonne Greenleaf

First Voice: Gwyn Vaughan Jones

Paintings for projections: Jeremy Thomas

Guernica - by Dave Boling

I recently read Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom, and it re-awakened my interest in the period of the Spanish Civil War and just afterwards.

This book, written by a Chicago journalist married to the descendant of Basque immigrants, brought a lot of local colour and knowledge of the area and its history to life.  The characters are presented in a sort of rural idyll - with their own quirks, such as the seasick fisherman Miguel,  the blustering Justo who has had to bring up his brothers after his mother's death and his father's disintegration, Miren, the magical dancer who wins Miguel's heart, blind Alaia, brought up in the convent, but finding independence, with the help Miren's friendship, the sale of home made soap and by becoming a kind of prostitute with a heart of gold.

Some of the tension comes from knowing that the bombing will happen, and not knowing how it will affect the families involved.

Afterwards we see the characters re-adjusting to life without those who died, and some of them become more involved in the politics of resistance.

I was not so keen on the interwoven threads about the Red Baron  planning the bombing raid, and about Picasso and the painting.

But all in all a very engaging book, with an ending that gives room for hope.

From the New Statesman

Peter HainHeart-rending yet enthralling, Guernica (Picador, £7.99) by Dave Boling is the story of the ordinary residents of Guernica whose lives and community were destroyed in 1937 by Nazi bombing, with the full support of Franco's Fascists. Where Picasso's painting so vividly captured the hellfire of the town's destruction, this book fills in the humanity. The characters, the culture and the landscape are all lovingly described, in direct contrast to the cold and clinical destruction of 1,500 inhabitants of a town that was central to the Basque identity.

Other reviews of this book can be found here
and
here

Up - Pixar Disney animation

The animation is so good you almost forget about it. Great effects, with the flying house supported by helium balloons, some dizzy heights and impossible swinging around on the end of ropes.






And the message, live your dreams, but don't get stuck in the same one for ever?  And heroes can turn out to be villains too.

Albert Herring on TV

Performed in Rouen. 2009.

Based on a Conte by Guy de Maupassant - 'Le Rosier de Madame Husson'.
Very funny, but of course with serious undertones. Much lighter than Peter Grimes.

The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

A novel set in a near future, where the world is ruled by the corporations and their security corps - CorpSeCorps.  There are dissidents called God's Gardeners who live as 'green' a life as possible, and while they have no answers, they do ask a few questions.  Then we have the pleeblands - the equivalent of our 'sink estates'.

This is the same place and time as 'Oryx and Crake' - but from a different point of view.  Most of humanity is wiped out by a plague, and The Year of the Flood takes place just before and after this event.  

More later

Il Viaggio a Reims - Rossini (on TV)

A recording of the production at the Chatelet in Paris,  a combined effort of the Kirov Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet

Had me googling to remind myself of the history I "studied" years ago.  This one-act opera was written to celebrate the coronation of Charles X of France in 1824.  The monarchy was briefly restored after the Revolutionary years, and Napoleon.

Some very entertaining singing and acting - particularly the Contessa de Folleville (great name) in her extravagant costumes.  No wonder we could hardly follow the plot, though - there isn't much of one - a crowd of European aristos trying to get to Reims for the coronation, and the problems they have.

(I may add more later.)

Die Fledermaus on TV

This was the 1990 performance at Covent Garden, on New Years Eve, where Joan Sutherland made her last public appearance in the party scene - in fact she, Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne almost hi-jacked the opera. ;-)

Alas no subtitles.  They would have helped, even though the singing was in English.  An odd one - with a lot of talking , which did help to understand the story - which basically involves a lot of flirting and deception and confusion of identities all round.