Madam Butterfly revisisted 2010 and 2011

I do not understand that I repeated my earlier review but I watched a film of the 2009 related in october 2010 and again in March 2011, two years after the first viewing.

It is about ten years since I have experienced opera live, making special visit to the Opera House in Leeds for a performance of the Magic Flute. I cannot say that cost has prevented or lack of opportunity as Opera North, based in Leeds, performs regularly at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle and by coincidence the summer programme arrived in the post on Friday for the Theatre, revealing that three works are to be performed in English in June with prices from £35-£50, although in fact none of works appeal.

For the past three months Cineworld cinemas has relayed performances from the Metropolitan Opera House of New York at six pm on a Saturday evening, and when I saw that there was to be a Performance of Madam Butterfly on the weekend of my three years and ten I decided to book a seat and attend without knowing what to expect from the relay although by coincidence I had seen a full performance of the opera on a satellite TV channel within the past year and switched on the radio earlier in the week as an established artist sang a few lines of “one fine Day” talk a little about the opera and her role in the led and sang a few lines more, it was an auspicious omen.

Although booking six weeks beforehand the available seat was in the first row of auditorium banking with four rows in front after a wide space on the same level. Although not ideal therefore there was plenty of room to stretch legs and with the relay in High Definition there was no strain from the proximity to the screen. All seats were sold.

Before talking about the performance I must mention the nature of the relay where there was a sound connection to the Opera House before visual so one could hear the arrival of the patrons with their combined chatter and orchestra tuning up and then with a couple minutes to we looked on to the stage with a small countdown clock to the lower right hand corner. This was repeated during then two intervals for their middle section of 15 mins, either side of which there were behind the scenes interviews and films related to the opera and others to come and in the planned season for next Winter of nine relays The performance time is about 145 minutes plus the two half an hour intervals.

The short interviews included Cio Cio Patricia Racette, Maria Zifchak as Suzuki, the maid, and Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton and the widow of Mr Minghella as well as excerpts from an interview with Anthony about the production. All this together with subtitles and close ups as well as full stage shots created a memorable theatrical experience to what was an emotionally overwhelming experience because of the depth of acting and singing, the like of which I have not previously encountered.

The Metropolitan Association of New York was formed in 1880 and has become the biggest classical music organisation in the USA with over 200 performances a year. The Present Opera House, created in 1966 has one of the biggest stages and an auditorium with 3800 seats and is one of twelve cultural organisations which form the Lincoln Arts centre for Performing art. Because of the height of the stage it is not possible to show sub title translations as in the practice of many establishments so the solutions has been to create a small screen version before each seat which can be switched on or off and is designed not disturb those in adjacent seats. In addition to English the titles are available in French, Spanish, Italian and German depending on the opera and performance language

Luciano Pavarotti achieved world fame singing at the Met along with Placido Domingo and Renee Flemming who hosted the evening telecast.

Since 1931 it has broadcast a performance live each week and on TV on a regular basis since 1977. In 2006 the Opera commenced the Satellite transmission of live opera four times a week and then HD quality performance to cinemas throughout the world including the UK, the Far East and Australia. Although each production costs $1 million dollars to transmit such as been the interest in the live TV showings that there are more seats sold for these than for live performances at the theatre and the income generated now adds to that of the Opera House. Basic ticket prices range for $10 dollars to $375 for the average performance although up to £650 for a long Wagner, There are handling charges and house maintenance charges to these. It is now possible to listen to radio broadcasts direct for the Met, there is one tonight available on the internet. It is also possible to take out an annual, six monthly or monthly subscription to be able see on line 150 previous productions going back half a century on an unlimited basis, or pay to see individual works, including some of those recently shown on HD.

A major development during my lifetime is the open stage on which the performers are secreted or appear during the second that the auditorium and stage is cast in total darkness. Gone is the solid fire safety “curtain” and swing across curtains. For Butterfly, as the orchestra played an overture, Minghella adopted blackness and then a young dancer/mime artist, representing Butterfly, the young Geisha girl, came down stairs from the back of the theatre to create the illusion of a hill with black clothed and veiled mime artists in attendance unravelling swathes of cloth from around her waist and also introducing the use of puppets, and in particular the use of a puppet to represent the subsequent three year old son of Cio Cio San.

The story of Butterfly is one of the best known of all Opera’s along with Bizet’s Carmen and which because of the Spanish setting was the first to which I was introduced by my birth mother who also introduced to Swan Lake, the Tchaikovsky Ballet.

Originally a short story by John Luther Long in 1898 it was made into a stage play by David Belasco It is understood the core events of the opera took place in Nagasaki in the early 1890’s. The original version of the opera was in two acts and opened at La Scala Milan in 1904. This was not a great success and Puccini re wrote as three acts and continued to make different versions, five in total with the last in 1907. It was first performed in England in 1905 and New York in 1906 in English.

Cio Cio San, is a fifteen year old innocent Japanese Geisha girl in the port city of Nagasaki who has been the older Lieutenant in the USA Navy on a visit, desires her but finds in order to have sexual relations he must agree to a marriage formally arranged by a local marriage broker and the American Consul. He hires a traditional Japanese house overlooking the harbour on a lease and agrees to participating in a wedding ceremony according to Japanese custom and which involves relatives and Geisha girl friends. The house is rented along with servants including a maid Suzuki, who Minghella has turned into the second important role, of even greater significance to Pinkerton.

Unlike the majority of the girls who understand the impact of being a Geisha on the rest of their lives, Suzuki comes from a wealthy family of standing who have fallen on hard time, and waiting in the wings is a young Japanese warrior of good birth wanting to marry her. The American Consul , the marriage broker and Pinkerton are all aware that the wedding ceremony is a façade to enable him to enjoy the experience of the young woman while he is in port, and that whatever he says or promises he has no intention of returning or establishing a permanent relationship. He admits his love em and leave him, a girl in every port, approach, the Consul who warns, from his knowledge of the girl that she is likely to put all her trust in him and take the marriage seriously. Pinkerton notes that the contract can be terminated by him at any time without notice or penalty. To appreciate the situation it is important to appreciate the cultural and language divide between the two, and the role of the Geisha in Japanese society at that time.

A major in ingredient to the first act is that Madam Butterfly as she has become is that in order to adapt and fit into her husband’s life she has gone to the local mission to become a Christian thus alienating herself for her uncle, the Bonze(Buddhist Monk) who is also one of her uncles and from her other relatives. This is where Suzuki quickly becomes her confident, mother figure and ally. Cio Cio San has had some education and on being told that she is as beautiful as a butterfly by Pinkerton she responds from knowledge that some men in the West collect Butterflies destroy Butterflies to which Pinkerton explains that they do pin them so as to stop them flying away.

Minghella has divided the second act into two parts, which the usual way the Opera is presented in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. In the first part of the second act three years have passed and Butterfly has remained constant in love and expectation that what he said about returning was truthful and she spends time taking note of the arrivals in the port from her vantage point in the hillside. Suzuki is loyal but sceptical and tries to help her to be more realistic especially as their money begins to run out. The marriage broker brings the young warrior who wants to marry her despite the relationship she has had with the American. She sends them both away.

Pinkerton’s ship returns and she is full of expectations and commences to make preparations and the Consul arrives with a letter which queries whether Butterfly remembers him and which goes on to explain that he has married and American girl and therefore will not be in a position to see her. Such is her enthusiasm and expectation that the Consul is unable to explain this, especially when Butterfly introduces him to her son of three years. The consul goes off to inform Pinkerton that he has a mixed race looking son. The two women and the boy sit overlooking the harbour and roadway up the hill for the arrival of the husband, accompanied by the humming chorus. Earlier in the this second part Butterfly has sung one of the most famous if not the most famous, arias of belief and hope, One Fine day “Un Bel di”

In the second part, Butterfly goes to bed having waited up all night and Pinkerton, his wife and the Consul arrive early to speak to the maid in the absence to ask her to break the new to Butterfly. Although devastated and heartbroken for her mistress Suzuki agrees, but when the child is seen and the position changes again with the decision to take the boy with them because of the better life which can be provided. Pinkerton consumed with guilt at what he has done cannot cope with the situation and goes off leaving his wife and the Consul talking with Suzuki but before they can leave Butterfly arrives and immediately senses correctly what is going on. She agrees to hand over the child on condition that Pinkerton comes in person for him. As he approaches she commit suicide using the knife which her father used, “to die with honour.”

The approach of Mr Mingella (who Directed Truly Madly Deeply1990 and won an Oscar for The English Patient 1996, and he Talented Mr Ripley 1999, also Produced Iris 2001, The Quiet American 2005, Michael Clayton 2007 and The Reader in 2008) was to encourage the singers to emphasise the emotional and dramatic, and as a consequence to pare down the set to essentials sot hat the focus is on the singers. This approach meant that those of us watching on screen with the close ups were at an advantage and able to appreciate the emotional involvement and depth of the principal performances. Dwayne Croft, a baritone, has sung 3000 performances in twenty productions for the Met was convincing as the diplomat, attempting to ensure Pinkerton understood what he was doing and showing great compassion for the plight of Butterfly. As Pinkerton, the Sicilian born Marcello Giordiani also commanded and impressed for his ability to communicate his role as an irresponsible paedophile who is confronted with the reality of his behaviour and exposed as a coward. Over the past twenty years he has created a repertoire of 40 of the great operas and has performed in the leading opera Houses in the world and in the United States. In 1994 he developed vocal problems which imperilled his career until he re-established himself after retraining his voice. He has sung of 170 performance with the Met.

