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Aug. 6th, 2003 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanLast night I went to Manderley again....
Well, no actually, last night I went to the Albert Hall again, which is completely different. Possibly.
(Digression: has anyone actually read Rebecca's Tale? I forget who wrote it.)
Programme was entirely Strauss (R. Strauus, that is). The first half consisted of a symphonic fragment from his last opera Danae which was... ok, and then an unaccompanied chorus connected with but not part of Daphne, which wasn't. Firstly the piece (unlike the opera itself) was boring and pointless, secondly the BBC Singers weren't up to it, though the other half of the choir, the King's College boys, were, as ever.
The second half, however, was large chunks of Rosenkavalier and was superb. Particularly the trio.
So hurrah for that. Frankly I'd rather they'd given us the whole thing, semi-staged, and opera isn't even really My Thing.
Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, the previous evening I had found myself sucked into watching a film called (I think) Three to Tango.
Actually, it wasn't too bad as nonsense goes. It starred Matthew Perry, who I always thought was probably (possibly excepting Lisa Kudrow) the most talented Friend, oppposite the Real Reason I started watching it, viz Neve Campbell, one of the three joint top people on my Completely Shallow List, ever since she was in the mawkish Five.
And she's a good actress, not that this has anything to do with the Completely Shallow List.
The plot is pointless rubbish (Perry has to pretend to be gay and falls in love with his employer's mistress blah) but the lines were fairly sharp and well-delivered. Plus the added bonus of the White House Counsel (or is he A-G?) from the West Wing as Perry's actually gay business partner and Dr Cox from Scrubs and someone else I vaguely recognised as their Evil Opponents.
In other news, the BBC tell me that the temperature only hit 35.9C, a degree short of the hottest day ever recorded here. It doesn't give me the farenheight score, and I am too tired and this computer too old and cranky to work that out, which is a shame. Nevertheless, since the hottest day ever recorded here was, I know, 99F, we presumably haven't made the century. Ah well.
When I came out of my office ten minutes ago, it felt as warm as I remember it being in various Mediterranean cities, and that's good enough for me.
Well, no actually, last night I went to the Albert Hall again, which is completely different. Possibly.
(Digression: has anyone actually read Rebecca's Tale? I forget who wrote it.)
Programme was entirely Strauss (R. Strauus, that is). The first half consisted of a symphonic fragment from his last opera Danae which was... ok, and then an unaccompanied chorus connected with but not part of Daphne, which wasn't. Firstly the piece (unlike the opera itself) was boring and pointless, secondly the BBC Singers weren't up to it, though the other half of the choir, the King's College boys, were, as ever.
The second half, however, was large chunks of Rosenkavalier and was superb. Particularly the trio.
So hurrah for that. Frankly I'd rather they'd given us the whole thing, semi-staged, and opera isn't even really My Thing.
Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, the previous evening I had found myself sucked into watching a film called (I think) Three to Tango.
Actually, it wasn't too bad as nonsense goes. It starred Matthew Perry, who I always thought was probably (possibly excepting Lisa Kudrow) the most talented Friend, oppposite the Real Reason I started watching it, viz Neve Campbell, one of the three joint top people on my Completely Shallow List, ever since she was in the mawkish Five.
And she's a good actress, not that this has anything to do with the Completely Shallow List.
The plot is pointless rubbish (Perry has to pretend to be gay and falls in love with his employer's mistress blah) but the lines were fairly sharp and well-delivered. Plus the added bonus of the White House Counsel (or is he A-G?) from the West Wing as Perry's actually gay business partner and Dr Cox from Scrubs and someone else I vaguely recognised as their Evil Opponents.
In other news, the BBC tell me that the temperature only hit 35.9C, a degree short of the hottest day ever recorded here. It doesn't give me the farenheight score, and I am too tired and this computer too old and cranky to work that out, which is a shame. Nevertheless, since the hottest day ever recorded here was, I know, 99F, we presumably haven't made the century. Ah well.
When I came out of my office ten minutes ago, it felt as warm as I remember it being in various Mediterranean cities, and that's good enough for me.
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Date: 2003-08-06 10:13 am (UTC)That is my favorite first line of any novel ever - the rest of the book is rather downhill from there, however. And it's Daphne DeMaurier.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-06 11:28 am (UTC)I actually quite like the original, probably more than Wuthering Heights, which to my mind it is clearly trying to emulate.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-06 12:53 pm (UTC)Rebecca's Tale
Date: 2003-08-06 10:18 am (UTC)Have you read 'My Cousin Rachel'?
Re: Rebecca's Tale
Date: 2003-08-06 11:29 am (UTC)Some of the Austen pastiches aren't too bad.
Re: Rebecca's Tale
Date: 2003-08-06 06:41 pm (UTC)Re: Rebecca's Tale
Date: 2003-08-06 06:49 pm (UTC)is the UK melting?
Date: 2003-08-06 09:02 pm (UTC)When I lived in San Francisco [which I would think comparable to your usual weather] we would positively roast when the temp hit 80F... no air conditioners nor opening windows in the high rise office buildings...
But I was born and raised in the South... the american south... just this side of tropical... like living in a sauna with all the bugs and snakes in the known universe... and tornadoes...
Keep cool my dears