Went to Glyndebourne with old friends Sean and Janet Sayers, and saw La Boheme. Not one of my favourite operas, but it was engaging – and of course it is short! Had an excellent picnic as well. What else? Day in London to meet my old school friend Plum, Stanza Poetry Group, Pilates. Sadly, neighbours in hospital. Busy writing writing writing.
Glyndebourne first then. Readers will know we go to the Autumn season quite often. It used to be called the ‘Tour’, but sadly, the Glyndebourne tour of provincial theatres is no more. A revival of a very well-reviewed Festival production, we pronounced La Boheme good – but not that good, unlike the reviewers. Here is the Guardian review. As you can see from the photo above (all are from the website), the set was very, very bare and bleak, and they kept the same set all the way through. The exact opposite of the last production we saw, see this post about it. My crikey – that post dates from 2019… haven’t we been since then? You know, the pandemic has played havoc with all of us. Years like 2020, 2021 just got lost somewhere. Anyway, that production, Rigoletto, was notable because the scenery never stayed the same for five minutes. It moved so busily that it detracted from the singing and the music. But as I say, this time we were stuck with a bleak street scene. Perhaps they are saving money.
No freezing garrets here – even the stove was just portrayed as a manhole in the street. The cafe scene – in the street. Poor Mimi even had to die in the street. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to see a garret. But the singing and music, as ever at Glyndebourne, was great. I particularly liked Aida Pascu as Mimi, and there were some good costumes – see Musetta below.
We found it a bit distracting that Mimi was followed round all the time by a silent black-clad figure, who turned out to be Death, but there was a good dramatic effect when she dies. Mimi and Death walk away off the back of the stage together. But that meant that the others were singing to a blank space where her body should have been. Given the technical capacity they have, they could have fadged that up somehow, we thought.
But on the whole, as I said, I don’t care for La Boheme. Mimi is such a weedy-wet and Rodolfo isn’t very nice at all – ending the relationship when she is ill etc. It only has one good song, that comes right at the beginning, and there is far too much boring horsing around by the Bohemians. At least the surtitles enable one to hear what is going on.
But we had a good time. Sean and Janet Sayers are old University friends of Philosopher, and we put together a good picnic for them courtesy of Mr Morrison, who did Glyndebourne proud. We like the autumn season because it is so much less stuffy than the summer – not that we have ever been in the summer, wouldn’t go on principle!
Writing writing writing? Yes, have finished the whole of ‘Death is a Desirable Property’, my second novel. I say finished, but I now have to go back through the whole thing tying up loose ends, making sure clues hang together, rewriting bits, cutting out bits, adding bits etc. Then it will go to Philosopher to read through, then I will do the proper edit, and tackle the horrendous job of formatting. That will take some time. I don’t expect it to be published until February 2026. I have re-commissioned Patrick Knowles the cover designer. The novel features the Old Rectory in the fictional Compton Perceval… oddly enough I took a picture of the real Old Rectory in Compton Pauncefoot, the original model for the village, when we visited in 2023. I think my current image of the house is a bigger, more classical Georgian mansion… Anyway, Here’s the post about it.
One thing, when I am so focused on the second novel, it is difficult to keep up the momentum of promoting the first one. That promotion has to be continuous, and I have slacked. Sales have dropped a bit. So, if you haven’t yet read ‘Death, Deceit and Cake’, here is the link! Read it if you haven’t already.
https://amzn.eu/d/0MdsCfZ
Tomorrow I have to go to Eastbourne to talk about being a writer to a WI group. I quite enjoy doing that, and I do sell some author’s copies, which is good.