For me the second outstanding performance of the evening was that of Maria Zifchak, mezzo soprano, who is a winner of the Metropolitan Young Performer award which led to her appearing as Mrs Pinkerton in a previous production of the opera at the Met in 2001. She is known to have played Suzuki for at least the past five and is scheduled to do so again during the rest of this year at other Opera houses in he USA and again in 2010. She communicated brilliantly the role of a servant who becomes a confident, supporter and protector of Butterfly, devastated by the course of the events. The interaction between her performance and the extraordinary Patricia Racette, who has surely now given the most emotional performance of any in the title role. She explained in interview that she gave over her life emotionally to her roles cutting herself off from everyone and she is reportedly known for dismissing those who want to discuss her performances and opera in technical terms, by asking them he question but how does it make you feel. She also joked about the difficulty of playing a girl half an age, when in fact she is 43/44, but all her movements and facial expression were that of such a young woman. In 2002 she made public her sexual orientation, marrying fellow opera diva Beth Clayton in 2005.
There are two other aspects of this extraordinary experience which I need to mention. I had reservations about the use of a puppet for the three year old tried. This was a decision taken early on by Mr Minghella because the use of a child of such a young age has always created a distraction for the singers. The cinema watchers throughout her world were able to see that the puppet was manipulated by three veiled mine artists dressed in black and veiled but in close we could that the showed on their faces the emotions they were attempting to communicate through the puppet. I was won over.
The widow of Anthony Minghella was also interviewed and was invited on stage for the curtain call. Dressed in black herself she added to the emotion of the evening. The curtain call was as stunning as the rest of the production with the performance appearing down the slope looking steps and they moved off stage as suddenly and slowly Madam Butterfly herself appeared, replicating what had happened during the overture and audience in the theatre rose up from their seats to greet her. At the cinema there had been a magnificent stunned silence when the opera ended and everyone stayed in their seats to enjoy the curtain calls. I thought out silence and our awe was more fitting an immediate response to that of the applause and cheers at of he Opera House, although I also thought that having recovered composure with many taking a handkerchief to their faces it would have also been good if we two had give a clap and a cheer where Ms Racette came forward.

I have an inexpensive 2 CD record of the opera and a single Long Play record of Madam Butterfly as well as full recording of Puccini’s Turandot with Placido Domingo and the orchestra conducted by Herbert Von Karajan as well as a recording of Bizet Carmen, as well as compilations of arias ranging from a 2 CD edition of the recordings of Beniamino Gigli to the three tenors and Maria Callas, but I have never previously been moved by an individual work or performance as I was on Saturday evening. I understood why some individuals spend their whole lives trying to capture and then repeat such an experience. It has taken me as close 70 years as is possible and to have done so once is a blessing.

Hamlet

I begin with the Opera Hamlet, and then the sporting events of Sunday and other TV viewing, then give an update on the opening of the County Cricket season with Durham playing a relatively unknown MCC side in Abu Dhabi where the use of a pink ball is being tested in this day night match, having also listened to the announcement of how expenses are to be controlled in the next Parliament.

For some reason I assumed that Hamlet is a modern opera similar to work such as Peter Grimes and Salome. It was quickly evident that this was music in the grand opera style and at the interval I learnt that the previous performance in New York had been a century ago. It was not until using the Internet did I discover that the work was created nearly 150 years ago by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carre and Jules Barber based on a French adaptation of Shakespeare’s play by Alexandre Dumas.

The Opera is long, three hours, with five acts and one interval of half an hour between acts two and three. My first reaction was of excitement as about 100 chorus lined up as the court of Queen Gertrude of Denmark being crowned again as the new wife of Claudius, the new King following the death of his brother and with Hamlet noticeably absent. The King and Queen leave to prepare for the wedding banquet and Hamlet and Orphelie sings a love duet and then her brother Laerte entrusts the care of his sister to Hamlet while he is away in Norway. They go to the banquet but he declines. His friends Horatio and Marcellus tell soldiers they have seen the ghost of dead King and they look for Hamlet to recount their experience direct.

Hamlet is advised of the appearance of his father on the ramparts who then appears to Hamlet and tells his son he was poisoned by his brother. He seeks vengeance but asks that his widow be spared. Hamlet swears to carry out his father’s wishes.

My initial excitement that this was not a modern opera but one in grand style with the kind of powerful chorus expected from the Met and its full orchestra. However at the opera developed I was reminded of my reaction to Simon Boccanegra which had all the trappings of grand opera including some sumptuous sets but lacked the Wow factor. I have decided that for me there has to be power and moving solos and interactions which engage as in other forms of theatre and in through film. This is a powerful work and the introductions to each act merit at much attention as the singing. For me I have to admit there was something lacking.

The major difference between the Shakespeare play and the Opera is the role allocated to Orphelie. In the second Act she expresses concern at the sudden indifference of Hamlet towards her and his mother presses the young woman be patient and not leave the court. The mother believes she can help although she and her husband subsequently conclude that Hamlet has become disturbed and not himself. Hamlet engages some players to perform a creation of his devising in which the King in murdered by poisoning so the brother can gain the crown. The play has the desired effect with the King angry, especially when Hamlet takes the Crown from him Before the assembled court..

The Third Act commences with Hamlet musing, to be or not to be, and catches the King seeking death from remorse about what he has done, believing he will be condemned to hell. Hamlet is shocked to find that his father’s adviser, who is also Orphelie’s father, was in on the plot and this further affects Hamlet’s attitude towards his betrothed. He tells Orphelie to get herself to the nunnery and accuses his mother of the crime. As she cannot set the ghost she believes her son has become mad and he honouring what his father has said does not attempt to harm her.

The fourth act is devoted to Orphelie’s growing disturbance before she kills herself. In the last act, which commences with the two grave diggers Hamlet is confronted by the brother of Orphelie when unaware she has killed herself. When he realises what has happened he blames the King and the girl’s father rather than himself and kills the King, then dying from his wounds after fighting with Laerte.

Simon Keenlyside is a very intense and introspective actor appropriate for the part but lacks the ability to engage the audience and gain their sympathy for his predicament. He behaves outrageously towards Orphelie only he is responsible for her death and is just as bad a person, as the man who murdered his father. Marlis Petersen who plays Orphelie was only advised she was taking the role, and not as understudy a couple of days before the performance and she continued to complete her then current production until two days before opening, coached about the role at a distance and limited opportunity to get to know the other principles, to rehearse with them and to find her way around the Opera House. She was impressive as is James Morris as Claudius.

I was impressed but did not come away with a memorable experience alongside those of Butterfly, Carmen, Aida, Il Travatore and La Traviata, or the Met Productions of La Boheme and Pagliacci seen and heard on the Met Player. There was a club like atmosphere with the auditorium with people talking to each other. There was a discussion about Cineworld disappointment and the recent commencement of showings from Convent Garden and Glynebourne. I advised about the Odeon development and someone mentioned that the full list of showings for next season ahd been announced with 11 productions and these were mentioned during the interval. The Film Theatre has also confirmed taking a contract. The new season opens with Wagner’s Das Rheingold October 9th and I shall also look forward to Verdi’s Don Carlo in December Il Travatore in April with Delora Zikick a year in April and Wagner’s Die Walkure in May. I have an open mind about Placido Domingo in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride which I will want to find out more and also Puccini’s La Fancuilla Del West. I must sort out what is happening at Cineworld and Odeon’s over the rest of this year.

Today the chairman and interim chief executive of the new independent unit for the payment of MP salaries and their expenses announced their decisions, laid before Parliament with immediate effect for the new Parliament. The only media criticism appeared to be the decision to allow one connected person, not just relatives, to be employed and paid for from public funds. The approach seemed to be reasonable and the individual and combined other changes likely to discourage some good people from seeking election as well as discouraging those who had previously exploited the system. The big change is that there is no payment of allowances, only payment of expenses following submission of receipts. Everything will then be published on line with immediate effect. The new body will nor authorise new leaving Parliament resettlement grants which will have be sorted along with pay and pensions and for which the new body is responsible for setting. There also remains the issue of a compliance office which at the moment the Commons appears to be against because it would remove the present role of their present committee to a significant extent.

The main sporting event on Saturday and Sunday was the second Formula 1 race in Australia and what I saw it proved a much better race than the first although the main issue was when to pit to change from the practice tyres.

