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.

Il Trovatore , Barcelona and Met productions 2009/ 2010

As I have written before I had arranged the trip with an extra day at the Lodge with the intention of visiting again the Calle exhibition at the Whitechapel, having a pre Christmas meal at the Cafe Rouge at Victoria station and a relay from Barcelona of Il Trovatore at the Odeon Convent Garden. My Traviata and Trovatore being mixed up beforehand but no more.

Having watched and heard the opera twice(listening again as I checked this writing) since the live relay I confirm my reaction on the night that this is the most satisfying operatic experience to-date. The opera is full of powerful and passionate arias from the four lead characters where the two female parts were outstanding in the Barcelona production but nothing can compare with the 1988 Metropolitan production with Pavarotti and Dolora Zajick. Every part of the four act opera performed with one interval between Acts 2 and 3 contains moments of moving drama and singing challenges and listening ecstasy. The reason is the almost unbroken melodiousness of the opera. Yet it nearly did not happen for me.

After a morning of plan changing after the horror of the driving conditions the night before, deciding to take the car to collect my mobile phone left at the home of a relative and then parking in central Croydon for the train to Victoria where I had a good lunch at the Cafe Rouge, I made my way to the cinema intending, according to the available information about its location to change at Green Park for the Piccadilly Line to Convent Garden station. The pavement at Convent Garden station is only reached by lift unless one is an enthusiast for the 153 spiral stairway. The was a great crush and the available lift would not move until some of those trying to cram in waited. I went back to the platform area with the intention of returning to the Leicester Square Station and walking from there but got on a train going in the opposite direction by mistake and therefore had to alight again and return back from Holborn. At Leicester Square I looked at a local map to decide on the best exit and this revealed that the Odeon was just off Cambridge Circus and therefore this was a better station than Convent Garden. My reason for going straight to the cinema was to check that that the ticket ordered by telephone automatically was available as I had received no reference number or printed out confirmation. The theatre just opened as I arrived at 2.45 to the annoyance of some customers who had arrived for the first showings due at that time. I inserted a credit card in a small seat collection machine on one wall and obtained a printed paper ticket. Getting the ticket brought me a step closer to attending the evening show but I was still concerned about the weather.

I then visited the Calle Exhibition again at the Whitechapel Gallery and will write separately in the coming days and visited Blackwell’s and Foyle’s Bookshops where I made no purchase buying a six book hard cover compilation of the Forsyte Saga from Amazon for a fraction of the shop price.

I decided to check on the trains at Victoria before returning to the cinema and was given the all clear for a later return to Croydon, then making my way to the cinema just before 6.30 finding a number of other early arrivals in the small coffee shop and bar or standing at the entrance to the theatre.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the cinema had allocated a large screen and auditorium with about 240 250 comfortable seats especially those in the centre area classified as Premium. The theatre was over half full when the curtain was raised although I had spare seats on either side which made the experience more comfortable to the point of luxury at the amazing price of under £9 including credit card charge.
As with the Metropolitan New York and Convent Garden the effect of showing the height of the stage with the width creates an oblong effect shortening the width of the Opera at Barcelona. I was able to work out the true perspective by counting the number of seats in a row in the theatre and at the opera house and this only served to emphasis the height and depth although unlike the Metropolitan we were not given a behind the scenes peek.

The Gran Thatre del Liceu was destroyed by fire in January 1994. While the auditorium was re-created the opportunity was taken to improve the backstage and to fund the development the theatre became Public.

The most performed Opera is Aida with over 440 performances with Rigoletto second with just under 400. Faust 297, Lucia di Lammermoor 274, La Favourita 263, Il Trovatore 259, Lohengrin 241 La Boheme 238, Barber di Suvugia 233, Traviata 231, Les Huguenots 228 Carmen 205. There are some surprises on this list with no Madame Butterfly or Turandot, Tosca or Paglacci, Don Carlo or Don Givanni and several others before Les Huguenots or La Favourita.

The Liceu production is comparatively simple which a fixed contemporary looking structure of ceiling high columns at either side between which performers enter and exist, and single backcloths designed to show that as a background to the story there is conflict and war between two noble houses in Southern Spain. When the separate houses are represented on stage they have their own backcloth and the soldiers wear blue or red neck scarves and shining red or blue gauntlets. The effect is that much more dramatic than the Metropolitan with its stairways and changes in structures, impressive as these always are. It is also fair to say that the war between the two aristocratic houses is minor significance in terms of the two big issues of the opera.
The opera opens with the captain of the guard for the noble house of Aragon, a baritone, explaining that in the past, the story is set in the fifteen century, a gypsy woman was seen over the child son of the Count di Luna and chased away but the child then fell ill and the court believed that the woman had cast a spell so she was apprehended and told to remove the spell and when the condition of the child did not improved she was burnt at the stake in front of her daughter, who listened to her mother’s cry, daughter, avenge me. By coincidence I was to watch a showing of the Wicker Man a few days later and which has the most vivid and effective of the martyrdom’s at the end of the film in which the victim calls for the salvation to his God. In this story the pagan response of the gypsy was to have such profound effect on all the principal characters.

