Opera night

Finally today, I managed to mail a package of documents to the diocese in Europe office in Westminster containing my application form and half a dozen other supporting documents requesting permission to officiate in the diocese. If accepted this will place my name on a list of available clerics willing to travel across the channel, north east or south to places near and far where there are congregations of Anglicans in need of locum ministry. Most chaplaincies have permanent clerics, the larger ones have more than one, the smaller chaplaincies may only be able to afford occasional visiting clerics or offer accommodation and travel expenses for a set period, so maybe I can be of help if the occasion arises. The next job is to renew my passport which runs out at the end of October. I won't be going anywhere unless that's in order.

After a spell of washing up in the tea room and an even shorter spell in the Cardiff Business Safe temporary office in City Hall, I rushed home for an early tea and then we headed to the Millennium Centre to hear Beethoven's opera Fidelio. The singing was, as ever marvellous, but the minimalistic production was a disappointment, and made the whole thing feel tentative, more like a last rehearsal than the first night it actually was. The prison simulation looked OK but swayed  visibly as actors moved through it, thereby failing to convey any impression of  secure fastness. Small props were few and far between. The singers mimed giving water and bread to the captive Florestan, and the murderous villain approached his victim with an imaginary knife in hand. As I said, a bit too much like a rehearsal than the real thing. And the applause at the end reflected that. Still, the music was glorious and nourishing, with great things made up of simple German melodies. Despite everything, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Mozart's 'Magic Flute' in two week's time.