It was the decision of Jenson Button, who had started 4th , to pit when he did, and change to dry weather slick tyres despite the threat of rain which made his car faster than competitors and when Vettel for the second race in succession had to retire from his pole and leading position this let Jenson into the lead which he then did not look likely to lose. His team mate and former World Champion did not do as well and appeared put out by the success of his newly appointed team mate. He had started only in 11th and moved through the field well but when challenging Alonso for fourth he was involved with a collision with Red Bull Mark Webber and finished 6th. He blamed the team tactics. After two races Button is third and Hamilton fourth in the diver’s championship. Their team are now second in the constructors championship with Ferrari already showing the way with their two cars occupying the first two places in the race.

I enjoyed Lark Rise to Candleford more this Sunday than last where Laura had become preoccupied with the competing intentions of her former beau who has returned to the area, and her educated reporter fiancée. This week the future of teh post office was under threat but the community rallied around and the post mistress used her knowledge and connection to thwart the threat.

I have decided that there are three good performers and one outstanding in America has got talent this year, the outstanding is Crystal Bowersox who reminds strongly of Janice Joplin. She is a single mother and has a twin brother via her father who has been seen on camera but not in the audience so there is something of a backstory yet to be disclosed.

The greater part of Monday was spent listening to BBC Radio Wear’s commentary from Abu Dhabi where they were meeting an MCC team in a four day championship style event with teh twist of a afternoon and evening game under floodlights using the new pink ball considered better to see and better wearing that the white. The pitch was described as flat and the heat intense so whoever won the toss would have the chance of batting long and wearing out the fielding team. Durham won this important toss and ended the day 329 for three wickets with the magnificent Di Venuto starting when he left off last season and making 131 before being stumped. Coetzer who knows he will have to fight to keep his place in championship games was cautious but ended the day not out 123. Blenkenstein had looked promising bowled when 41 and Ian Blackwell started well with 13 when the day ended.

There were several ways to tune into commentary via the BBC sports, the ESPN Cricket information site and the Durham Club who also have a live comment chat line in operation for the first time. There were also long and interesting chats during the day with the Chairman of MCC, the Chairman of Durham, Geoff Boycott and Durham bowlers Mathew Claydon and Steve Harmison. It was disclosed that Abe Morkel the South African is to return for the 20 20 and hopefully redeem his first involvement two years ago. New Zealand big hitting batsman is likely to be the second overseas player but this has not been confirmed.

Sunderland, as expected failed miserably at Anfield where they have not scored a goal in the Premiership and usually lose. The result was 3.0 to home side. The gap between Sunderland and the third relegation spot is only 8 points with Hull having a game in hand so two losses and two wins to Hull could see the positions reversed. Newcastle tonight appeared determined to move towards guaranteeing their Premiership status next season before the end of Easter. Notts Forest in third place battle hard but their poor away form continued although they remain in third position. Notts Forest have to win all their remaining six games to finish with 88 points. Two wins from Newcastle’s remaining seven games and Notts Forest cannot catch them. Cardiff would have to win all seven games and Newcastle lose all their to end the season with the same number of points, but given even if this happened Newcastle would have lose their goal difference advantage of 29 to be forced into the playoffs. In fact the next home game on Easter Monday could see Newcastle’s return to the premiership, although if they win away on Saturday and Notts Forest lose, also away, they would become certainties with 86 points achieved and Forest only a possible 85. Monday’s game is also being televised.

1900 part three La Boheme at Convent Garden and Metropolitan Opera House

The day had commenced in sunshine but was cold and wet when left the cinema about 17.30 and I made the instant decision to see if there was a train to Wimbledon from the nearby station. A sign said platform 3 Wimbledon and Waterloo so I went to the ticket office where two assistants were explaining routes to someone before me. When I heard an announcement that a train was on its way I explained my interest and another window was opened, the ticket issued and the train reached the platform the same time as me, I have no sense of directions at times and was surprised when the train went to Norbiton and back to New Malden before reaching Wimbledon railway station which is close to the separate Underground station.

I have been to the Odeon Cinema before, by car, but I had no recollection of where the cinema is located in terms of the two stations and in fact I went in the opposite direction, After asking directions I passed a fast food restaurant and considered having some food there but thought it was better to reach the cinema first. I went into the small foyer entrance, inserted the credit card and obtained the ticket and then went to the Coal Grill next door and was allocated a seat opposite Morrison’s supermarket above which was the David LLoyd Gym which could be reached from the upper floor of cinema with customers working hard overlooking the small street market and me. I enjoyed a Whitebait starter followed by a quarter of a small chicken, some coleslaw and chips for £7.50 plus a very expensive diet coke.

I arrived in the theatre for the opera with less than 15 minutes to spare and at first it looked as if the audience would be sparse and in fact by the time performance got underway everyone was crowded into the area allocated as premium seats, which was larger than that at the Odeon’s attended in London, Mansfield and Kingston this year. I spent the first half uncomfortable sandwiched between a Canadian who knew of the Met Relay and who had been to the Royal Opera House when it was possible to pay only a few pounds to sit high up in the side seats. During the 20 minute interval I had a walkabout and then sat in a less expensive aisle seat towards the front and had an improved quality of experience. Hopefully there will be not such a crowd for the Met Hamlet relay on Saturday in Newcastle. The cinema also appears not to have adjusted to the opportunity to sell wine, chocolates crisps and nuts and one had to leave the main area of auditorium to go into the entrance concourse for ice creams and the usual cinema fare.

The main disappointment was that it was not a live relay but a film with interval. There was also a delayed start and one person was heard to complain during the interval that she had been told the start was delayed until 7.45 and had missed the greater part of the first act and which includes the well known Your tiny hand is frozen.

The opera is one of the most performed of all but overall is more lighted hearted with comic moments than Puccini’s other great work Madam Butterfly and the other grand works in general. It is the story of a group of four bohemians in Paris in 1870’s- a poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher. It was the first live relay from the Met in 1977 with Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo the poet. In the Covent Garden production the part was played by Teodor Ilincai who just before Christmas 2009 was called upon to take over from the performing tenor at the interval who was overcome with a cold. The Romanian Tenor has a soft and gentle voice, appropriate for a starving poet in a cold Parisian Garrett whereas Pavarotti brings the tingles to the spine but is always the master performer and never a struggling bohemian. There is a similar contrast between the performances of Hibla Gerzmava at the Royal Opera House in 2010 and the already aging Renata Scotto in 1977. Hibla is Russian and her voice has been described as clear and focussed with power and she made an important contribution the production without dominating it so that the lasting impressions were made by Musetta (Inna Dukach) and Gabriele Viviani as Marcello the Painter.

By the time of the 1977 performance the Italian Renata was in her prime and she went on to Direct a number of operas including the Met which had become her established Opera House when she married and settled in the area with her family. She once had the experience of performing with Maria Callas in the audience and a few in the audience calling for Calls while Renata was singing. Intolerable behaviour even for the emotional and expressive Italians. This is difficult to understand for she had one on the finest of voices and was a good match for Pavarotti.

The plot is well known. Two of the bohemians debate whether to burn the current painting or writing for warmth. Their friends arrive celebrating that Schaunard, the musician, has earned money playing for an eccentric Englishman’s dying parrot. After he had played for three days he poisoned the parrot and celebrated with the purchase of fuel, food, wine and cigars.

The owner of the property calls for the rent and tricks him into going away without any money after they feign being shocked by his boasted exploits with a woman. They decide to go out and celebrate the good fortune at restaurant because it is Christmas Eve. Rodolfo stays behind to finish his writing but there is a knock at the door and it is Mimi whose candle has gone out and who has lost the key to her room. They immediately fall in love and both have great solos which at Convent garden attracted some applause but where Pavarotti and Scotto received justified prolonged cheering and applause ovations.

I turn away from writing to watch and listen to Pavarotti noting he difference in that at Wimbledon I did not give myself wholeheartedly to the performance which lacked any moment of being special or unique whereas with Pavarotti and indeed all the other members of the cast I am constantly stopping reading and writing because of the sounds even without watching or paying attention to the subtitles. The singing tells you all.

Later in the afternoon I watched a second Met relay production five years later in which Scotto plays the role Musetta and Rodolfo is played by Joseph Carreras and Mimi by Teresa Stratas who was a co winner of the Met’s auditions programme back in 1959 at the age of 21. Retiring in 1998 after a 36 year career based at the Met she appeared in 385 productions and 41 different roles. The two looked more like young lovers in 1982 and although Canadian born Teresa was 43 but retained slim features and a youthful figure. After retirement she has made only one public appearance, has undertaken voluntary work in Calcutta meeting Mother Teresa and to Rumania to work in an orphanage

The second act takes place within the cafe and features a large street scene with children, soldiers and lots of people thronging about and being entertained by Perpignol, a toy seller. Rodolfo introduces Mimi to his friends who include Colline, the philosopher but the main event is the arrival of
Musetta, presently the mistress of a wealthy but old man. She is the one time lover of Marcello who she does her best to attract his intention but he ignores her. Eventually she sends off the old man on a fool’s errand and decides to go off with Marcello and friends, leaving the old man to pay for both bills. The main interval is usually taken at this point.