Her daughter Azucena was a young girl with a child of her own in her arms and seeing the horror of her mother’s death and the entreaty to take revenge, managed to enter the castle of the Count and steal one of the brothers, a child of similar age to her own, intending to throw it into the still burning pyre on which her mother had perished. However in her emotional condition she had mixed up the two babies and thrown her own child which was also burnt alive, bringing up the son of the Count as her own. However throughout the rest of her life she remains uncertain of what she did, except that she was responsible for the burning to death of a baby.

There are different views on this aspect of the story with some writing claming that the libretto was written with a view that knowing what she had done she would use her son one day against his House, although the Count dies and his other son the Count is not sure if it was his brothers bones in the ashes or the boy was raised by the gypsies.

After this long singing soliloquy of a prologue accompanied by a chorus of the guard, the advises the audience that the opera is to begin.

Most writers admit the melodramatic story has its flaws and none more so that than what happens to the infant that lived and was raised by the gypsy woman, Manrico, who as soon as he is able to, despite a close relationship with his mother, leaves her to become a Troubadour, and somehow as well as a soldier who takes up the cause of a rival Noble House and becomes,, for the purposes of the opera, a leading if not leading assistant on behalf of the House against the Count di Luna. What is worse he has fought and sung his way into the heart of the Duchess Lenora, who the Count coverts with overwhelming passion. When the Count di Luna learns that the man is singing below the balcony of Leonora he orders his men to apprehend Manrico at the first opportunity.

Having been alerted to his presence one night the Duke approaches and suddenly finds Leonora in his arms who in the fog mistakes him for Manrico who also appears and the three are together on stage with musical as well as dramatic fireworks. In the stage directions the men fight a duel but this aspect is omitted in both version of the opera I have seen.

The Act ends and with a brief musical introduction the next act begins with a gypsy encampment. The gypsies are working on sword making and the audience is treated to one of the well loved choruses in opera, The Anvil Chorus. The focus of the Act is the gypsy woman, sung by Luciana D‘Intinio in the relay and Dolera Krijick in the Met Opera video available on the internet and audio CD. While Luciana is regarded as one of the leading Mezzo soprano’s of the present generation, now aged born 1959, specialising in Verdi with Il Trovatore and Aida, plus the Requiem, her major roles, she has no Wikipedia entry. I thought her performance was outstanding and along with that of Lenora the two women made the evening a memorable one. Interestingly she has performed both - Il Trovatore and Aida at the Met. The Act provides the opportunity to recount the past to her son so having had the perspective oft he Captain of the Guard we now have that of the daughter. She has been hiding in the land of the House of Biscay but came out to find her son and to nurse him back to health after finding him injured from the recent battle between the forces of Biscay and Aragon. Understandably the account of the past raises doubt about the parentage of Manrico and when he raises these Azucena pulls back and claims that she explained things badly because of her emotional state reliving the trauma.

It is his ‘mother’s’ turn to question Manrico because we learn that in the duel at the end of Act 1 he had got the better of the Count di Luna who had led the forces of Aragon in the recent battle. The gypsy woman wants to know why Manrico did not kill the Count when he had the opportunity and he explains that a voice from heaven prevented him doing so, thus suggesting a subconscious kinship link between the two.

A messenger arrives from the Prince of Biscay to order Manrico to take charge of the forces defending the city of Castellor and we also learn that Leonora believing him dead has entered a convent to take the veil.

The scene switches to the Count who has also heard that Leonora has entered the convent and he sets out to kidnap her before she take the Holy Orders. Critics claim that his baritone solo is one of the most beautiful solos in Italian opera. The performance of Roberto Frontali as the count is excellent and in my judgement compares to that of Sherrill Miles at the Met, although the latter is regarded alongside Domingo and Pavarotti with whom he has featured in many performances and on CD’s
However before he can implement his plan Marico arrives with greater forces and Leonora amazed that he is alive leaves the convent to join him and there is a moving end to this part of the opera before the only interval as the three express their feelings with the support of the chorus of nuns and military supporters.

I enjoyed a coffee from the Theatre and the Danish pastry carried around since leaving the Travel Lodge the day back in my seat, and marvelling at how the day had worked out so far. Whatever happened on the journey back, I was enjoying myself with skin tingling singing.

