Having driven down from Scotland with Digby their dog (not big and scruffy haired, but slim, short haired, an athletic hunting dog), with an overnight stop in North Wales, Clare's cousin Nick and his wife Sue arrived after lunch, for a visit to the opera with us this evening. We took Digby out for a five mile walk around Bute Park to exhaust him, so he'd settle for an evening out confined to the back of their BMW estate car.
Then we ate an early supper before driving to the Millennium centre. The opera was Janacek's 'Cunning Little Vixen', one that none of us had seen before, and once again it was the premiere of this particular production. It's based on a Moravian folk tale, I think, in the tradition of Aesop's fables, about the cycle of life, love and death, conflict between animals and man. I don't know if it was written with a young audience in mind, but it's relatively short and simple to follow.
The audience for a matinee dress rehearsal was arranged with parties of school aged children in mind, a brilliant idea, reminding me of my first visit to a WNO performance of 'The Barber of Seville' in the New Theatre, when I was eleven. The cast includes children as well as adults, singing and dancing in animal roles. It was superbly done with a cleverly designed bucolic set and a libretto translated from the Czech into idiomatic modern English, funny enough to have the audience laughing out loud on several occasions. It was a delightful evening, which all of us were seeing for the first time, and much enjoyed. Happily, Digby was asleep when we drove to the Millennium Centre, and asleep when we came out and drove home.
Then we ate an early supper before driving to the Millennium centre. The opera was Janacek's 'Cunning Little Vixen', one that none of us had seen before, and once again it was the premiere of this particular production. It's based on a Moravian folk tale, I think, in the tradition of Aesop's fables, about the cycle of life, love and death, conflict between animals and man. I don't know if it was written with a young audience in mind, but it's relatively short and simple to follow.
The audience for a matinee dress rehearsal was arranged with parties of school aged children in mind, a brilliant idea, reminding me of my first visit to a WNO performance of 'The Barber of Seville' in the New Theatre, when I was eleven. The cast includes children as well as adults, singing and dancing in animal roles. It was superbly done with a cleverly designed bucolic set and a libretto translated from the Czech into idiomatic modern English, funny enough to have the audience laughing out loud on several occasions. It was a delightful evening, which all of us were seeing for the first time, and much enjoyed. Happily, Digby was asleep when we drove to the Millennium Centre, and asleep when we came out and drove home.
No comments:
Post a Comment