It is after the interval that the Puccini’s story takes a twist. The location is outside as an Inn where Marcello is working on a commission accompanied by Musetta. They are happy in their own way but already Musetta is regretting the loss of freedom and hankers for the attentions of new men. To add perspective to the opera, it is dawn with the arrival of street sellers of milk and eggs, street sweepers and others into the town guarded by gate keepers and customs men. It is in the depth of Winter and continues to snow hard. Mimi arrives calling for Marcello as she and Rodolfo have quarrelled and she suspects he has gone to Marcello which is correct, She explains that Rodolfo has become very jealous and saying he wants to end their relationship. Mimi hides rather than leaves when Rodolfo comes out to join Marcello and hears him explain that he is still very much in love with her, but he is aware she is ill and he is so poor he cannot fund the doctors and medicine she requires. Mimi and Rodolfo are reunited and agree to stay together until the Spring which is the other way round from what would have been best for her. Musetta comes out and Marcello quarrels over her flirting behaviour.

There is a substantial jump in time to the fourth act where the bohemians are back together but Rodolfo and Marcello are finding it difficult to work having both parted from their true loves. The two others arrive share a little food but the meal is interrupted by the arrival of Musetta who has found Mimi in the street ill. She has been living with someone able to provide for her but her health has been damaged beyond medical help. She knows she is dying and wants to see Rodolfo before her end, he is delighted to see her as is Marcello, to see Musetta, but no one realises just how ill she is until she dies. There is some fine singing before Rodolfo learns she is dead and has not just fallen asleep. He calls out Mimi as the curtain falls.

I had an excellent and memorable day but the highlights were my visit to my former home in Erdington, to the atrium at the Bentalls’ shopping centre Kingston and the Film Shutter Island. The opera was something of a disappointment reinforced by then hearing the performances of Pavarotti and Scotto, of Stratas and Carreras

It was comparative early after the show but although it was not raining the atmosphere was wet on ground as I made the short way across the main road passed a still open supermarket until 11pm and into the railway station for Tram purchasing the require £2 ticket. I have used this Tram once before after attending a day at Wimbledon Tennis Courts and finding that there was a problem with the train to Sutton. I had then taken the tram to Beddington Lane for the train to Sutton and from there to Wallington. I had not paid attention to the route which continues to Croydon and New Addington. The route is an interesting one in that there are 15 stops, with between one and two minutes in between making the whole journey just over half an hour. The tram passes through Merton to Mitcham Junction and stops at the far end of the Purley Way Shopping centre close to the Ikea Store. There are several stops in Croydon with Reeves Corner where we would get off the 654 trolley bus as a family when I was a child and walk up Church Street, to the Market at Surrey Street and the wonderful Kennard’s departmental store. Reeves remains as a furniture store although the number of buildings has reduced. The tram then goes around the outskirts of the Centrale shopping complex where there is a stop before one by West Croydon Train station close to the bus station and then stops a few yards from the Travel Lodge before turning into George Street and the Tram Interchange outside of East Croydon Station, I was tempted to go over to the new Sainsbury’s Local which stays open until 11pm seven night a week and where the prices are even higher than the Waitrose. I made do with what I had in the room but which I cannot now remember.

On the Tuesday it was family visiting day and an enjoyable Roast beef lunch at £5.20 where it is possible load the plate with as much vegetables as you like. There is also a new development of unlimited diet, ordinary or max Pepsi or lemonade with ice for £2.05. I had three refills and did not need a coffee.

Having had such an excellent day on the Monday I did not anticipate Wednesday would prove an even better one. The original plan had been to visit central London for the Victoria and Albert Museum to view the new permanent exhibition of work from the Renaissance and or the Henry Moore retrospective at the Tate but the idea had developed that if the weather was good to take the bus back to Kingston and from there continue along the other side of the river to Ham, Petersham and Richmond one of the most beautiful areas of London and in the whole of the UK in terms of fine Houses, Greens, parkland and the river Thames.

I also decided to get an Oyster Card. This is the prepayment or pay as you go travel card or pass which covers all forms transport in greater London with extensions to other stations with barrier pass in and out systems. There are some financial advantages using the card against the usual cash price with the minimum single fare on the underground halves from £4 to £2, that on the Tram which can cover the journey from end to end reduced from £2 to £1.20 and with a reduction of about 10% on above ground Train Travel within. The cards can also be used as one day, week, monthly or quarterly Travel cards although there are no discounts a special card is required for the longer travel pass which has to be registered whereas the ordinary Oyster does not have to be registered and therefore can be used by more than one adult. There are 3200 special or other outlets where Oyster cards can be purchased or stopped up and there five special shops throughout central Croydon. It is possible to also purchase or add to registered cards online. Apart from the financial advantages there is the convenience of being able to travel without need to buy individual tickets or day passes. However there are potential problems as I was soon to find if one does not correctly log the pass at the correct in and out facilities at each travel outlet. That was for the day to come.

1878 Il Traviata and Larkrise on a quiet Sunday with roast chicken dinner

It is midday Sunday February 14th, Valentine’s Day and I am in the midst of three pieces of writing, cleaning the inside of the refrigerator and preparing a roast chicken dinner, recovering from the second late night into the early hours in succession followed by a reasonable amount of sleep which meant it was 11 am before I was able to get going again. I thought it was BAFTA night but this is next week and alas Invictus was not released in time to be included in the BAFTA nominations, a double disappointment having mistaken the British Film Critics Society for the Academy. This means that it will have to be an exceptional film next year to take the main awards away from the film. Instead there is my boyhood supporting Club of Crystal Palace at home to Aston Villa in the cup this evening followed by Dancing on Ice and Larkrise.

I am fulfilling the promise made to myself to commence an inventory of the work completed to date in my installation projection and this includes, completing unfinished sets and their relocation as the area of display shelving is full and therefore the balance of completed set work needed to be storage boxed. I have also taken a decision about trying to arrange fro the work to be curated after I lose self aware consciousness.

Two of the pieces of present writing are for future Blogs, Lost and Babylon 5 where a composite of episodes is planned. Yesterday I worked hard on the installation project and was rewarded by a brilliant performance of Angela Gheorghu, singing the main role in Verdi’s Opera based on the Alexander Dumas story of Camille. I now understand why she is held in such high regard as she rendered the best female performance in an opera I have experienced to-date. The role requires constant singing at the highest levels through all three Acts which she sustained in such manner that I was moved, spine tingling in admiration and wonder. It is also an opera similar to Il Travatore, in being full of memorable tunes

I have experienced five operas by Giuseppe Verdi over the past years- Aida and Nabucco Il Travatore and La Travolta, and Don Carlos.

In act one of La Traviata, Violetta Valery, a courtesan is holding a large and lavish party to celebrate her recovery from illness and she finds out that nobleman Alfredo loves her and has visited her house to enquire of welfare during the illness. When she meets Alfredo her first reactions are not positive but as he professes his interest she begins to speculate if this is the one person to whom she could give herself wholeheartedly. However her need to control her life, and for personal freedom, is such, that she hesitates. Her current protector, a baron, realises their situation is changing.

He is proved right as three months later when Act 2 opens, Violetta and Alfredo are living together outside of Paris in what is described as a peaceful country house. However in order to fund their life style Violetta has been selling everything available until Alfredo discovers the situation and goes off to see his father for money. Alfredo’s father visits Violetta to ask that she breaks off the relationship with his son because her reputation is threatening the marriage of his daughter. He becomes impressed with her and even more so when she agrees, reluctantly, to his request, and he scene ends with her in tears.

She accepts an invitation to a party in Paris and writes a note for Alfredo saying goodbye. He returns and she professes her love but still leaves to go to the party. The maid gives Alfredo the letter she has passed to her as she left the home and his father returns as he finishes reading. Father tries to console his son reminding of their family, but when Alfredo reads the party invitation he suspects that the wealthy former lover of Violetta is behind the initiative.

With echoes of Carmen the party host has arranged gypsies and bullfighters to appear and perform. Alfredo arrives at the party before Violetta and starts to gamble. His suspicions are accurate when Violetta arrives with her former protector and the two men gamble with Alfredo winning a lot of money. Fearing that the situation will lead to a duel Violetta sees Alfredo in private and begs him go away, but he challenges her to deny that the reason is because she still loves Baron and in fear of what could happen she lies and confirms his belief In rage at her response and the situation, Alfredo denounces her to the rest of the party which he assembles and they turn denounce him for his brutish and ungallant behaviour. They demand he leaves. His father who has been searching for the son arrives and learning what has happened denounces his own son, Violetta protests her love as the Act ends.

The Final act is a short one as the tuberculosis illness which had affected Violetta has returned. She receives a letter from Alfredo’s father advising that although his son did fight a duel with the Baron,, only the Baron sustained a slight injury. Moreover he has told his son why Violetta had behaved as she had and that he was sending his son to beg her forgiveness. No sooner does she receive the letter, Alfredo arrives in person and the lovers are reunited, but it is too late for a happy ending and Violetta knows that she has only has moments to live. The couple sing the famous “0 God to die so Young.” The father arrives full of remorse for his part in what has happened only to witness the death of Violetta. The curtain came down prolonged applause.