The Third Act opens with the Count laying siege to Castellor where Manrico has taken Leonora with him. There is a commotion and the Count finds that the Captain of his guard has apprehended a gipsy woman who proclaims she is a wanderer looking for her lost son. She is recognised as the woman who took his brother and cast him to the flames and protesting her innocence she calls out to her son by name. Understandably the Count realises that he has double reason to hold the woman prisoner and to burn her at the stake when she has served her purpose. While in the relay production the woman is played by a singer of similar years, this was Krijick’s first role at the Met and she had to age herself by a grey wig and makeup. He voice had not matured to extent of the recent AIDA performance but is nevertheless magnificent. The emotion she coveys is extraordinary and sets as one of the all time greats. As with AIDA I hope she reprise her role in Il Travatore in some relayed production in the future.

In Castellor Manrico and Leonora are about to be married when news comes of the capture of his mother and breaks off from the ceremony to try and rescue her. I was not impressed by the performance of Marco Berti as Manrico, something shared by Jose M Irurzun who attended a number of performances to hear the performances of all the International singers taking the roles with in effect three different casts, although there was some cross overs. I also noted that other critics had felt that his singing and characterization has not lived up to expectations in others roles around the world..

In the fourth act we learn that his attempt to save his mother failed and he has been captured and thrown into a cell in a prison tower with his mother. Leonora learns of his situation and puts into operation a desperate plan to save his life at the expense of her own. She carries with her a poison ring which indicates what is to take place when she offers herself to the Count in exchange for Marico.

She alerts Manrico of her presence by what has become one of the most familiar most familiar melodies in all of opera, the Miserere.

The plan works in that the Count agrees to free Manrico in exchange for Leonora but Manrico does no accept his release and works out the price Leonora appears to have paid, something he does not understand or forgive until the poison works quicker than anticipated and she dies in his arms. The Count is so angered at being duped that he orders the immediate execution of Manrico and too late he learns from Azucena that he has killed his long lost brother. Everyone loses. Before there is some moving sing from all four leads with Aucena’s cry, Mother you are avenged.

In the relay Leonora is played by Florenza Cedolins one of the outstanding new generation of Italian sopranos who first performed only in 1992 and four years later won the Pavarotti Vocal Competition with a prize which included singing Tosca with him in Philadelphia. She was invited to sing The Requiem Mass for Pope John Paul II. I thought her performance on the night was also exceptional and matching that of D’Intinio. For the Met Eva Marton sings Leonora. The Hungarian born singer only four year younger that myself was of matching maturity with Pavarotti when they and together in 1988 and brings her then musical and singing experience to the role. She possesses great power in her voice which led to singing Wagner which was her Met debut in 1976. She performed Il Trovatore at La Scala in 1978 ten years before the Met performance with Pavarotti. In later years she made Turandot a major role, retiring in 2008

Enrico Caruso stated at the turn of the last century that the opera required four the greatest voices of any generation to match the strength and brilliance of Verdi’s creation. While the relay could be said to have two performances worthy of the opera, the Met production has four and is why I am listening again as I write, the third time since my return. My next interest will be Carmen from the Met on January 16th. Before then I will experience a video which has been added to the Met Player performances available.

After the pre Christmas relay and the music filling my senses I had a brilliant journey back to the Travel Lodge. reached Victoria Station in time to get on a one stop train to East Croydon as it prepared to leave the platform, but I managed to find a seat albeit next to a new European who appeared to have been drinking heavily although there was also evidence of some office partying among others returning to Sussex, Brighton and other south coast homes.

My car was one of only a few left in the car park and I had a brief moment of anxiety as the machine fully consumed the credit card which it read automatically without my needing to insert a pin number. The roads were clear and quiet and was back in my room well before 11.30 having spent several minutes sorting out the room key card which had lost its potency and to be recharged although it led to my having a short conversations about the conditions with the duty receptionist. It had been an exceptional and memorable day and I went to bed unconcerned about the journey to the Midlands the following morning although he weather forecast continued to be filled with warnings about more snow, fog and dangerous road condition

1825 Honouring Pavarotti, Intrigue , The warrior and the slavegirl, and Merlin

To day I celebrated a meaningless personal achievement having completed the 22.3 of Luxor Majong, this recovered the Statue of Isis as I finally completed the trek across Egypt, also recovering various treasures along the way and being promoted to various positions of employment as I progressed, Because I ended the task with 4 lives I received an additional 400000 bonus points which sent the final tally to 13258200, demolishing the previous best total by some 10 million points having previous only reached level 9.1 I reckon that I have used about forty hours of precious time on the task over the past two weeks to achieve this self congratulation.

