Normal Service

The PC engineer came this morning and replaced the motherboard on my PC, so in theory we are now back in business. I spent the weekend writing music on music paper, a very curious experience. Usually I simply scribble on paper and then work the scribble up into a piece of music on the PC.

This week's Classical Music magazine has a large piece on the forthcoming Cranmer concert. It reads very well, but the picture of me is so pink that I look as if I've drunk a couple of bottles of red wine. They have just quoted the St. Giles Cripplegate website as a web link and frustratingly the site was down this morning. Not a good sign.

We went to Grange Park Opera on Sunday. The first of our 2 visits this year. The weather was kind, glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze, which made the the whole experience even more delightful. Northington Grange is such a remarkable place and the new theatre makes such good sense of the surviving buildings

We saw a wonderfully stylish perfomance of Maria Stuarda with Majella Cullagh and Janis Kelly. A stunning evening.

Evidently, next year Grange Park Opera plan to do Massenet's Thais. An opera which I first saw staged by the RNCM as a student in Manchester in (I think) 1974, with Robin Leggate as Nicias. I have always had a soft spot for the piece and look forward to seeing another staging of it.