The Mikado...

Last Friday night Stu and I went to see Jonathan Miller's production of The Mikado staged by the ENO at the Colesium in London's glitzy West End.

Essentially it was Mr Selfridge The Musical. And none the worse for that. Three little maids from school are we...

Tannhäuser at Royal Opera House...

Last night Paul and I went to see the Richard Wagner opera Tannhäuser at The Royal Opera House in London's glitzy Covent Garden.

Based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg, the story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption through love.

It's a long opera - three acts - so we had to be in there for a 6:30 start and didn't get out until 11pm. A full 4 1/2 hours of Teutonic fun. It was high church opera with a lots of swelling orchestral flourishes and men stripped to the waist romping around on a bed. Marvellous.

Salome...

Last Friday Paul and I went to the Royal Opera House in London's glitzy Covent Garden to watch Richard Strauss's Salome - a music drama (OK, opera) based on Oscar Wilde's play. The production was really quite shocking: blood, nudity, gore and sex. The acting was great, the singing sublime and the set moved around like a stately galleon. Naturally we loved it.

I'd never been to the ROH before and I must say it was very impressive. Just what I'd expected. We had great seats too - access all arias.

One thing did make me smile though. As we were descending from the roof-top bar where we'd had our pre-performance drinkies I overheard one man say to his glamorous female companion, "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be much better dressed in the stalls."


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