I accept it is a poor achievement but I suspect given the way our respective lives have progressed it is a feeling akin to that experienced by Luciano Pavarotti, when celebrating his three decades of performances at the Met Opera, New York, and one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century especially of you like mature powerful voices which can nevertheless communicate the sensitive and tenderest of feelings.

I say a similarity of feeling because when commenting on the occasion it was not the fine words or honour done to him which mattered, but that he was able to put in the best performance he was capable of on the particular night. I am usually hopeless as seeing what there and spotting pairs of matching tiles with unfamiliar symbols is not something I am naturally good at, although patience and persistence is something developed over the decades rather than something natural to my personality. So although the vast chasm in terms of skills and worldly recognition I reckon the sense of personal achievement was similar.

Most people in the world, unless they have to live as peasants or nomads without access to the radio will have heard the voice of Pavarotti and the majority will have at least seen his performance, along with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, as part of the three tenors concert during Italia 90.

Last night I experienced his performance at the Metropolitan Opera New York to celebrate three decades of appearances there. He played three roles from three operas in succession- the final act of L’ Elixir de Amor one of his favourites because he plays a character with whom he identifies and because of the vocal requirements of the role. This was followed by the penultimate Act of La Boheme which was the first role he ever performed after winning a competition in Italy while continuing his life as a young primary school teacher. He was not paid for the performance and his next two brought him £25 dollars each. This was however progress because he had grown up in combative poverty with his parents and their three other children in two rooms. His father a baker and an amateur tenor and his mother working in a tobacco factory. While he was influenced by Gigli and Caruso the individual who inspired his childhood was Mario Lanza, imitating his performances at the mirror when he came home from seeing the films. It was his success in the singing competition than made him decide to try and become a professional opera singer.

The final performance at the gala was the last scene from Aida and thus the gala evening included two of the operas which have influenced me so much over past weeks. At the end of the evening as the great and the good took the stage including Mayor Giuliani to name the day Luciano Pavarotti day in the city Luciano commented that when considering how to celebrate the occasion he had decided that what he wanted to do was to satisfy himself of his continuing ability to sing for that is all he ever wanted to do. He also spoke of Puccini who at the end of his life returned to his home for pasta and wine thus echoing the wisdom of the ages about what is important in life and what is not. Pavarotti was also able to die in thee town of his birth when the fight against cancer became lost

.For the first four years of his professional career he toured the opera houses of Europe but he did not become established as a leading tenor until touring Australia on the recommendation of Joan Sutherland in 1965 and it was not until 1968 that he first appeared at the Met, also La singing, La Boheme and then at La Scala in 1972. Luciano continued to perform until the end of his life dying before his 72nd birthday It was at the Winter Olympics at Turino in 2006 that he performed on the stage for the last time singing Nessum Dorma.

He was married twice with three daughters from his first marriage of 34 years and one from his second who he had married in 2003 having been his personal assistant for many years. As often happens with the death of men of wealth who have married more than once there were problems over the estate when it was found that he had made a new will which was different to the first which followed Italian law and practice. However the matter was settled between the lawyers representing the various family interests. He had owned property in Italy, Monte Carlo and three apartments in New York as well as having funds based in the USA and Italy. The family were well provided and we all have his records and DVD’s.

I had not planned to watch the Pavarotti Gala performance having decided on Renee Fleming who introduces many of the Live HD Relays but who I have not heard sing. I choose the first Opening Night Gala in which like Pavarotti she sings three Acts from three Operas and where the show was telecast live to Times Square. However for some reason I could not turn the picture into full screen and therefore abandoned and searched until coming across the Pavarotti. It was the first I had seen and heard him perform in these operas.

I had planned to write about O Lucky Man the 1970’s cult Lindsey Anderson film about aspects of the never have it so good post World Wear British Society starring Malcolm, McDowell and featuring Alan Price and his music. Unfortunately I fell asleep towards the end of last night’s Channel Four showing and very tired when I awoke made my way to bed and instant sleep. It was well after 1 am. So I will leave to another day. It does give me time to catch up with Intrigue, an excellent example of the post war approach to the Orient and the worldwide problem of the Black Market. In the cities of the UK families were used to surviving on very little as food and clothing was rationed and shops had very little to sell so that queues formed daily for whatever was available. There was always something however for those prepared to pay and who had the right connections. The film stars George Raft one of four men cashiered from the USA airforce after being caught with contraband on their plane.

Two of the four were dead as George and his dependent alcoholic comrade attempted to make a living flying freight in a ramshackle plane and ostracised by everyone he is driven to undertaking a smuggling flight of genuine US whisky. However this proves exceptionally perilous and George demands from his unknown employer a substantial increase in payment to undertake further missions. In order to get to see his boss he hijacks the whisky. He finds that the employer is a woman of undoubted sexual charm played by June Havoc. Madame Tamara Baranoff is indeed the lady from Shanghai where most films about the Orient were then set. He does a deal with the lady which includes a partnership and her personal favours much to the disgust of her former right hand man who goes off and joins her main competitor for the dark business.