Larkrise had a timely story about a war Veteran who had lost a leg replaced by the traditional peg and who visited Candleford once a year or so, to beg for pennies and free drink and was provided food and a bed overnight by the Timmins. Daniel Parish, Laura’s Beau sets up his own paper in the town and decides to make a campaign about the way the UK treats its returning service men from active duty, and in this he is supported by Laura’s father as Daniel agrees to raises the underlying issues in an article which is sold to the Illustrated London News and attracts a post bag of support letters.

However they have second thoughts when Mrs Timmins discovers that the old soldier has a number of five pound notes with him. Confronted he explains that he had converted some of the pennies into notes over the years for when he was old or the begging failed. The story is a damning indictment of the approach taken by the public in Victorian times and in this day.

The lunch was enjoyable followed by salami rolls in the evening with banana and custard and a tea time snack of anchovies on dry crackers. Breakfast was cereal.

Lat afternoon there was an enjoyable cup between the club I supported as a boy and young man. Crystal Palace, now struggling in the championship and Aston Villa who this season are performing well close to the top four in the Premiership. Unfortunately the Villa managed to equalise twice so both clubs went into the next round draw when the winner will have an away tie at Reading or West Brom. Chelsea, the only top four club remaining have a home tie against Man City or Stoke.

I watched part of the Ice Dancing beforehand and later a film with gratuitous violence but a concept which interested and stayed to see how it will pan out. I went to bed at a reasonable hour 12.30 but then started to think on first waking after less than an hour and rose once more to check the writing before publication.

1875 Work, Simon Boccanegra, Super Bowl. Pickup on South Street

I have been giving myself a good and hard talking to at becoming self indulgent regarding my work and my existence in general. I devoted a great part of the weekend to researching, reflecting and learning about the TV series Lost at the expense of many others things, although I became fully engaged and produced thoughtful work and found my own approach to understanding what had had happened in the past with some indication of what mysteries are to be resolved, and questions answered, over the next three months. In part, learning which characters will have a role in the final series, and which characters, to-date, will not, could prove an important clue.

Having written the above late on Monday evening I embarked on two hours of activity which required physical exertion, a bonus. My first decision is to proceed with boxing completed work and making sure I know, what was where, from that already boxed. Now of course I do not mean taking up fisticuffs to my work but placing it in small reinforced cardboard boxes retained from the move, which amazes me is over five years ago.

I will allocate one to two hours a day for this from tomorrow, Tuesday February 9th, 2010 dividing the time between boxing completed work already on display, or laying loose on the floor, to make room for new work to be placed in the space then available, and sorting out what is where in the two kinds of boxes being used.

There are two kinds of boxes. The first are display boxes in Black for creative work, Blue for events and Red for confidential. The second are those used for the move and which will hold lever arch files containing six to ten sets of completed work covering a theme or area of interest. These are functional and can be stacked within storage areas and I have settled on the small attic room with fitted wardrobe to one side and floor to ceiling shelving on the other for this. Organising this room ked to the overdue task of sorting old clothing, keeping some as part of the project to reveal my changes in weight and past choices and giving the remainder to charities. About once a fortnight since arriving a charity has left a collection bag at every house on the hill, almost as frequently as a leaflet advertising a meal delivery service. I have kept a record and todate 54 different firms have circulated their latest offers and menu and several provide updates on a regular basis. I decide to keep a record of the charities requesting clothing. I also have a supply of blankets and bedding which will be reviewed.

There was an ulterior motive behind the sort of everything on floor of my downstairs work room as three items had gone stray. Two have been recovered. A wireless mouse which I use for the lap attached to the TV. My original intention was to spend the latter part of this evening watching any Portillo Great British railways series programmes from his fourth journey. Alas I discover that all but one is left and this of an earlier series already covered, so that ends that. Is there a DVD set in the offing me thinks?

The second item is a small memory card of 64 MB which can hold 12 mins of film or between 100 and 300 photographs depending and their quality. The third, and so far, still to be found item, is the other chargeable battery for the camera. I use the camera to photograph completed work as well as to record places and experiences, and as the recording of work is boring I tend to do in batches while watching TV, so having two batteries has been useful, but not the end of the world if I cannot find the latter, but it irritates me as the loss occurred in one room at home. Its whereabouts remains a puzzle.

My preliminary sort out covering all three floors of the house led to another decision to junk decided to junk a pile of catalogues, travel brochures and such like where I like to keep the latest. This proved not straightforward, because I need to retain a cover, and some of the contents to form part of the work project in the development sets. If I die tomorrow or when the work is completed sufficiently to put on exhibition, should I choose to do so during my lifetime, the catalogues will indicate interest aspects of my personality and experience at this period of my life and therefore to throw out the catalogues without listing them would removed the attempted completeness of what I am doing. I am so resolved by undertaking this activity albeit late into the evening that I confident it will be carried through the days and weeks until Spring and early summer. Now to the rest of the weekend review

I have had three long days in succession. Saturday 6th February commenced with a reasonable start although the night before had been interrupted. The morning and early afternoon was devoted to work on Lost and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen in preparation for a service visit for the central heating system and the cooker on Monday. The bathroom got a deep clean and I remain pleased with the effort and outcome. The kitchen less so but the floor got a wash and the work surfaces well cleaned.

I had intended to leave earlier than I did for my evening out and decided not to visit the main supermarket for cooking oil and Wilkinson to see if they had restocked of Black display albums. Then on impulse I so put the oil back and went along Fredericke street which as street parking on one side and called in at an Asian store just before closing and purchased a small bottle of olive oil to use with the ready made up vegetable stir fry which I planned to use with some lamb chops for Sunday lunch. I then forgot some stir fry sauce so had to use a little ginger until calling in at the supermarket on Monday afternoon for postage stamps and salami. I used the rest of the stir fry to accompany pork chops for the evening meal on Monday with a packet of spicy oriental sauce to which I added some ginger. All this talk of food makes me hungry and I will have a bowl of Muesli cereal rather than salami slices in crackers. But then relented on opening the fridge for the milk!

As the area to the west of Fredericke Street and the river is being redeveloped with the former Plessey factory site cleared Fredericke is getting a face lift with some of the derelict shops being brought back to life although between a third and half the street is still to be brought back into use.

I arrived at the Heworth car park outside the metro and bus station around 5.15 pm, staying in the car to drink soup from a flask and salami rolls with mustard. I parked next to the ticket machine with required fee on the dashboard. I then saw not one, but two, ticket wardens coming over to check the windscreens of the few cars parked around me so I got out and was about to put the money in the machine when one of the two called out to say there was no charge if I was remaining sitting in the car. I explained I was having a meal before going to a theatre in Newcastle by the Metro. I completed the purchase of the ticket and placed on the dashboard. as it was not one those which you attach to the windscreen, and thought nothing more of it until return just before 10pm to be alerted by two of the taxi drivers in the nearby rank that I had been given a parking ticket. The £50 fine reduced to £25 if paid within 14 days was issued because a correct ticket was displayed. I had left the ticket upside down. I assume this was from a different warden as the fine notice was timed just before eight pm when the payment period ended. A complicated two stage appeal process is listed on one side of the ticket which I will follow.

The purpose of my visit to Newcastle was to see a relay of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, production of Simone Boccanegra with the internationally renowned tenor, Placido Domingo, in the title role, using his baritone registers, and with James Morris playing his Nemesis.

I must admit that I did not enjoy the evening. It was exceptionally hot in a packed auditorium so I quickly became tired and had to fight dozing off. The seats in Classics stall are not as comfortable as those in the Circle and do have full backs and head rests and have no space between seats or pairs of seats so one has to take care not to take the space of neighbours. None of this would have mattered if the work had been entertaining with memorable songs and a visual spectacle in support.

The sets and clothes are sumptuous, richly textured and designed in reds and browns, and the scenery used to create the palace reception room for the Doge and the courtiers, is amazing, because of its size, and the impressive decorated ceiling. The singing of the principals - two baritones, a tenor and a soprano, was brilliant and the emotional performance of Domingo extraordinary and exceptional. The music is powerful and there are moments of passion and tenderness but not one memorable tune. The performers all spoke of their enthusiasm for the Opera and I can see why it is the choice of singers and musicians and I can say I have attended a live performance of an opera with Placido Domingo, but it is not an opera I would wish to pay good money to see, although I will view a production on the Met Player at sometime, although there are others I wish to experience beforehand.

The plot is complicated. Boccanegra is a young upstart who has fathered a child with the daughter of the Doge, played by James Morris and who he wishes to marry but whose father has locked her away and regards Boccanegra with enmity.
The Doge has become unpopular with the courtiers and the people and two of the courtiers plot to remove him and place the popular hero Boccanegra in his place believing he will be able to become the power behind the throne, however over time Boccanegra becomes his own man.

Early on Boccanegra’s lover dies before they can marry and her father pleads to be able to bring up his grand daughter, Boccanegra refuses and the girl is brought up away from Boccanegra and hidden from her grandfather thus increasing his hatred for the usurper.

