Sunday 2 July 2023

London, July 1, 2023

What a Day! It is Pride Parade in London. Lovely, except I did not see the Parade, I saw some haters that were already there with big placates pretending doing God’s work. Luckily more people were excitedly waiting for the parade to come their way.

 I was just hurrying to get through and get my old pounds changed to new pounds, they were still Queen Elizabeth 2. It was Coronation Year because now we have King Charles of England. Elizabeth 1 was a great Queen as were Elizabeth 2. Two Elizabethan times. 

I found the post office and then I was traveling again to my hotel. Not the best choice of hotel, I should have chosen Strand Palace Hotel instead I chose something cheaper.

I came to my hotel hoping that they would be able to give me a room soon. But no, I had to wait 2 hours. They allowed me to sit in a chair reloading my phone. 

I was tired after the night bus, the early flight, minimal sleep, my back was hurting, the train from Gatwick airport was absolutely cramped with people, sweating on the slowest train ever. Then finally in London Victoria and so on.

In no way to be able to properly rest up myself in hotel room, I was just using time off until it was time to travel to Covent Garden. The idea that it would take only 30 minutes was of course, a lie. I don’t walk that fast even if the trains was swift. I was lucky enough to get a seat at La Ballerina restaurant near The Royal Opera House and they gave my the pizza margherita quickly and so I hastily eate since it was less than an hour before the opera Werther started.

Jonas Kaufmann, the reason I changed my flight so that I would be able to see him as Werther, was sick, so Francesco Demuro was singing instead. Worse still, I had booked a seat at the 5. Balcony. The view was magnificent, my fear of heights was crushing me.



First Act begins and I realize I have seen this one before with Kaufmann and Sophie Koch. This is what I called the French version, it is on DVD, I think. The Charlotte is great, Demuro has good stuff.

I want to leave so badly that at the intermission I get my stuff. I tell the lady there that I have fear of heights and so I must leave. She says that I can another women there. I do so. I get help in getting a seat in a lower part of the house so I got there and got the 2. Act, too.

So nice, but I really feel I must away. The next 2 acts will be played together. It is the last intermission and I am not feeling well. Plus Francesco Demuro has failed to impress me in Act 2. His voice sounds tired in my ears, but maybe it was just me who was definitely tired.

I bought something to drink at Sainsbury and then I was home as the opera was slowly ending at the House.

I have seen Werther onstage before, I knew what happens. It was no grave loss. The Charlotte was amazing, but unfortunately it was not my day.

A lot of people enjoyed this day in London, they saw, participated in the Pride Parade.

A cheers to happy love story and avoid the fate of Werther (unhappy love, suicide)!!!

from roh.org.uk:

THE ROYAL OPERA

Music Director

Sir Antonio Pappano

Director of Opera

Oliver Mears

A Co-production with Opéra national de Paris

Supported by Rolex

The position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano is generously supported by Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE

Generous philanthropic support from Julia and Hans Rausing, Alan and Caroline Howard, Aud Jebsen, Beth Madison, John McGinn and Cary Davis, Martin and Jane Houston and Rena and Sandro Lavery

The role of Werther is underwritten by Mercedes T. Bass

The role of Werther is supported by The Lady Slynn of Hadley

The role of Sophie is supported by The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation

The role of Charlotte is supported byJohn G. Turner and Jerry G. Fischer 

The Youth Opera Company is supported by Yvonne And Bjarne Rieber and The Peters Family Foundation Cio

With additional generous philanthropic support from Spindrift Al Swaidi

IN MEMORY

This revival is dedicated to the memory of 
Christian Gasc (1946–2022)

WERTHER

DRAME LYRIQUE IN FOUR ACTS

01.07.2023 7:15 PM

The 52nd performance by The Royal Opera at the Royal Opera House.

APPROXIMATE TIMINGS

The performance lasts about 3 hours 10 minutes, including two intervals.
Act I
45 minutes
Interval
25 minutes
Act II
35 minutes
Interval
25 minutes
Acts III and IV
60 minutes

GUIDANCE

Suitable for ages 8+

This production contains stylised depictions of suicide.

CREDITS

Music
Jules Massenet
Libretto
Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Director
Benoît Jacquot
Revival Director
Geneviéve Dufour
Set Designer
Charles Edwards
Costume Designer
Christian Gasc
Lighting Designer
Charles Edwards

CAST

Conducted by
Antonio Pappano
The Bailli
Alastair Miles
Johann
James Cleverton
Schmidt
Christophe Mortagne
Sophie
Sarah Gilford
Werther
Francesco Demuro replaces Jonas Kaufmann
Charlotte
Aigul Akhmetshina
Brühlmann
Dawid Kimberg
Käthchen
Gabrielė Kupšytė
Albert
Gordon Bintner
Orchestra
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Guest Concert Master
Magnus Johnston

Gabrielė Kupšytė is a Jette Parker Artist

Actors Fiona Eagle, Rebecca Hunt, Basil Patton, Vidal Sancho, Rosy Sanders

Children Josh Bortoloso, Nicolai Flutter, Liliana Kapinos, Holly Keefe, Raphy Laming, Mireille Larocque, Anastasia Meani, Arinzé Obi, Hope Shotton Offstage children from the Youth Opera Company