This is the cue for the arrival of Linda Parker who is really Linda Arnold the sister of one of the discredited four flyers whose living parents remain emotional destroyed by what happened and the loss of her son. She has taken the job with an orphanage as a means of trying to clear his name and befriends Raft in an effort to uncover the truth. Raft likes her but is in ignorance of what happened and becomes even more embittered when his remaining colleague kills himself. He therefore embarks on his new career with enthusiasm and steals back several tons of rice which have been hijacked by the competition. Also arriving on the seen is an airforce friend of Raft who is a reporter attempting to expose those involved in Black Market and its impact upon the average citizens who sleep on the street and die of hunger. There are some heart rendering scenes at the orphanage of eastern child who speak English and like to play baseball and same heavily underlined statements about the evil nature of the trade. When the reporter discovers the identities of those involved and persuades and local editor to print the story he is mown down when an employee steals the copy and warns the competitor who in turn has a pow wow and together they first sanction the killing and that of Raft when he sees the error of his ways. Madame Baranoff and the competitors as well as her former assistant all meet appropriate ends as Raft discovers that she was behind the smuggling which got him discharged without honour from the service. He goes off to live happy ever after with the sister of his former comrade as he opens the store of food to the populace to help themselves.

The spirit of what is good and honourable also flows through a production on the latter years of St Peter played by Omar Sherriff. This has strong echoes of Quo Vadis, Demetrious and Gladiators and such like without the quality of script, acting and cinematic production. It is a blatant attempt to preach the original core value of Christianity but all too sugary to have any effect except with the already converted. It does not shy away from the barbarity and immorality of the time but somehow fails to have the edge which will have any effect, even if such films have little effect anyway. The exception being Mel Gibson’s Passion although I would be surprised if all but the already converted to a religious faith would go to see this film and which is a horror movie but not of the kind which attracts young people on weekend evenings.

The Italian film industry is understandably much into making films about the toga wearing decades and the latest in the genre is the Warrior and the Slave girl. The only true love during this period appears be between slaves and their masters! In this instance the young and upcoming son of a Senator close to the Emperor Nero fixes for his son to become the military head to Roman Consul or Armenia, ) I think) where the token King is a sickly child managed by his older and attractive sister who in turn has a chief adviser from a neighbouring nation anxious to take over the power and the riches not yet handed over to Rome. Enter the leader of the rebels who has earned his keep as a Gladiator and the requisite fiery slave girl. The young Warrior remains idealistic about Roman values which in reality never existed and frees most of the slaves and dissenting population who are in custody. The exception is the fiery slave who he packs off look after the ailing boy king suspecting something is not right and in fact he is being slowly poisoned by his older sister who pretends to be interested in the warrior as a means of gaining power of him. There are various adventures and double dealing before the Princess in stopped from taking over the throne and giving control to her advisers and his mercenaries. The ex Gladiator leader of the rebels losses his life on behalf of his people (the gladiator in the film of the life of St Peter lays down his arms and escapes with his wife and family in contrast). Also dying is the best friend of the Warrior and the midget fool, fool in the historical sense of entertainer, to the young king. The warrior and slave girl survive for each other and to protect the young king to achieve a model Roman controlled state within its empire.

I also caught up with three episodes of the second series of Merlin which included a two week episode called Beauty and the Beast which was great fun for five year old boys and the likes of me. A Troll, those who like to eat rotten food and dung and who farts at every opportunity finds with the help her serpent like assistant, the means to make her look not only beautiful but the grown up daughter of the deposed king and friend of the Prince Arthur’s father who has remained single since the loss of his wife. He is quickly besotted by the Troll in disguise who gives him a charm which makes him see her as he would like to, even when Merlin finds a way of destroying the potion which turned into a adorable human being. Everyone has great fun and five years old and the likes of me enjoyed the farting and the farcical situations.

It was a fitting end to a week of political hypocrisy.

La Boheme Metropolitan Opera on I player Relay 2009

There is much to write about but until today no inclination to write about experience as I immersed in new additional experience although not necessarily original experience.