The first act is described as the prologue with an interval after thirty minutes of thirty minutes because of the need for the main characters to age by twenty five years and the major change of set required from outside to inside the Palace. The next act described as the first lasts for an hour with a short interval mid way, followed by the second long interval of 30 mins. I made my way up the stairs to the second floor for the gents and then to the third to the bar for a glass of Merlot while watching the scene change projected on the wall with the running down time clock, leaving when there were two minutes to go and getting into my seat with only 20 seconds to spare.

During the first interval Placido and Morris joked about the difficulty of pretending they were young men and this is achieved through a dark haired wig and make up. He and James Morris have been playing rivals and enemies for thirty five years!

The story develops that Boccanegra’s daughter brought up separately had in fact been brought up by the former Doge under his assumed name of Grimaldi away from Genoa, but this fact is unknown to both father and grandfather. Moreover the former Doge, the daughters fiancée and Paulo Albiani a goldsmith and the courtier who had brought Boccanegra to power are all involved in a complicated plot to bring him down with Gabriele Adorno, the finance, one of two assassins. The complication is that having been reunited with her father, Paolo suggests to Gabriele that she had been abducted and seduced by the Doge.

There is then a period which unfortunately from my viewpoint Gabriele reveals himself to be a chauvinistic pig as well as an assassin. He demands to know if the Doge has taken his fiancée by force or seduction, proclaiming that if this is so, he will having nothing more to do with her. This should have wrung alarm bells with the young woman and abandoned the rat. Instead she reveals herself as cunning and manipulative attempting to achieve the best of best worlds by finding a way to maintain both relationships and bring the two men together. The problem is that Paulo has poisoned the drink of the Doge which produces a long painful death with stretches almost throughout the last act. Paolo gets his just deserts and Adorno and Boccanegra are reconciled to the extent that the couple are able to marry with his blessing and Boccanegra insists that Adorno is appointed the next Doge at his death. Moreover the former Doge Jacopo Fiasco who has reappeared in Genoa is also brought to a new understanding and is entrusted in ensuring that Boccanegra wishes for his son in law are respected and brought to fruition. The brilliance of Placido Domingo is that he able to make the story, and his role, believable.

The highlight of the weekend was however Super bowl XLIV in which the New Orleans Saints, attending the contest for the first time and as champions of the National Football League, defeated the American Football League Champions, the Indianapolis Colts by 31 points to 17, having come from a 10.0 lead at the end of the first quarter. I had not intended to watch the event live which meant staying up until 3am but I shared the view of the majority of people in the USA, outside of Indie fans who wanted New Orleans to win for three very different reasons. The foremost is that the city, the state of Louisiana and the south east oft he UDA is still recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The second reason is that the Saints have only recently become a good team had never been to a superbowl and were regarded as the underdogs and now a great team and the third that the owner of the Colts transported them overnight from Baltimore to the new prestige Lucas oil stadium which is to hold the Superbowl in 2012 with the 2013 event to be held in New Orleans at the very stadium which was use to house hurricane refugees. The background of the two teams was the difference with one professionals with a great offensive team led by what many consider to be one of the great quarterbacks of all time while New Orleans was also a team of professional, but with a mission beyond furthering their individual careers or team, but aware that the morale of a city, a state and a region was at stake.

I first came to enjoy American football in the 1980’s when whole games were shown live on TV. I made two visits to Wembley stadium in London to see pre season warm up games and visited Gateshead who, and may still have a team in the British league version which existed for a time and may still do. I supported the Chicago Bears in part because of a defensive player called the Fridge and also the San Francisco 49ers after being given one of their shirts as a Christmas present. I learnt more about the sport after getting a computer game played and fro a time it rivalled my interest in football. Over the past five years I having been preoccupied in my work and competing programmes to watch many live games during the season and then the playoffs involving the two separate leagues

Because of the national interest the games was watched by an audience of over 100 million in the US alone, the largest TV audience in the history of that country and also shown in some 30 other countries including China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Russia and the UK as well as Canada and Mexico Brazil and Chile,

For the third year in succession the national anthem was sung by a winner of American Idol- Carrie Underwood, Jordan Sparks and Jennifer Hudson. Queen Latifah sang an odd version of America is Beautiful and The Who provided the half time entertainment. Jerry Rice and Emmett Smith two of the 2010 Hall of Fame new entrants participate in the pre game coin toss. $100 million dollars of merchandise was pre-sold to indicate the extent to which the event is the biggest sporting event in the US Calendar, greater than Baseball and Basketball.

The highlight of the game came in the fourth quarter when just as the commentators were remaking about the overall lack of mistakes and turnovers Tracy Porter intercepted a pass from manning at the 26th yard to run the 76 yards to gain a touch down and force the Saints to get two touchdowns and conversions to go into extra time. For a few minutes it looked as if this might be on as the Saints drove all the way to within three yards. However there was then disaster because with pass interference they were pushed back to 10 yards and their last effort went through the hands of the receiver incomplete. At that point there was nothing more to do than to let the lock run down the remaining time and accept defeat. Then the celebrations commenced and the people of New Orleans were out on the street starting the Mardi Gras over a week early.

Having got up early the gas man did not come until midday but stayed longer than anyone giving the cooker the boiler a thorough clean and arranging for an electrician come and check the downstairs switch which had become temperamental, due to a loose wire. The visits were a bonus in two ways because I learnt that it was wise to keep the light on as in severe weather the boiler is designed to switch itself on to avoid freezing. The visit also provided an opportunity to get the ceiling light fixed in the day room although discovered that it looks as if the tube was a dud after replacing the starter. I will leave the tube until Wednesday when I get a 10% every little helps discount.

This brings me to a Richard Widmark film whose title I noted somewhere and hope to find. ( Pickup on South Street 1953). He plays a pick pocket just out of jail for the third time and facing life if he is caught. He makes the mistake of then take the purse of a woman whose dominating male partner has got her to pass micro film of a valuable formula to the enemy and who was under a surveillance, hoping to find out who the main culprits were. The girl takes a shine to Widmark and tries to help him keep to the straight and narrow as well as break free from her boyfriend, Widmark is a kind villain who does not carry a gun compared to the boyfriend who is a nasty villain and who does but both are recidivist criminals. The dividing question is Widmark also a traitor to his country in other ways. It can be argued that being a criminal is being a traitor to one’s country although not as damaging as selling or giving secrets away. This is typical of USA film making at the time and an obsession to this day that it is better to be dead than red and that anything which is true Christian or is social motivated is quasi communist and must be defeated.

Almost to the last moment the character still finds it difficult to give up making a small fortune from having got hold of the microfilm. What tips the balance is when the girl is beaten up and nearly killed and that she held out to protect him. Finally he gets he message and puts himself in arms way to help the Feds capture the next villain up in the spy chain. He wins the girl but the city cops reckon it won’t be long before he offends again and gets life inside. Great fun but a good performance from Widmark.

Carmen Metropolitan opera versions and Carmen Jones

The pain of others, and of the self becomes more difficult to bear with each passing year. Some may appear to become hardened over time but this is usually a form of defence. This weekend I had the privilege of experiencing the last of this seasons’ three conversions of the Wallander books into a 90 min tale. It was the brilliant and very moving and written with a great empathy for human suffering and emotional pain.

I have known the music and story of Bizet’s Carmen since being taken by the aunties to a touring production in Croydon during my childhood. My next encounter with the brazen and raunchy Spanish gypsy was with the film Carmen Jones. A few years ago I made video’s of three short versions each 90 mins. I have a bought within the last decade CD but I cannot remember attending another live production until Saturday when beforehand I also watched and listened to a download from the Metropolitan Opera New York, because up until lunchtime I was unsure if my cough would improve sufficiently to attend the relay at the Tyneside Picture theatre in Newcastle.

Both the opera and the Wallander story are about pain, real pain, but experienced at a distance, experienced for pleasure and entertainment.

Then waking late after staying up even later and feeling relaxed and looking forward to the day and the week I switched on the radio while in the bathroom and heard a member of the Catholic order of the Silesians relaying reports that all their educational, hostels and relief centres in Haiti had been demolished and in particular the fate of the pupils in one establishment where the youngest were on the top floor, presumably for security reasons and oldest on lower so that when the building collapsed, some of the older are known to have got out but the majority with the teaching staff did not. The representative, I believe a priest, spoke in calm matter of fact way but there was no hiding the sorrow and the pain in his voice

I coughed a lot on Saturday morning uncertain whether to attend the performance or return the ticket. I tried to cough out, taking doses of the mixture at ten and then mid afternoon. I no longer had a runny nose which meant there was less mucous going to the chest. I worked upon a plan and got myself ready early afternoon cooking four chicken drumsticks and eating one with the second dose of Beechams’ All in One medication. I made up a tomato and basil soup for the flask and packed a carton of grapes. It was a day for a suit with the light mauve shirt which required cuff links and which took sometime to insert, a pair given by my aunt.