For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Sunday 10 July 2022

OperaDuets Travel 2022-05-18: Barcelona and Benefit Concert for Fundació Montserrat Caballé

PERFORMERS

    Josep Carreras
    Serena Sáenz
    Montserrat Martí
    Saoia Hernández
    Ruth Lorenzo

    Josep Buforn, piano


First BUS to Oslo. Thon Hotel Terminus in Oslo Centrum. Then train to OSL Airport. SAS SK484 Monday 16th, 2022, at 1105 to Arlanda. Should have been a shorter stop, but then security stopped operations in th airport so it was 4 hrs wait in stead. So I landed in Barcelona 2000. Taxi to the hotel Glories at 2100. 

Tuesday 17th, 2022: National Day of Norway and enjoying Barcelona.


Finally, concert day, Wednesday May 18th, 2022: 
Montserrat Caballé Claus, niese of the Great DIVA, organized the concert and was conferancier. Montserrat Martí Caballé, daughter of Montserrat Caballé (La SUBERBA) and Bernabé Martí. Sadly recently Bernabé Martí also departed from our world. A wonderful tenor, husband and father.







After the concert we were able to mingle among the stars and then back to the hotel.

Thursday, May 19th, 2022. More of Barcelona.

Friday, May 20th, 2022. Travelling back home. Direct Flight to Oslo and the flight home. HAPPY!!!



For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Corona 2020-2022 and Operaduets Travel 2020-2022

Last performance I saw live in 2020 was Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer in Deutsche Oper Berlin 2020-03-09. After Berlin I had planned a travel to see Lucrezia Borgia in Auditori Tenerife, March 19th, and in Sevilla El Barberillo de Lavapies, but then Corona closed our borders.
Then finally came 2022 and I felt I could travel again.

For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Monday 17 May 2021

Norwegian National Day: May 17th. Constitution Day

On May 17, 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was signed in Eidsvoll.

Det berømte maleriet «Eidsvold 1814» ble malt av Oscar Wergeland 70 år etter grunnlovsforsamlingen og gitt som gave til Stortinget i 1885. Christian Magnus Falsen står oppreist og leser fra Grunnloven, mens sorenskriver Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie sitter ved siden av. I maleriet kan rundt 70 personer av Riksforsamlingens 112 medlemmer identifiseres.[1] Bildet henger i Stortingssalen.

Norway was not really just Norway at that time we were under Danish rule, Denmark-Norway. And after our constitution we thought we would be a soveraign state but then Sweden did like the thought of being king over Sweden and Norway and so we were under Swedish rule but a bit freer in Sweden-Norway. But in 1905 we got our own King Haakon and then we really ruled ourselves in a parlamentary monarchy.

For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Celebrating National Day in Norway (May 17, 2021), or everything has changed since Covid19

Last year I also celebrated National Day in Norway indoors just looking at Norwegian TV showing all the new ways to celebrate after covid19. This year I will also be watching a bit TV but just not all day. 

(Photo from http://tv.nrk.no/)

Last year (2020) in January my dad died. He was 91,5 years when he died and he had Alzheimers disease and was at the end confined to his bed. The institution he was living in did a great job caring for him. I was lucky enough to sit by his bed on his last day. I hold his hand and I told him we would be fine and that he could pass on now. And so in that night he died. He lived a full life before Alzheimers caught hold of him. Luckily he still knew who he was talking to but his memory was shorter and shorter. My regret is that I never asked my parents a lot of questions about their childhood or even how they met. This is the lesson we should learn: talk and learn from our people while they are still around.

In February I visited Berlin, Germany for Medea by Cherubini. In March I visited again this time for 3 operas by Meyerbeer. I had further plans for a visit to Canary Islands and Sevilla, Spain and I was just making everything ready when I got a call from work about the shutdown. So suddenly I was cancelling operas here and there and flights but I got the money back from the insurance company so I was good. 

Obviously I could have continued blogging because I did not get the virus or anything but it just took the wind out of my sails this new situation. 

Where I live it has been very few infections due to Covid. Had I been living in Bergen or Oslo life would have been so different due to much denser population and more infections.  

I work as librarian so you would think it would not be possible for me to work from home but library work is quite diverse so of course many things has to be done in the library itself. Because of Covid19 our library chat-room got off much quicker than it normally would. We had been talking for years about having chat, but it was so difficult and impossible. Then chat came and became normal and so now we have librarians that can answer students and staff online from their home. We all have workcomputers that take with us home so that we can work from home even if you feel a little bit ill and it works. And who have not heard about ZOOM this days. Tomorrow I have 2 meetings I have to attend to and I can do that from home because of Zoom and I really think it has been helpful in making our meetings more effective. Luckily my meetings last only 1 hr each. Longer zoom-meetings are really tiresome and gives you head-ache. Longer than 1 or 1,5 hrs than you need breaks but still... Whole days on zoom that must be hell.

        

For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com