Repeat performance

I still haven't had a response from the hospital's surgical administrators to the query I raised ten days ago about the strange date for my interim outpatient appointment, ten weeks instead of four weeks after my operation. Neither has our GP surgery practice manager. So, yesterday, on her advice I rang the number of an office of the Cardiff and Vale Community Health Council, which offers support to patients in sorting out appointment concerns.

I spoke to a sympathetic lady called Donna who made notes on the story I told her and promised to get in touch with those responsible, and find out what is meant to be happening. 

There was no further contact from her at the end of the afternoon - typical Friday afternoon I guess, and there was nothing in the mail and no phone call today. We'll see what Monday brings. The same office helps people to make official complaints to the Local Health Board, and if this isn't sorted out in the coming week, in time for the outpatient appointment I was promised, this is the path I will take. It seems that however excellent the medical, surgical or nursing service that's offered, the managing of it all is chaotic, inefficient and error prone. And to think of the money spent on paying the elite few to oversee and support the front line teams!

Anyway, this evening, we went to the Millennium Centre for the WNO's performance of the third of Donizetti's Tudor cycle of operas 'Roberto Devereux'. It was the same production was we last saw on 6th October 2013, with a different cast of excellent singers, but still with Carlo Rizzi conducting. He's a great favourite with audience. It was only as the opera progressed that I realised that I had seen it before. The music and its performance were wonderful, but there are no memorable popular arias to establish it in the long term memory. I appreciate the sheer virtuosity in 'bel canto' operas, but this doesn't imprint itself upon me emotionally. The drab production was forgettable too. Looking back at what I wrote after last seeing this, my opinion hasn't changed.

The best part about the evening was bumping into Fr Hywel Davies in the foyer beforehand. He had been given four free tickets for the performance, and had invited Diana, Pete and Val, all of who we know. We had time for a snack supper together and a natter before the performance. Diana offered us a lift home by text, but as our phones were off, we didn't pick up the message until we were on the bus heading to the city centre. If fact, we were lucky to get a bus which left just minutes after we arrived at the stop, saving us a half hour wait. LIkewise in Westgate Street, where we took a 17 to Canton Cross and walked. We were back home, forty minutes after the performance. I wonder how long it took to retrieve cars and drive the same distance? I must remember to ask.

Opera matinée weekend

Yesterday the temperature was mild and the sun shone, so we took Andrea out to see Duffryn Gardens. Few of the trees have yet begun to change colour and several flower beds are vivid with the bright colour of autumn blooms. The warm brought out a variety of bees, a few butterflies and lots of dragonflies, which were busy mating over the ornamental ponds.

The leaves on the vine decorated pergola at the far end of the main lawn are still an untainted green, and bunches of small black grapes nestle beneath them. It's a lovely sight.

We navigated our way across country from Duffryn along narrow lanes to find Llancarvan church with its mediaeval wall paintings, but sadly it was locked, so we headed for home.

We went out early to Stefano's for supper - fresh picked porcini mushrooms and arancini were among the treats on the menu - a perfect prelude to the evening viewing of 'Young Montalbano'. Andrea is also a fan.

Today is my first Sunday in a while without locum duty so we breakfasted late, went to St. Catherine's for their Harvest Festival Eucharist and showed Andrea the Riverside market before returning for lunch. We set out early for the opera, to enjoy half an hour's afternoon sun down the Bay before the performance of Donizetti's 'Roberto Devereaux' started. It's the third in the series of operas set in the court of the royal Tudors, with a magnificent performance by Alexandra Deshorties as Queen Elizabeth the First. The set design was similar to that of the other two operas in the series - 'Anna Bolena' and 'Maria Stuarda', dark and minimalist with hardly any reference to the historic period.

In the second half the Queen ascended to sing from a throne which resembled a giant mechanical spider, prowling around the stage. When it was revealed during the scene, it raised a ripple of amusement among the audience. It was incongruous and un-necessary, a gross metaphor of predatory power where a subtle one would have sufficed. The music was marvellous and so were the singers and orchestra, so disaster was averted, and a good time was had by all. It was good to emerge from the Millennium Centre before it got dark, for a change, and return home for a quiet evening of conversation about Geneva days.

  

Alexandra Deshorties

Alexandra Deshorties

Alexandra Deshorties

Operatic perspective on Tudor times

A quiet day's pottering at home, writing a sermon, followed by an evening outing to the Millenium Centre for the WNO's performance of Donizetti's opera 'Anna Bolena', the Italian spin on the tale of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, the first part of a series of three Donizetti operas around the English Tudors. Unusually, the auditorium was less than full, perhaps because of critics' lament about the stage design and costume. It was certainly a minimalist presentation on a black set with dark colours so that the lighting emphasised mainly faces and hands. 

The costumes were a de-historicised allusion to the period, almost Wagnerian in abstraction, nothing attractive or likeable. Enrico, with his long mane and garb looked as if he'd been parachuted in from the ring cycle. He projected nastiness so effectively that at curtain call he raised an appreciative theatrical 'boo' as well as applause from the audience. The music, the singing and stagecraft of the performers, not to mention the energetic antics of the conductor, made the performance powerful and moving, provided you could be philosophical about the mise en scene. A great night out.

Donizetti's liberetto portrays an evil, ruthless, scheming king in a less than subtle way. Taking into account what a nasty piece of work the author of the Anglican break with Rome was, there seemed to me an element of Italian Papal aggression towards the English in the spin given to the story told. How did that go down when it was first performed in London two hundred years ago? I wondered. Mind you, if the story had been set in an a non-historical continental land, fictitious or real, with characters named to suit, this probably wouldn't have drawn my attention.

It's impossible to feel pride about the origins of  Anglicanism in reformation conflict. It's something of a miracle of divine grace that so much good fruit came from inauspicious origins over centuries since. 

Talking of which, the Church in Wales Governing Body voted in favour of ordaining women to the episcopate yesterday. It will grieve many adherents to a traditional understanding of ministry and church structures but at least it's reformation without blood letting. More reform is needed to make the church and its message more credible to the contemporary world - the way episcopacy and authority are exercised, the way decisions are made and followed through. Old ways and institutions can't last much longer due to decline financial support that goes with loss of members. Can the church lose size without totally losing substance and significance? It's not really in our hands. It's up to God.