I then made my way to the car park close to the High Street and purchased thirty minutes of time going to the bank for some cash and then to Wilkinson’s for a packet of Murray mints and two packets of Polo mints. I could have obtained these from several other stores but I was also fast running out of plastic pockets for the lever arch files for my work and I wanted to check out the cost of those at the store. The pound land where charging £1 for 80 but these were of inferior quality to those acquired from Asda and Wilkinson and which in turn were cheaper than Staples. Bingo and Eureka, there was a special offer where instead of 95p 100, 200 were available for £1.30. Brilliant. I purchased a carton of ten and determined to return on Sunday for more, which I did, getting 20 and leaving half a dozen or so behind, as I rightly assessed what I had would fill the shelf where I store them.

I then travelled to the Hewarth Interchange travel centre car park, foregoing 20p on top of the charge of £1.80 for four hours which would take me past the charging period for the day. I enjoyed the soup and remembered to take with me a small bottle of water in addition to a supply of the mints, my gloves and scarf and a small telescopic umbrella noticing that I was not coughing as much as before, if at all.

The latest score from Stamford Bridge was that Sunderland were only losing 5.0, with four goals scored conceded in the first third of the game. Newcastle play on Monday night on Sky. Just as well the car radio remained to be fixed. Chelsea went on to score two more. England were losing badly at the cricket so that the series against South Africa would be drawn. The switch from Football to Opera this winter was proving a great decision. The judgement and wisdom of age.

I arrived at the Theatre just after five pm having had to produce my travel pass during the journey at a checking purge at Gateshead. One young passenger immediately owned up that he was travelling without a ticket and was sent off the train to see the Inspector. There was a similar gathering of ticket checkers at the Monument station exit.

There was a dozen people at the box office, going to cinema showings, collecting previously ordered tickets or hoping for last hour returns. I went to the toilet, found that the cafe restaurant on the second floor and the bar on the fourth were full with standing room only and made my way to the first floor where opposite the entrance to the Classic Circle there was a screen showing Newsreels. The Tyneside Theatre opened in 1937 as a Newsreel theatre. At the time there were about 40000 cinema seats in the greater Newcastle 40 theatres until the arrival of Daily Television broadcasting in the 1950’s. The news reel theatre had a feature programme of sport, educational and interest documentaries, including cartoons. In addition to the News there were usually four other films per programme, one on sport, a travelogue, on some household activity and a cartoon. Before TV the only way to see news was through the news reels which were also shown in between the main and second feature film in standard theatres. This was also at a time of the continuous performance. You could purchase a ticket at noon when the theatre opened and sit through to when the Queen was played at the closing watching the highlights of a football or cricket game over and over and over again. People also entered and left the shows in the standard theatres during a performance and as we went in early this was after the B picture had commenced but we did not always stay for the next showing. Because the standard theatres, the Odeon’s, the Grenada’s, The Gaumont’s and the smaller independent showed USA and British films it was left to some of the News Theatre to begin to show films produced by European countries, mainly France, Italy and some from Spain, and Ingmar Bergman. This is how the Tyneside Film Theatre developed.

As previously mentioned I had seen a production of Carmen live during my childhood with scenery painted backcloth. In 1954 Otto Preminger updated the story to Afro America with Harry Belafonte playing a recruit providing guard duty at a Parachute making factory during World War II. The film is based on an Oscar Hammerstein II 1943 musical using the music of Bizet. Carman, played by Dorothy Danbridge, works at the factory and gets into a fight with the co worker who has reported her for being late. Joe is told by a Sgt to convey Carmen to the authorities much to the dismay of his girl friend, Cindy Lou, who has come to factory to say she will marry him on his next leave.

The wanton Carmen sets out to seduce Joe to gain her freedom and her effort intensifies when he initially rejects her advances. He wakes after spending the night together when their vehicles ends up in a river to find a note from her saying sorry that she is not going to jail but she loves him. Joe is locked in the stockade for allowing his prisoner to escape and matters get worse when Cindy Lou leaves him in anger after arriving to find a rose from Carmen being delivered to him. Carmen gets work in a local night club to await for the release of Joe and in the film Pearl Bailey sings an exciting number Beat Out that Rhythm on a drum. Joe Adams plays Husky Miller a prize fighter who arrives at the club with his entourage, takes a fancy to Carmen and tries to buy her attention with gifts but she ignores his advances.

When Joe is released from prison and visits Carmen her response makes him feel his imprisonment has been worthwhile but he is then summoned away to attend flying school. Carmen is incensed and shows her disapproval by accepting an invitation from Joe‘s Sgt to go off with him. This anger’s Joe and he fights the Sgt. Realising he will get a long prison sentence for this and Joe flees to Chicago with Carmen where they rent a small room and Carmen goes in secret to seek money from the Boxer to enable her and Joe to survive. When Joe persists in wanting to know how she managed to obtain the groceries bought with the cash, she goes off again, to the Hotel suite of the fighter accompanied by friends. She uses cards to tell her fortune and this reveals her premature death. She responds to this news by indulging in an orgy of drink and sex portrayed only by inference given the era when the film was made.

Cindy Lou arrives in search of her fiancée and then Joe arrives and threatens to get into a fight with the Boxer. Carmen helps him to escape but she has become attached to the boxer. Joe finds her on the day of the big fight and pleads with her to return to him. She refuses and tells him to kill her or let her go. He strangles her in a moment of jealous a passion just as the police arrive to arrest him for desertion.

Preminger met considerable opposition to getting the funding for the project and eventually was forced to accept several constraints when it was realised he intended to follow the original story portraying a woman with no morals and without moralising about her behaviour. Preminger also had misgivings about the casting of Dorothy Danbridge who herself had doubts but was persuaded by the Director who then commenced to have an affair with her! Although Dorothy and Harry Belafonte both sang, Carmen Jones is an operatic musical and therefore their voices were dubbed by Marilyn Horne and Le Verne Hutcherson. The film had very mixed reviews with some feeling that the contemporary story was at odds with the music of grand opera, and others that too many compromises had been made to appease a still racist and segregated United States. I have the original Long Play record with titles such as Lift em up and Put em down, You talk just like my Maw. Dere’s a cafe in de corner! My CD version of the Opera has Regine Resnik as Carmen and Joan Sutherland as Micaela

Because of uncertainty about my ability to cope with the performance in theatre, on Saturday morning I watched the only video version on the Metropolitan Opera i player reading the available information beforehand. As with many works when the opera opened in Paris is was denounced by the majority of the critics and there was a move to end its run in the first week, but survived the attacks to complete 48 performances. The young composer then died a few months later aged 37 unaware that the opera was to be hailed a triumph when it was performed in Austria later in the year but after which only gradually became one of the most popular and best loved operas around the world.

The opera is set in Seville, Spain in 1830 where Michaela a village maiden comes to the city to find her fiancée Don Jose, a corporal working at the Guard House but is yet to come on shift. She is approached by the soldiers and runs away to turn later. Don Jose arrives with the change of guard whose ritual is imitated by street children, thus providing opportunity for talented youngsters from stage schools to appear in a major opera production. He is dedicated soldier eager to impress and be a credit to his mother who lives in the same village as Micaela. The couple appear to be well suited and devoted to each other.

Don Jose’s period of duty coincides with the emergence of women from the cigarette factory for smoking break where they are greeted by their admirers. Last to emerge is Carmen, a beautiful young gypsy woman with a reputation for taking lovers but discarding them as quickly if they do not live up to her expectations or if she finds someone who interests her more. She likes to be the centre of attention and reacts when Don Jose shows no interest in her. When they return to work Micaela arrives with a letter from the mother of Don Jose and before they part it is agreed that they will marry soon.

After she has left there are cries with the factory and Carmen and been fighting another worker who slashes her across the. The officer of the watch arrests Carmen and places her in the custody of Don Jose while he writes a warrant for her to be conveyed to prison. Carmen makes a play for Don Jose, offering herself and he unties her hands so with the help of the other girls she is able to escape when the officer returns with the completed warrant, This is sufficient for Don Jose to be punished by being restricted to barracks. This ends the first act.

A month has passed when Act 2 opens and Carmen and her friends sing and dance at an Inn where the customers include the officer of Don Jose’s watch and he invites Carmen and her friends to go with him to the theatre. She is committed to Don Jose who she knows was released the previous day. The Bullfighters are in town and the most famous is Escamillo the Matador who flirts with Carmen after singing the famous Toreador(collective description for all classes of bullfighters) song. Carmen does not reject him in the same way as the officer saying he should not dream of being hers, with the caveat for the time being.

Then smugglers arrive trying to enlist Carmen and the other girls to participate in the selling of contraband they have smuggled from Gibraltar. Carmen rejects the offer startling everyone by saying she is love. I know something about smuggling and Gibraltar because when my birth and care mothers, their sisters and brothers were growing up before during and immediately after the First World War smuggling was practiced by almost the entire resident population of Gibraltar and the equal number of Spanish workers who crossed back and forth across border with Spain every day. One of the uncles was able to run about the rock in a chauffer driven car from the early gambling slot machines and the smuggling which he encouraged several of his sisters to participate in. Then it was citizens black economy more than hierarchical organised crime which came with the trade in illegal drugs in the last quarter of the 20th century.

