Bermondsey is between Tower Bridge and London Bridge on the south side of the river. It has always been an interesting area - the variety of restaurants, galleries and museums attest to that. A friend dragged me to an eatery on a Sunday evening - Village East - where we had a delightful dinner.
There is a homely unpretentious feel to the place. A bar fronts the restaurant (a trend that's returning to London after an absence of a decade or so), with dining tables sprawling the irregular space. The menu is Modern British - simple dishes well cooked. I had mackerels on a bed of mash and chopped choriso sausages - very nice. My glass of prosecoe unexpectedly arrived in a wide-mouth champagne glass - the kind you used to see in B&W films!
What was enjoyable? The ambiance, the staff and the unpretentious food. It was a Sunday night and they had run out of a few ingredients - it's nice to know not everything was coming from the deep freezer.
What was not enjoyable? Nothing really.
This is a revival of Charles Edwards (design) / David McVicar (director) production of Gounod Faust. Visually, it is still exciting to watch with the ever changing stage sets of this fantasy. In this production, Erwin Schrott was Méphistophélès - who had style and poise as this devilish character. Michael Fabiano did a good job at portraying Faust - especially in the first act when he had to start off as an old man before turning into an energetic youngster. Irina Lungu had the right French voice type for Marguerite - somewhat vulnerable with sufficient warmth for the romantic scenes. Dan Ettinger in the pit kept the pace going, and the chorus did magnificently in those big numbers.
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