I have seen La Boheme before, on stage at Oxford and possibly on the small screen although no recollection and it may have been one of the operas I was taken to see as a schoolboy by my birth and care mothers and their eldest sister. I went to see Carmen definitely either as a schoolchild perhaps later because it was about Spain and gypsies and I knew that my care mother and maybe some of her other sisters had been on at least one trip to see gypsy women as well as Spanish ladies in traditional costume over the border probably at some Catholic festival. I am vague about their recollections before they came to England because their memories were not recorded and there was a long period when we did not talk about their life in Gibraltar. Harriet wanted to, but Mabel and Lena did not. I was a decade too late when I wanted to know Now all their brothers and sisters have also gone as have my older first cousins

It was a good day to watch La Boheme on the BBC i player, the coldest since last Winter, just above zero C for most of the 24 hours. La Boheme is perhaps the most watched opera along with Madam Butterfly and Carmen because of the almost continuous romantic lyricism to the extent that the audience can become overwhelmed by its combination of beautiful singing and profound emotional intensity. Most have heard the aria Che gilda manina What a cold little hand. La Boheme opened the Metropolitan Live relay season this year and I had arranged a weekend trip to see it but then Cineworld bottled out and although I could have gone locally if there were places I decided against and hesitated on discovering there was a recent production, possible the same as being shown on the live relay

La Boheme is intended to convey a place where Bohemians live and although written in Italian by the great Italian composer Puccini, the author of Madam Butterfly, Turandot and Tosca, it is traditionally set in an artistic quarter of Paris such as Montmartre of garrets and cafes, the land of Toulouse Lautrec and Berlioz. In this instance the hero is a poet Rodolfo who shares lodging with Marcello a painter, with friends Schainard, a musician and Colline. a philosopher. The heroine is Mimi, a seamstress, often portrayed as innocent and with Musetta, the singer, as worldly. The friends are cold and hungry until the musician arrives having secured work with an eccentric Englishman. They decide to celebrate with a meal out at cafe in the evening but Rodolfo remains to finish some work and Mimi who lives in the building calls for a match as her candle has blown out. She then loses her key and they interact as they fall in love, one of the most celebrated couplings in culture.

In the Met production there is one of the most dramatic scene changes in the history of opera presentation because of the speed at which the stage is transformed from the garret into a spectacular street and cafe scene filled with people including marching soldiers at one point. There are hundreds of extras and chorus including school children and some 80 stage hands are used to make the switch Rodolfo takes Mini along to meet his friends where Marcello finds a past love, Musetta. dining with a government Minister of my years. She sings provocatively trying to win back the affections of the painter. Musetta leaves the whole bill for the two parties for the Minister to pay when the total is more than the money gained from the work for the Englishman.

Time has passed with the third act in which Mini visits Marcello who is lodging at an Inn where he is working to complain that Rodolfo is rejecting her. Rodolfo is in fact inside the Inn and when he comes out Mimi hides and overhears him explain that he is pretending not to love because he believes she has become seriously ill and as he does not have the means to provide for her care, he is feigning a lack of interest so that she will find someone who can care for her properly and finding that he is overheard the two are reunited in their profound love for each other while Marcello and Musetta quarrel as a counterpoint.

In the final act Musetta discovers Mimi wandering the streets overcome by her illness having lived for a time with a wealthy viscount while Marcello and Rodolfo have been sharing lodgings working hard while separated from their true loves. They do their best to provide medical help and medicine for Mimi but it is too late and she dies. In 1957 papers were discovered which revealed that Puccini had written a middle third act which explains how Mimi came to meet her wealthy suitor after Musetta had been thrown out of her home with her furniture after crossing her protector.

The story is therefore not complex and as with all Puccini it is that unique combination of the operatic voice with beautiful and sensitive music, and with great acting and wondrous settings creates an experience where only the most gifted can match with words. Although on the comparatively small screen and without the sense of immediacy it was as great an experience as with Madam Butterfly and AIDA.

Turandot relayed from the Metropolitan 2009

My third live HD performance from the New York Metropolitan Opera House was Turandot which I have always pronounced and Turando but it is dot and which means I did not listen to the as intently as I should to my Deutsche Grammophon Herbert Von Karajan recording with Placido Domingo as Calaf and Katia Riccardelli as Turandot.

On my first visit to a performance at the Tyneside Film Theatre I used the Hewath long stay car park, returning to find there were two cars left in the isolated and darkened area with the attendant long since departed. Tonight I chose the short stay park in front of the Metro and bus station and where there is also a taxi rank. There is a maximum stay of four hours during the payment period so that by arriving after 4pm one pays £1.70 and this takes you past the time when charges are made. The cost is about the same as the all day charge for the long stay park. I had prepared a salad which I eat most after which I had a banana. I had only eaten a piece of fish for lunch and a cereal breakfast determined to continue to reduce weight having achieve 16.7 which means I have lost a full stone since letting the it get out of hand again. This time there will be no return and I will not be content until another stone has been removed.

