Don Giovanni
Image courtesy of Barcex
English National Opera, London Coliseum (Autumn 2004) Oh Dear: what have we here? Don Giovanni is driven on stage in a clapped-out Ford Consul (or something – not good on cars, TVC will use Pam Ayres’ phrase) and out spills Donna Anna and Don Giovanni, covering up their junk. And downhill from there. This Calixto Bieto production was touted as “Mozart meets Reservoir Dogs” . It was more a case of ‘Salieri meets The Panic in Needle Park meets Cruising’. David Parry conducted. Eventually, some of the good bits floated back into our cerebral cortex, helped by wine chugged at…
Continue Reading →The Richard Wagner Society
Wagner laughing at himself
14 April 2014 The Richard Wagner Society of SA presented Timothy Sexton, Artistic Director of State Opera SA, to present the inaugural Brian Coghlan Lecture in honour of its Past President. Sexton, who presented the Glass Trilogy in August 2014, was given the difficult brief of proving a link between Wagner and Glass, which he heroically did in an erudite and entertaining way, enlivened by musical examples. Although TVC‘s response to the lecture’s sub text “Was Richard Wagner the first experimental minimalist composer?” is a resounding “No”, we are now prepared to water down that ‘narrow-minded’ position a tad. Wagnerites…
Continue Reading →The Barber of Seville
(Opera Australia) (2007) Another can’t-miss piece, perhaps the greatest opera buffa of all, with typical Rossini touches – beautiful young lady, thwarted passion, a nasty guardian, identity confusion and a comically manipulative mastermind – was staged by OA over the country in 2007. Rossini’s score is uneven but joyous, featuring many popular melodies (e.g. the smash cavatina Largo al Factotum Della Citta – “Figaro sù, Figaro giù! Figaro quà, Figaro la!”). TVC saw the production in Melbourne (14/4/07), when there was last minute shuffling of the cast, Figaro being laryngeally inflamed, and replaced by his servant. The key role of…
Continue Reading →Floral Teacosy. Instructions Second Half.
Hello Teacosy Lovers, this is the second half of the instructions for the floral teacosy FLOWERS & LEAVES. Here are links to some of the lovely flower patterns I use:- Attic24 of course. There are many lovely things on this site. The daffodil, the purple star flower (which is the base of the daffodil) and the small roses are Lucy’s patterns. LeisureArts for the large rose. Mollie Makes for these beauties. Flowergirl Cottage has an excellent pattern for a flower and other pretty things too. Some of the leaves came from this book – I have pinned lots of gorgeous flower, leaf…
Continue Reading →Floral Teacosy Instructions First Half.
Hello Everyone, thank you for visiting !! This is an update of my previous post about the floral teacosy which I made for my friend L. I posted a pic of the teapot on Attic 24’s Facebook page and many lovely people have asked me for the pattern, so I shall do what I can. Here are some photos. I don’t have a pattern as such, but I will do my best to explain how it was done! MATERIALS I mainly used acrylic 8 ply yarn and 8 ply cotton with 4mm knitting needles and a 4mm crochet hook. I did use…
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