Diary of a Culture Hedonist

It has been a few years since I last read Tim Ashley's biography of Richard Strauss . The period after the fall of the Weimar Republic leading to the end of World War II was difficult for Strauss - both creatively and personally. After all, he had written his popular and successful operas by this stage and Hoffmansthal was dead. Therefore, it was fascinating to see Collaboration by Ronald Harwood at the Duchess Theatre where the relationship of Strauss and Stefan Zweig was portrayed. Michael Pennington and David Horovitch played Strauss and Zweig respectively. The slightly overbearing Pauline Strauss was played by Isla Blair. The play had a very domestic setting - in sitting rooms, hotel rooms, etc. There were pensive moments as well as emotional outbursts.  The drama vividly portrayed how two creative men worked under the most difficult circumstances - their main output, Die schweigsame Frau , only had a tiny bit of airing. Many of the dialogues were necessarily conjectural, no...

I have never seen Alban Berg's Lulu until tonight. It turned out to be very engaging. The storyline is thoroughly modern. The music / sound world is typical of that Viennese period (some of it reminiscent of very late Mahler and Strauss - though who am I to say). But the whole experience was very powerful indeed. Agneta Eichenholz as Lulu was the true star of the evening, singing this very demanding part. Jennifer Larmore (the countess) and Klaus Florian Vogt (Alwa) were both superb at supporting the title role. Gwynne Howell's Schigolch was equally convincing. The orchestra of the Royal Opera played sonorously tonight - no doubt rising to the challenge of this thick and complex score. As one would expect, Pappano kept everything going throughout.

I went to see Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne yesterday. I remember it being a fantastic and creative production with a top notch cast. This time Sarah Connolly was the superlative Cesare; Danielle de Niese was the multi-talented Cleopatra, and Laurence Cummings kept up the tempo to bring this David McVicar productiong a joy to watch.

Having spent 3 days running workshops non-stop, I finally had a moment with colleagues to relax. Since I was totally unprepared for any pleasure activities in Bangkok, I went onto the Concierge.com website to see what's available 6 hours before our flight back to London. I spotted the The Deck being close to where we were going to visit (Wat Pho). It turned out to be a nice tucked away river front pad with a deck (hence the name) on the water. We got there at around sun set and had a lovely view of the river. The beer was cold and the snacks were adequate. Definitely a decent spot for a drink in the early evening.

Tonight's performance of Lohengrin at the Royal Opera was truly astounding. Johan Botha sang the title role with amazing stamina and intensity - right to the final aria. Edith Haller had an angelic voice that befitted Elsa. Petra Lang's steely tone really worked well as Ortrud. In fact, the entire cast was well matched - from the big Wagnerian choruses down to the many a cappella passages. Semyon Bychkov led the orchestra to deliver a dramatically paced yet lyrical performance. The brass section was giving its best. The chorus was fantastic too as it sang with gusto and intensity. All in all, it was Wagner at its best.

Sondra Radvanovsky who sang Leonora last night at this revival of Il Trovatore was sensational. Her voice was big enough to fill the auditorium, yet the pianissimi were soft enough to draw you into the drama. Absolutely amazing. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sang a fine Count di Luna - with sufficient gravitas and weight. His duet with Leonora was fantastic. Roberto Alagna, as Manrico, was entertaining at times, but he was quite often under the note which could be infuriating. Carlo Rizzi kept the drama moving and the orchestra responded in kind.

Oh my god, the dullness continued with Acis and Galatea . I was hoping the light and pastoral Handel score will brighten things up. I was so wrong. While the stage had more visual interests, the same dull playing and inanimate singers failed to bring this performance to life. The dancers continued to provide pointless distractions. It could have been so much fun, so playful, so tragic. Oh no, let's make it boring. I looked at my watch more than 3 times thinking whether I will miss Newsnight on BBC2. Though others couldn't wait till the end and walked off half way through the performance.