Arriving in the city centre around 5.30 I assumed there was time to take a quick look at suits at the British Homes store and indeed after a brisk walk through Fenwicks noting that the Christmas window display was being watched by the usual large crowd and I checked that while there are suits with 44in waists there were only 31 inch trousers and not the 29 I need and a brisk return the clock was only striking 5.45 as I joined a large queue entering the classic cinema stalls. On entering the auditorium I discovered there were only seats left in the first three rows and that every seat had been booked. making the total audience 200 as evidently by word of mouth the good news has spread. On leaving I had a conversation with a woman who said that she and her husband and attempted to gain tickets on Friday and they had been offered the last one. From next until December 11th remains Operas can be booked for a package price from £85 to £110 and then open to the general public. I would not be surprised if the demand continues to accelerate. To mark the development the Cinema provided a programme which was quickly snapped up.

Turandot is not a great opera although it does contain Nessum Dorma although the third act provides the opportunity for some brilliant singing and where the three main performers were exceptional. The settings were also on the scale of Aida.

The story is a simple one with no complications. Prince Calaf and his father who is accompanied by a devoted slave girl are on the run in China. The son meets up with his vanquished father who he has not seen for many years in the city of Peking just as the 12th suitor for the hand of the Princess is to be executed for failing to answer all her three riddles. The penalty for failure to be drawn and quartered and after your head after being severed from the body to be stuck on a pole outside the palace as a warning to other suitors. The Princess is a powerful woman who has no intention of yielding her will or body to a man. The prince is impressed by the devotion of the slave girl played by Marina Popavskaya whose performance was the outstanding one the night although it has come in for some criticism from Lisa Lindstrom. She came to fame in London in 2007 when she took over a role in Don Carlos after Angela Gheorghiu decided was not for her.

A Russian born performer until 2005 Marina has the looks and figure to play young women who can drive any man into passionate madness, as well as the kind of voice I prefer, full of subtlety and sincerity rather than range and power. She was totally convincing as the slave girl who had stayed with the deposed king in the hope she would one day come across his son the only love of her life, a love which she knew was hopeless.

When interviewed by the Evening Standard Marina was very revealing stating that although her mother was a trained chemist with five specialist diplomas she worked as a Taxi driver because it paid more and despite her daughters own new wealth and married to a man forty years her senior with three step sons older than her, and seven step grand children, her mother insisted on earning her own keep. Marina was said have refused to speak of her father or of the Russian billionaires and was spending her time between London and the USA which she now regards as home.

The Calaf is played by the large Marcello Giordani who I saw as the ruthless and despicable Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly in March and again on the Met I player within the past two weeks. This time his role is that of teh crass insensitive and foolhardy Prince who despite knowing that she has callously sentenced 12 predecessors to horrible death, falls in love with Turandot on seeing her at a distance and being able to detect that her perfume fills the night. I could not help thinking that the stench of her blood spilling would have made any honourable young man nauseous. Despite a great performance of Nesum Dorma which brought the house down, but a long way short of Pavarotti of course.

Maria Guleghina played Turandot. She is also Russian born and internationally regarded as one of the great contemporary soprano’s with 130 performances at the Met already to her name and has played all the major female roles for soprano’s around the world. She was brilliant as the bitch from hell prepared to slaughter everyone in the city rather than be forced by her father to give herself to any man let alone the out of town stranger without an entourage or the apparent means to keep her in the lifestyle of someone self proclaimed as no ordinary woman.

The first act also introduces us to Ping, Pang and Pong, something which it was possible to get away with in 1926 when Puccini created this his last operatic work. These are the three trusted servants of the Palace who are usually responsible for the funeral of the rest of the remains of beheaded suitors but who also have plans for a wedding should an individual be successful. They provide humorous interludes between the high drama.

The second Act concentrates on the decision of the Calaf to sound the gong three times to announce his intention to the Princess and the rest of the city to meet the challenge of the three riddles. There are great efforts on the part of the slave girl, his father and Ping, Pang and Pong to dissuade him from attempting the challenge but as is Puccini’s wont, passion always overcomes reason and brings havoc and causing the life of at least one young innocent and good woman.

In fairness to Turandot she was not necessarily born the way she has become but somewhere along in her education, and there is no reference about what age she lost her mother, she learnt than one of her ancestors and been abducted and then killed after he had had his way by a conquering Prince. There is also an element that all woman want a man who will in fact conquer and tame them, a sentiment which Shakespeare also exposed in the Taming of the Shrew and which is frequently the defence of the rapist, she was asking for it or she really meant yes when she was crying out no.

Calaf having worked out the answer to the third riddle Turandot appeals to her father and then to Calaf not to hold her to the marriage, and Calaf also typical for his character is not content just to have her but wants her to submit willingly and gives her the challenge to find out his name and which if she does before dawn he will free her by giving up his life as had the previous suitors. Big Mistake.

