Blossom, Blue Sky and a Contrail

A longer than usual music session today. Rather than everyone bringing along ten minutes of music as usual, this was one of our quarterly "concert" programmes, when two members have complete control of the day's musical offering. We ended up with an original (and rather strange) experience: a complete performance on DVD of Verdi's opera Otello, with each of the four acts coming from a different production. I must admit to being very dubious about the idea when we were told in advance what was planned, but it actually worked quite well - apart, that is, from the final act, which was from Birmingham City Opera's recent let's-do-it-in-a-warehouse effort, directed by Graham Vick. It was one of those politically correct, all-inclusive, pretentious productions, every review of which made a point of telling readers that this was the first time in the UK that the title role was sung by a black singer. It was all a bit silly, really, beginning with the notion that the audience take off their shoes when they arrived (as if entering a mosque, as the reviewers made a point of stating the obvious).

Anyway, enough grumpiness. We don't get many opportunities to watch a complete opera at our sessions, and this is one of the finest of all operas (certainly one of Verdi's greatest achievements). All in all, it went well, and the hosting was wonderful (courtesy of Dublin Shooter, of course).

We normally finish between 3.30 and 3.45, but today it was after 4.30 by the time we headed to the local for the post-opera analysis. Naturally, I walked, and that's when I grabbed today's blip. What a beautiful day it was. A bit of a shame to be stuck indoors for most of it, but we music lovers sometimes have to suffer and make sacrifices for our art.