Slovenia
27 June 2008
We had a brilliant week in Slovenia – it’s a fantastic country. We spent a few days at Lake Bled in the North West of Slovenia – a fairytale lake overlooked by a clifftop castle – beautiful scenery reminiscent of Austria or Switzerland. We then headed to the capital, Ljubljana, a beautiful old city, small enough to walk around but with plenty to see. We had a day trip to the medieval town of Piran on the Adriatic coast where everything is bilingual Slovene/Italian. Slovenia is the size of Wales – and has a similar dislike of vowels in its place names! The people were friendly and helpful and English is spoken almost universally. It’s a confident, proud and modern young country. We’ll be back …Labels: Holidays
'Pies and Prejudice' by Stuart Maconie
27 June 2008
Stuart Maconie comes from Wigan and is therefore a ‘pie-eater’. In his very funny and fascinating travel book ‘Pies and Prejudice’ he revisits Wigan and everywhere else between Merseyside and Tyneside to cut through the clichés and paint the real picture of the North of England. Bill Bryson fans will recognise Maconie’s style – though like Bryson he sometimes wears his research on his sleeve and tends to ramble engagingly from one topic to another leaving this reader amazed by a myriad of incredible facts but almost completely unable to remember any of them! I particularly enjoyed his accounts of the places I already knew but the real strength of the book is the clear distinction drawn between places that too many Southerners tend to lump together as ‘The North’. Labels: Books
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
27 June 2008
Our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert included the ‘Tuba Concerto’ by Vaughan-Williams featuring our regular tuba player, Nick Tollervey. Because he had been preparing for this solo performance, Nick has not been attending rehearsals but came along a couple of weeks ago for the orchestra’s Annual General Meeting which was held at the start of a rehearsal. At the end of the AGM, under ‘any other business’, Nick stood up to make a plea for the orchestra to improve its communications with members. Over the past year, Nick said, he had often turned up at rehearsals to be told he wasn’t required as we were rehearsing a piece with no part for the tuba. Couldn’t we make sure that players were told what pieces were going to be rehearsed each week to avoid them making unnecessary journeys. Having been in the same position myself on several occasions I agreed wholeheartedly with Nick and was very pleased he had brought this up. The AGM finished and Nick made his way to a seat at the front of the orchestra so that we could rehearse the tuba concerto – at which point I thought “hang on a minute, I’m not in this!” and had to sit for half an hour twiddling my thumbs: the revenge of the tuba! Nevertheless I really enjoyed Nick’s magnificent performance in our concert of English music which also featured the wonderful ‘Peterloo Overture’ by Malcolm Arnold, ‘Song of Summer’ by Delius and Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’. A less ambitious programme than some of our recent concerts and I think this paid off with one of our best performances for some time.
Labels: Concerts, Music
'Wild Wild Women' by Nola York and Michael Richmond
10 June 2008
At the end of a week where I had been pre-occupied with arguing that the voluntary arts can be excellent, it was a delight to attend an amateur performance that was one of the funniest and most enjoyable evenings in a theatre I've experienced in a long time. On Saturday we were at the Trestle Theatre Space in St Albans - home of the celebrated Trestle Theatre Company - to see local amateurs MeMe Productions perform 'Wild Wild Women' - a musical by Nola York and Michael Richmond. This Romeo & Juliet story set in the Wild West in the 1880s was great fun with some wonderful individual performances and big set-piece ensemble numbers. The show itself was a little varied in tone and the music was mainly in a 1980s rock-ballad style. There were a few problems with balance - some performers being drowned out by the musicians. But none of this detracted from a splendid romp that had me smiling throughout. And the show stealing performance from Dawn Travell as Sister Priscilla included a hilarious death scene to rival Sam Hayward in Little Me (reviewed here in August 2007). Excellent!
Labels: Musicals, Theatre
'Laurel and Hardy' by Tom McGrath
3 June 2008
On Saturday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see Tom McGrath's 1976 play 'Laurel and Hardy'. Ben Fox and Christian Patterson gave wonderful performances as Stan and Ollie re-telling the story of their careers - with the assistance of Greg Palmer at the piano. Incorporating affectionate and impressive impersonations of the duo's screen personas alternating with the real world Stan and Babe literally at the drop of a hat. A touching story but also genuinely funny - slapstick truly never dates! There were recreations of some of their most famous routines - all the more impressive for being performed live on stage without the benefit of re-takes - wonderful physical comedy. But best of all ending with a perfect copy of the dance from 'Way Out West' - ridiculous, serious, graceful - a joy!
Labels: Comedy, Drama, Theatre