The third act deals with the repercussions of this folly. The city is ordered not to sleep and the King‘s men ravage the city in search of clues as to the name of the suitor. Understandably rather than be massacred the citizens draw attention that the suitor was seen in the company with a man and his slave girl and they are apprehended.

Meanwhile Calaf is made offers which most sane men would not refuse. He can have as many young women to be his marital slaves as he wishes, he can have untold riches and he can have power in being given a kingdom to rule all if he flees the city and abandon his hold over Turandot, and in which instance she will stop her reign of terror. After capture the slave girl pretends that while she knows the name her employer does not, thus saving the life of her master. She also fears she will reveals the name under torture and stalls in order to be able to seize a knife to kill herself. This appears to have some effect on Turandot and after we the audience recover from the singing finale of the slave girl there are dramatic and moving exchanges between the Calaf and Turandot in which she eventually succumbs after he forces on her a kiss. I have to say this was the approach of the son good for nothing son of Burl Ives in the Big Country after he had abducted Jean Simmons in order to make her his wife and thus gain control of the Big Muddy. The Opera ends in a grand finale chorus which reminds of One fine day and the couple appear to prepare to be married, to rule together and to live happy ever after while the body of the slave girl, still warm is carried off with the old king holding her hand.

However having listen to the second CD of the Placido Domingo version while writing this, playing Luxor Majong and attending to my feet after soaking them in hot water, I realise that the words and attack on the construction and morality of the story has to be put aside when listening to the Puccini at the height of his creativity and the singing, such glorious singing which led the audience in the cinema to break out in applause along with the Met audience at every opportunity. In the interval I felt in need of a coffee and went downstairs to the street bar where I had a chat with one of the young male assistants who was most interested to hear about what was happening at the theatre and had attracted such a large audience. I also learnt from the programme that at the Tyneside bar which is upstairs between the two upper cinemas shows the interval programmes on screen and is something I must explore in the future especially if they also provide coffee. It was a good cup of Americano. I finished off the salad in the car before going home where I rounded of the evening with a ready made sausage mash and onion and a Christmas film I thought I was to see at midday.

The European lottery of £90 million was won last night with both tickets having been issued in England/ By this morning no one had come forward and then someone had, but another is yet to be confirmed. I checked and double checked my on line numbers and the ticket bought at the supermarket but alas I was not close. Drat Drat and more drat. What I could do with £45 million.

Film 24plusfree channel i.e. within the Sky entertainment subscription ,is showing back to back Christmas films with this afternoon and evening Chasing Christmas and The Christmas Card followed by 12 days of Christmas Eve and A boyfriend for Christmas for Christmas both films viewed yesterday.
The 12 days is a take on Groundhog Day, the film in which the same day is repeated without change until the hero finds the key to move on. In teh twelve days Calvin Carter (played by Steven Weber) is a successful business executive who has it all, but neglects those closest to him. On Christmas Eve, all that changes when the sign on his office building falls on him. He awakens in a hospital bed, attended by Angie (played by Molly Shannon), an angel in the guise of a nurse, who informs him that he has twelve days—that is, twelve chances—to get his act together and achieve the "perfect" Christmas Eve, or there will be dire consequences. The film does take account of the song the Twelve days of Christmas and has elements of a Christmas Carol and surprise surprise he does manage to work out that grand financial gestures especially those of a public kind get him back on the ward and that the solution is to be kind without having other motivation and spend quality time with his family.

A boyfriend at Christmas is three stories into one. A man has spent his whole life creating a year long theme park about Christmas which falls on hard times, especially after his wife who handled teh finances dies and as a consequence he is unable to communicate in a meaningful way with his daughter who goes off to the big city and becomes a successful business woman with no time for Christmas home with dad until he has an accident. She returns to find the business in peril. Many year ago when I youngster she had an influential conversation with a young visitor about Ballet and the Nutcracker favourite for Christmas time. He is the only child of a wealthy couple who have little time for his direct care and he returns to the town where he had a memorable Christmas and where he makes crafted wooden dolls. The two re-meet up and with a common interest in the quality of life and maintaining the Christmas tradition they join forces to try and save the theme park turning to a visitor who appears anxious to help. He is part of a syndicate who successfully take away property in financial difficulties and which has development potential. How they do this is main flaw in this Christmas tale. However a combination of brilliant money raising ideas and Christmas spirit the theme park is saved, the boyfriend becomes financially independent though his individually crafted toys, father and daughter are reconciled and she returns home to a new and better life and love. Oh if real life were so! For the two winners of the £45 million Christmas come early.