The other aspect worth mentioning is that Spain was and remains, but to less extent, a country where Roman Catholicism is the religion of the overwhelming majority with pre war the then the peasant and lower middle class population practicing a simple and devout religion and where the Spanish practised a social code where unmarried women would not be left in the presence of males who were not relatives without a chaperon. Carmen would have been exceptional, even among Gypsy women.

Jose enters the opera again before the smugglers leave and they urge her to bring him along on the enterprise. Jose returns the gold coin she sent him while in custody and she orders fruit and wine to celebrate his releases and dances with her friends for him. All appears well until the retreat is sounded for the soldiers to return to barracks and Jose makes to go off. This is not what Carmen wants and alleges that Jose does not love her. He respond with the Flower song showing that he kept the flower which she also sent to him in jail. She begs him to leave the army and enjoy the freedom she experiences. Just when it looks that he will not desert his officer arrives in search of Carmen and Jose draws his sword but before they can fight the smugglers re-enter and disarm them and the officer is made a prisoner. Everyone including the Don Jose is forced to then flee or be imprisoned.

This is when the interval usually takes place. I had felt the need to cough just as the performance commenced. I had bought a small glass of wine, although technically it was a plastic cup. and was able to take a series of sips and with water this cleared without making me feel uncomfortable or affecting the enjoyment of others, In fact I quickly noticed that others has a more disturbing problems although overall there was very little theatre. I was so pleased with my ability to cope with the first part that I bought a second glass of Merlot with a small tub of salted peanuts, remembering to use my Friend’s Card to gain a discount.

The third Act is described as a wild and deserted rocky place where the smugglers are travelling with the contraband and Carmen has already tired of her latest lover because he is at heart a village lad. The gypsy women read the cards and then Carmen looks for her future and that of Don Jose and the cards foretell that they both will have premature deaths. The role of the girls is to charm the customs officers and they leave Jose to guard the contraband. This provides the opportunity for Micaela to reappear having followed in search of her fiancée and is determined to take Jose away from the influence of Carmen. Then Escamillo the Toreador also arrives in search of Carmen and he tells Don Jose that the gypsy has become infatuated with a soldier, not realising that Jose was the man. Jose still jealous because of Carmen’s behaviour towards him challenges the bullfight, but the man resists until provoked further when he disarms the soldier, leaving him saying his trade is to kill bulls, not men. Don Jose starts to fight again but the Smugglers return and disarm Jose. The Bullfighter invites them to attend his next bullfight in Seville.

In the fourth Act the scene is outside the bullring on the opening day of the latest contest. This provides the opportunity for the full procession of the bullfighters and leading personalities of the town to march in procession-, the cuidrilla. I have attended one Bullfight in Barcelona, leaving at half time because I had seen enough of the ritual slaughter of the bulls. My prejudices were more than confirmed because the various levels of bullfighter are given every possible protection and bulls are medicated to ensure while they put up a performance they offer little risk as they are ceremonial tortured to death. Their is no honour in the activity which is worse than fox hunting. There are three matadors who each fight two bulls and each has six assistants, two Picadores, men on padded horses who pick at the bulls with lancers, three Banderilleros who push sharp pointed sticks into the bull and the sword holder who hands the killing weapon to the Matador when the bull is ready for the kill. The group procession into the arena where they salute the presiding dignitaries who are accompanied by the other social dignitaries of the town and visiting celebrities, friends and families of the bullfighters. The costumes are flamboyant. The so called fight has thee stages where the bull is tested by the use of the cape by the Matador and his walking assistants. The second stage is those on horses and where until the 1930 when the padding was introduced more horses were killed by the bulls than the bulls themselves. The purpose is to disable the bull to reduce the danger in the final stage. At this stage the banderilleros each attempt to plant two of pointed sticks into the shoulders of the bull. There is a loss of blood from these attacks. Finally the matador enters with the sword hidden in the cape. The whole notion of red the flag to a bull is nonsense as bulls are colour blind and the use of red is to mask the flow of blood from the wounded bull.

The crowd then participate by signalling their approval or disapproval of the performance by waving of white handkerchiefs in which instance the Matador may be reward by one or two of the bulls ears and in some areas with the tail for an exceptional performance. Equally if the crowd like the bull they will call for its life to be saved in which instance it returns to its ranch to stud and does not participation in any further bullfight. This crowd participation is reminiscent of the Roman crowd and the gladiatorial contests.

There are bull fights where the bull is not physically injured and where the team are dressed normally and who performs are acrobatics without the use of the cape. The men work as a team without the status distinctions and compete for points against the other teams. There are variations in different countries, Portugal where it is now illegal to kill the bull in an arena, France and in Latin America.

There was marked difference in how the procession was treated in the 1997 and 2010 Metropolitan productions. In 1997 the participants were in their full historical finery with the Picadores astride real horses whereas on Saturday the approach was to wear casual clothes, no horses and no visible instruments of torture and death. The emphasis was on raunchy sex instead and more on that in a moment. The procession provide the opportunity for a second appearance of the street children and everyone leaves the stage for the closing moments. In the 1997 production Carmen is transformed into a Spanish lady and consort of Escamillo. Before she enters the stadium she is told that Don Jose has also come to the city and her friends warn her to be on her guard. Carmen being Carmen and aware of what the cards foretold goes in search of her former lover to persuade him to let her go. She was born free and wishes to remain free. Don Jose pleads with her in one of the most moving solos in all opera. Carmen maintain her position and tell him to kill her or let her go. In his desperation, jealousy and hate he kills her but is then horrified by what he has done and he makes no attempt to flee before he is apprehended knowing his life has also ended.

The opera had been performed and recorded by all the great opera singers with in my life time Victoria de los Angeles, Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry Marilyne Horner, Jessye Norman and Angela Gheorghiu, together with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, More recently the role of Don Jose has been made his own by Roberto Alagna until recently the husband of Angela Gheorghiu who made a recording together in 2003. In 1997 Angela played the part of Micaela and was to have returned to Met as Carmen in this year’s production with her husband in the role of Don Jose. They have now parted and Angela withdrew from the production as a consequence.

Because of my uncertainty the decision to watch the 1997 production did not reduced the impact of 2010 performance in the evening. Carmen was played in 1997 by Waltraud Meir the international German Soprano and mezzo soprano who although 46 at the time had a reputation as an actress performer and was very convincing as an experience woman with many previous lovers who could attract the attention of most men she encountered and confidently expected to remain in control of the relationship for as long as she wished. I once visited a tourist nightclub in Athens in Greece at which the female singer has perfected the art of getting all the men to focus on her irrespective of whether they were there with their partners and regardless of the feelings of the partners. She selected a victim to pretend to flirt and seduce and then discard leaving him looking foolish. Sitting at the same table was a well built mature German gentleman, with his equally formidable looking wife and the actress singer made a bee line to attract his interest as soon as she noted his indifference which from my perspective bordered on contempt and she tried to engage his attention more than once but she was ignored which only appeared to make her more determined.

Whereas in the 2010 production Carmen, Elina Garanca performed this role in very physical way, Meir’s performance was achieved by looks and gestures. Elina is a younger performer with a sexy voice as well as body, in part achieved from being a mezzo-soprano, born 1976 in Latvia.

Placido Domingo remains the most outstanding operatic performer of his generation from what I have experienced todate and this includes Pavarotti but not Carreras who I am yet to see in a full operatic role. It is the number and range of the roles undertaken that impresses together with his constant ability to communicate the deepest emotions and role credibility even when there is a mismatch between his actual age and that of the part. However in terms of Carmen, Roberto Alagna, born Paris of a Sicilian family takes the honours because he is more convincing as a young man from a Spanish village out of his depths when confronted by a woman such as Carmen. In part this was because of differences in the production with that of 1997 putting the emphasis Done Jose strutting confidently around in an impressive uniform whether as a soldier or Smuggler. Both were brilliant at communication their desperation at being reject by Carmen for Escamillo at the end. The role of Micaela is a difficult one because while a chaste girl from the village she has to cope with the advances of the soldiers at the city guard house and also be able to travel on her own in search of her fiancée all the way from Servile to Gibraltar in the days before public transport where travel would have been by donkey if not on foot. In 1997 the role was performed by Gheorghiu.

The other observation to be made that while Carmen is full of glorious music it does not have the same power as Il Travatore, Butterfly from dramatic moments but continues to stand alongside Aida from those seen in relay with only Turandot lacking the overall impact of the others.

Sitting next to me was a man of a similar generation who engaged in conversation, asking if this was my first experience and this led to talking about my other recent experiences including the disappointment over the contract not being taken up by Cineworld. He provided the information that Cineworld has taken out a new contract with Covent Garden which led to checking the Internet site on return. The only anxiety is the note tbc. This will compensate for the new Odeon at Metrocentre not indicating participation in the relays at this stage. The man had gone there to view Avator in 3D Imax. I had planned to follow this piece immediate with my reactions to the Wallander but on reflection Wallander merits separate consideration.