Vibrant vibrato

Up early, and working on the Kenniad this morning, it is going well. Lorraine round to help Pat and Maureen sort out some legal stuff on the flat purchase, and also cook for them as Maureen has picked up a cold. Had strangely stiff buns today, whatever I was doing in the garden yesterday made my bum quite sore.

To Gyndebourne this afternoon, a rather grand and marvellous thing to be doing on a Monday afternoon.  We were supposed to go with Yvonne and Brian, who had bought me my ticket as a birthday present, but Yvonne had a vomiting bug caught from her grandchildren, so we were collected by Guy and Barbara who used their tickets instead. Guy and Barbara collected us, and drove us there, which is only about fifteen minutes or so from here. Lorraine and I were convinced we had not seen La Traviata before, but as soon as I saw the set, I recognised it from the last opera we had seen, La Traviata, here, in October 2018. The set, costumes and so on pretty minimal and underwhelming. But I enjoyed the show much more this time. Guy fell asleep immediately, as predicted by Barbara, but then rallied to watch most of it. The Italian Elisa Verzia played Violetta. I was surprised to learn she was Italian as all I could hear were the vowels in the words she sang. But she had a magnificent vibrato in her voice. Felt that her lover Alfredo was a bit miscast, but what do I know about opera, Alfredo's father better. Again somewhat amused by the length of the death scene, with Violetta draping herself prettily about the place for twenty minutes or more telling people she is dying. Very enjoyable. I just read a bit of a sniffy but true review of the show in operawire.com. But for occasional goers like me and Lorraine it was great fun.

 Nice to get to know Guy and Barbara more. We had a small beer at the Long Bar before the show started, and a rapid half in the interval. A posh crowd. 

Guy drove us home, in the mizzle, and as Lorraine had eaten a large lunch, and I hadn't I made off to buy some fish and chips at about 7:30 which I really enjoyed. Lorraine and I watched another episode of The Bear on Disney Plus. A marvellous show about establishing a restaurant in Chicago, but unbelievably stressful at times too. 

Elisa Verzia as Violetta.