Diary of a Culture Hedonist

A friend asked me about hotels in London and specifically St Martin's and The Great Eastern. St Martin Lane . It's on the edge of Covent Garden - a Philippe Starck hotel done in the late 90s with innovative colour wash lights by Isometrix. It's OK and the location is convenient for the theatres, restaurants and main tourist sites. I am not sure whether one would have a memorable stay though - it exudes a strangely underwhelming feeling. Great Eastern Hotel . It's a Conran designed hotel I think. It's next to Liverpool Street - full of, hmm, business people. Not too relaxing I would not have thought. Plus the trains will be coming and going all day long! Naturally, I proceeded to suggest other possibilities. The Covent Garden Hotel - stylishly central, discrete and full of 'A' list film directors (you see, they have a built in cinema). It's sister hotel Charlotte Street Hotel is also very stylish - London enough but not in-your-face touristy. Or the late...

Went to see Les Troc  last night at the Peacock Theatre. It was fantastic - I think the size-12 pointe shoes made a real difference to those familiar numbers in Swan Lake. The transformation was breathtaking - the Dying Swan solo was hilarious, with feathers flying everything and those tongue-in-cheek expressions. The Royal Ballet may have a thing or two to learn from Les Ballet! Check out Les Ballets !

I did not think much of the last Eugene Onegin in the 90s - a bit too baren - too literal. The latest production which I saw tonight at the Royal Opera has improved quite a lot. For a start, we had Dmitri Hvorostovksy and Amanda Roocroft singing Onegin and Tatyana respectively - two strong well matched voices that sparked off a reasonable amount of passion between the two! The production was exciting too - with a believably real "river" running on stage. It's not often you get Tatyana jumping into the river and splashing about on stage. Then there was the frozen river with Moscow in the background - there was almost real ice skating on stage just before the Imperial Ball scene. Much fun. Very enjoyable.