Autumnal opera season begins

After breakfast I has a phone call from Tony Lewis of the United Services Mess inviting me to serve as chaplain at the annual Remembrance Day banquet, as I have done many times in the past twenty years. The banqueters are mostly armed service veterans. This is the first to be arranged post-covid. I do hope there'll be rely good turnout.

I completed next week's Morning Prayer video and uploaded it to YouTube, then I walked into town, while Ann and Clare walked in the park. Having decided to travel to London with Ann on Monday to see my sister June I needed to buy a train ticket. I was lucky enough to reserve a set next to her. Monday off peak trains are not so busy, apparently.

We drove to the Millennium Centre after tea for the evening's performance of Janacek's opera 'The Makropulos Affair', one we've never seen before. It was an unusual story, about a law suit and a 300 year old opera diva kept alive and young by a magic potion, set in the early 20th century.

The music and singing was immaculate as ever. The production was unusual and innovative, making use of evocative video projection during the overture and one act. Then during a long scene changing interlude, one of male singers came on stage and explained entertainingly to the audience the complexities of the law suit. A brilliant innovation.

Janacek isn't as popular as many other opera composers, and the auditorium wasn't packed, as it is usually. Those who didn't chose this show missed a treat. It's unusual in another way worth experiencing.

It was like a stage play with dialogue and actors singing not speaking. The music, full of dissonant harmonies served like a sound track in a movie. It was rich with emotional content, sustaining the drama. One thought provoking statement from the 300 year old diva, was how intolerably lonely it was live so long, a sentiment often expressed by those who live beyond ninety and lose spouse, friends and sometimes offspring. For such loneliness, when nobody is left who shares your life experience, there's no cure.