Where to begin?
Nov. 15th, 2008 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mistletoeBy Jove I've got that much to waffle on about I don't know where to start or even if I can remember what I want to say. I'll try to sort it out in order of importance.
1. Tosca Beautiful singing, lousy production. We tore it apart when we got back to Debra's. The main cavil was that Tosca was murdered at the end. For us, this completely undermined the tragedy of her sacrifice for Caveradossi. All sorts of things were disappointing about the third act in particular. Scarpia raped her before she killed him; her duet with Caveradossi was sung side by side with no acknowledgement of either's presence. Caveradossi was not shot but was still dead; he just sort of lay down. I thought he had gone back to sleep.
Strangely, the same set was used throughout - a church with scattered upright chairs - which worked reasonably well in Act 1 but ruined the contrast of the settings in Act 2 and 3. There was what Debra referred to as the cupboard in the corner which acted as the Angelotti chapel and the torture chamber. It was also the perch from which the Marchese (sic) di Angelotti observed the last two acts. I don't know why she was there; nobody noticed her throughout and she sang three lines as a link between Act 2 and 3 which had no curtain.
The torturer was a local electrician complete with tool box. Scarpia was played as some sort of psychotic pervert complete with twitching and hugging of a bust of the Virgin Mary. There was nothing menacing about him at all although his behaviour in Act 2 was disgustingly deviant rather than deviously scheming. He died in his underpants. His henchman shot Tosca. The highlight was the curtaincall when the conductor appeared complete in tails, white waistcoat and a shock of white hair. He did the hokey cokey with the cast 3 times and finally the curtain fell. Only one aria got an ovation which was Visse d'Arte.
2. Blackburn Rovers 1 Sunderland 2. Now that was a surprise. Yet again the opposition scored on the stroke of half time. That was that I thought so I transferred this week's Bones to video and took no further interest. Imagine my surprise when I checked the final scores and saw we had scored 2 in the second half: Kenwyne and my man Cisse. I will watch it later.
3. 6 o'clock and the phone rang. It was Nina from the television company. Kevin (my toy boy) had left a message on the phone for a meeting yesterday. Of course I was at the opera so had missed it. However, I am meeting with Denise for a chat tomorrow at 4.30 at the local posh hotel. I had to call my head teacher to tell her about the change of plan as we had originally thought she wanted to go into school to see the lie of the land, find out how to use the interactive whiteboards, how to log onto the computer network, how to do the electronic register. No, just a little chat. I think she may fall flat on her face. Not that I wish her any ill will or anything but I don't know what they expect teaching to be like. Maybe we were so good when the toyboy was watching they thought it was simple. I'll keep you posted.
4. Shopping at Asda today after another failed foray to the furniture store. My mam had seen two suites she liked the look of in the paper but the live ones were not what she wanted. We did see one called Germaine which she is thinking about. Anyway, I am now re-stocked with cheese and ready meals for lunch next week so that part was fine.
OK. I think that's the gist of things.
1. Tosca Beautiful singing, lousy production. We tore it apart when we got back to Debra's. The main cavil was that Tosca was murdered at the end. For us, this completely undermined the tragedy of her sacrifice for Caveradossi. All sorts of things were disappointing about the third act in particular. Scarpia raped her before she killed him; her duet with Caveradossi was sung side by side with no acknowledgement of either's presence. Caveradossi was not shot but was still dead; he just sort of lay down. I thought he had gone back to sleep.
Strangely, the same set was used throughout - a church with scattered upright chairs - which worked reasonably well in Act 1 but ruined the contrast of the settings in Act 2 and 3. There was what Debra referred to as the cupboard in the corner which acted as the Angelotti chapel and the torture chamber. It was also the perch from which the Marchese (sic) di Angelotti observed the last two acts. I don't know why she was there; nobody noticed her throughout and she sang three lines as a link between Act 2 and 3 which had no curtain.
The torturer was a local electrician complete with tool box. Scarpia was played as some sort of psychotic pervert complete with twitching and hugging of a bust of the Virgin Mary. There was nothing menacing about him at all although his behaviour in Act 2 was disgustingly deviant rather than deviously scheming. He died in his underpants. His henchman shot Tosca. The highlight was the curtaincall when the conductor appeared complete in tails, white waistcoat and a shock of white hair. He did the hokey cokey with the cast 3 times and finally the curtain fell. Only one aria got an ovation which was Visse d'Arte.
2. Blackburn Rovers 1 Sunderland 2. Now that was a surprise. Yet again the opposition scored on the stroke of half time. That was that I thought so I transferred this week's Bones to video and took no further interest. Imagine my surprise when I checked the final scores and saw we had scored 2 in the second half: Kenwyne and my man Cisse. I will watch it later.
3. 6 o'clock and the phone rang. It was Nina from the television company. Kevin (my toy boy) had left a message on the phone for a meeting yesterday. Of course I was at the opera so had missed it. However, I am meeting with Denise for a chat tomorrow at 4.30 at the local posh hotel. I had to call my head teacher to tell her about the change of plan as we had originally thought she wanted to go into school to see the lie of the land, find out how to use the interactive whiteboards, how to log onto the computer network, how to do the electronic register. No, just a little chat. I think she may fall flat on her face. Not that I wish her any ill will or anything but I don't know what they expect teaching to be like. Maybe we were so good when the toyboy was watching they thought it was simple. I'll keep you posted.
4. Shopping at Asda today after another failed foray to the furniture store. My mam had seen two suites she liked the look of in the paper but the live ones were not what she wanted. We did see one called Germaine which she is thinking about. Anyway, I am now re-stocked with cheese and ready meals for lunch next week so that part was fine.
OK. I think that's the gist of things.
