2022

It's time for the review of the year. It was a terrible year for the world in many ways of course. In addition for me there were bereavements and funerals, but I'm afraid that is inevitable as one ages. On the plus side, the year did contain much to amuse those of us with an interest in UK politics; indeed my most read post of the year was this one. While the pandemic now seems a long time ago I found that my caution about crowded places was slow to abate. I may now be back at full flâneur level, but at the start of the year my diary wasn't so full. In any event, what did get done may be appearing here for the first time as I have been remiss in writing about culture in the blog, or indeed writing about much at all.

Opera: I saw eighteen operas this year, which is getting back close to normal levels. Top marks has to go to 'Orpheus Reimagined'. In the words of Opera North this 'melds the music of Monteverdi’s 1607 opera 'Orfeo' with brand new music by composer and virtuoso sitar player Jasdeep Singh Degun. Together, he and early music specialist Laurence Cummings lead a cast starring some of the best Indian classical and European baroque musicians in the UK'. I thought it was sensational. Also well worth a mention was Krenek's 'Der Diktator', both very timely in its subject matter and accompanied by a fascinating post-performance discussion about the nature of authoritarian leaders.

Theatre: I saw twenty nine plays (compared to four in 2021), which once again is somewhat more like it. Best was 'The Book of Mormon' with an honourable mention for Julian Clarey and Matthew Kelly in 'The Dresser and for 'The Corn is Green' at the National Theatre. Seven of those were Shakespeare, of which the best was 'Henry VIII' at The Globe.

Music: I went to sixteen gigs, a big improvement on 2021's four. However the best was once again Martin Simpson, so that didn't change. The best excluding the maestro was probably Errol Linton. It goes without saying that to see Connie Kreitmeier in the flesh was a highlight as well.

Film: Without doubt the best film I saw was 'Hallelujah', the documentary about Leonard Cohen, which I highly recommend. The best non-documentary was 'The Harder They Come', starring Jimmy Cliff, released back into cinemas to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its initial release plus, of course, the sixtieth anniversary of Jamaican independence. The best current offering was 'Official Competition', which was brilliant, but both in Spanish and on rather limited release. If pressed to choose a mainstream film the one I'd recommend the most is, I think, 'The Duke', but with a nod to 'Belfast'.

Talks: I attended twenty seven talks this year, the best of which was on the subject of J.B. Priestley's time in Hollywood. Apparently his regular drinking partners whilst there were Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin, which would have been a pub crawl worth tagging along with I think.

Books: I have read 101 books, which is fewer than the previous year, but then again I went out more. The best fiction was Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The White Guard' with an honourable mention for  'Minty Alley', by C.L.R James. I fully appreciate that neither of those is terribly modern. Best non-fiction was 'Wagner and Philosophy' by Bryan Magee. Best non-fiction that was in any way related to the ostensible purpose of this blog was John Buckley's highly entertaining 'The Armchair General'.

Boardgames: I played 57 different games 157 times, so that's a healthy increase. I've reported on them elsewhere so I'll say no more here.

Wargames: By my reckoning I played around thirty games, many of which spread over two or three evenings. My favourite was 'Flashing Blades' at the Lard Workshop, which as I said at the time was a cracking little game. I am happy to have a go at any rules or period really and enjoyed a number of new ones this year. I found 'DBN' rather entertaining, and while I never really warmed to 'Soldiers of Napoleon' they did include some nice ideas; what they are not is a multi-player game. Probably the most disappointing new-to-me set was 'Rommel', which just didn't seem to grab any of us; perhaps it would have been better if we had used them to refight Sidi Rezegh. The rules/period which I personally would most like to revisit in 2023 is 'Jump or Burn'. Back in March James told us all to think of names for our pilots as we were just about to start a campaign, following which the planes were never seen again.

Exhibitions: The first new award category for a few years. I'm think the highlight was Walter Sickert retrospective at Tate Britain, with a special mention for the British Museum's fine exploration of the history and context of Stonehenge. 

Event of the Year: There were a few contenders. Clearly returning home to find the house full of smoke and my spare bedroom in flames must be one possibility, as was the failure of International Pigeon Rescue to mobilise their Otley branch following an emergency call by one of my occasional companions after she found an injured bird in my back garden. However, I am going for the rather tasty old-school fight on the X84 bus, which transported me momentarily back to my youth, when such things were commonplace.

For 2023 I wish us all, more than ever, love in a peaceful world.

Tie a yellow ribbon

And so to the opera; to the early days of opera in fact. I have been to see Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. Monteverdi wrote this for the new Venetian opera house in the same period as L'incoronazione di Poppea reviewed here a couple of years ago. I saw Ulysses in a much smaller, more intimate venue and, perhaps because I was a good deal closer to the action, I enjoyed it much more.

Penelope is of course the archetype of connubial fidelity, and as played by the voluptuous and dark-haired Carolyn Dobbin she looked the part of chaste and faithful wife; at least as your bloggist imagines it. The staging was abstract but effective - the same shapes doubled as the ribs of the ship that brings Ulysses back to Ithaca and as the bow that the suitors must string to win the queen's hand. As usual with English Touring Opera the parts are doubled and tripled up even to the extent that - for the first time that I can remember seeing - a female role is played by a man. I believe there is the usual debate about how much of the work is actually by Monteverdi - one must remember that this is a piece that wasn't performed for three centuries before scholarly reconstruction returned it to the repertoire - but like Poppea it ends it a beautiful duet between the two main characters: "O delle mie fatiche meta dolce e soave".

Readers will be pleased to hear that on this occasion I managed to maintain the conventions of polite society without inadvertently effecting bodily harm on any senior citizens. I also learned how to pronounce Telemachus; one is never too old to learn.

I wish I couldn't write

I have been to the opera, Opera North's production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea; or was it? It seems, according to the programme, that he didn't write all of the music and in particular the best known bit - the duet at the end between Nero and Poppea - definitely wasn't by him. So, school of Monteverdi is perhaps a better attribution. The libretto was apparently all written by Busenello, but this is an English translation in a fairly modern vernacular. Indeed I swear I heard an homage to Hotel California at one point.

tamen vos can nunquam licentia

It's a raunchy production probably best viewed from my post-divorce eyrie in the upper balcony where one got the full flavour of the table-top writhings of the no-better-than-she-ought-to-be Poppea. Even at a distance they were hot stuff; I'm not sure how James Laing as Nero kept in tune with his face in Sandra Piques Eddy's cleavage.

Madame may need an insole

Being from the very dawn of opera as mass entertainment the piece relies on countertenors and women playing men's roles. Indeed it isn't until the arrival of Seneca about forty-five minutes in that anyone sings in a lower register. His arrival is also welcomed by a discerning section of the audience (that would be me then) because he was, as you know, a stoic philosopher of some renown. Neither that nor his broken voice did him any good though because he was dead by the interval.

La mort de Seneque

So, another Roman gore-fest only loosely based on history with people killing each other and themselves for fun. Not my favourite period of operatic music, but well worth seeing - although be warned that the bad guys win.