Some days extraneous events conspire to run interference with your appreciation. Last night we were due to go to the concert as part of Spitalfields Music, where I Fagiolini and the English Concert were performing Purcell's King Arthur. We arrived at Christ Church Spitalfields to find the church closed up. A small huddle of puzzled people stood in front of the railings wondering where the concert was. After a little research we found it was at Shoreditch Church. Rather frustratingly, the tickets gave no venue information, which is a lesson to us all.
We managed to find a cab, and arrived at St. Leonard's Church, Shoreditch in plenty of time. The seating was pre-numbered and we were sitting in the centre of the nave. There was quite a bit of confusion, it looked as if someone was sitting in our seats and of course, in the confusion I managed to spill a glass of wine! It turned out that the seats had been allocated rather ambitiously regarding spacing, which meant that the audience had to sit alarmingly, uncomfortably close.
So what of the performance. Well, its a bit difficult to be certain as even when the performance started the lively and vocal enjoyment of one of my neighbours rather inhibited my own. So I felt rather grumpy and found it difficult to concentrate on the rather fine Purcell. Though it didn't help that the spoken drama had been replaced by a humorous narration by Kit Hesketh Harvey; Dryden and Purcell's King Arthur isn't a comic piece, but inevitably the audience found Hesketh Harvey rather funny and this spilled over into the performance. Exit one rather grumpy critic!
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Georges Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles ; Julie Fuchs, Cyrille Dubois, Florian Sempey, L'orchestra nationale de Lille, Alexandre ...
-
Britten: Peter Grimes - Nicky Spence - Welsh National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Dafydd Owen) Britten: Peter Grimes; Nicky Spence, Sally Matthews,...
-
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro - Sarasota Opera, 2025 - (Photo: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro , Verdi: Stiff...
-
Bach: Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen - Olivier Stankiewicz, Lucy Crowe, ensemble led by Maria Włoszczowska - Wigmore Hall (taken from live s...
-
Libertas : Beethoven, Schubert, Beach, Marx; Äneas Humm, Doriana Tchakarova; Rondeau Production Reviewed 19 April 2025 The young Swiss barit...
-
Prokofiev: Suite from Semyon Kotko - Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: Marc Gascoigne) Prokof...
-
Natalie Burch, James Way and Annemarie Federle at St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington where their recording of Britten's Canticles ...
-
Sunwook Kim & Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Barbican Centre (Photo: Ed Maitland-Smith/Barbican Centre) Anna Clyne: Stride , Beethoven: P...
-
The first page of Mozart's autograph score of the Requiem Mozart: Symphony No. 35 , Requiem, Bruckner, Rheinberger; Hannah Dienes-Willia...
No comments:
Post a Comment