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Ballet and other Musical Offerings
Aug. 17th, 2016 05:47 pmI went to two lunchtime concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields, although the first wasn't technically a concert. It's called a service, but basically is just various choral pieces with a religious theme. This week's Great Sacred Music was based on works by William Blake. As expected there were versions of The Lamb (Tavener) and The Tyger (Rene Clausen), plus a lovely solo called Dream Valley by Roger Quilter. The choir, St Martin's Voices, were very good. In addition there are always two hymns for the congregation to join in with. The first was fairly unexciting, but, of course, Blake wrote the words to Jerusalem, which Hubert Parry set to music. The organist let rip, the choir couldn't be heard and we sang along and it was marvellous.
The second concert was by a choir from Gent in Belgium, Vivente Voce. SM and I went to this together. He said it quickly became apparent it wasn't going to be my sort of music. He didn't rate them that highly either, and I can't tell you what they sang, because we gave the sheet to an American lady who sat next to us. But it was only just over half an hour and the church was relatively cool on a very hot day.
Friday I went to see the Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House perform Le Corsaire. My seat was in the Upper Ampitheatre, so a long way up. Although I had a good view of the stage (I was about in the middle) the dancers were a long way away. Obviously extremely accomplished, all the dancers were impressive, especially Mikhail Lobukhin (the corsair) and Anna Nikulina (Medora). I've never been one particularly for soloists, preferring ensemble pieces, which were beautifully executed, especially in the second act. It was ballet, so not a lot happened over a fairly long time. There were two long intervals, and the ballet didn't finish until almost eleven, so I decided I'd had my money's worth by the end of Act 2 and left - which probably saved me 15 minutes just getting out of the building at the end. I met SM and we went for a drink in the Young Vic bar (he had been to see Yerma that evening) and I spent the money I saved by not buying a £12 programme on wine.
The second concert was by a choir from Gent in Belgium, Vivente Voce. SM and I went to this together. He said it quickly became apparent it wasn't going to be my sort of music. He didn't rate them that highly either, and I can't tell you what they sang, because we gave the sheet to an American lady who sat next to us. But it was only just over half an hour and the church was relatively cool on a very hot day.
Friday I went to see the Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House perform Le Corsaire. My seat was in the Upper Ampitheatre, so a long way up. Although I had a good view of the stage (I was about in the middle) the dancers were a long way away. Obviously extremely accomplished, all the dancers were impressive, especially Mikhail Lobukhin (the corsair) and Anna Nikulina (Medora). I've never been one particularly for soloists, preferring ensemble pieces, which were beautifully executed, especially in the second act. It was ballet, so not a lot happened over a fairly long time. There were two long intervals, and the ballet didn't finish until almost eleven, so I decided I'd had my money's worth by the end of Act 2 and left - which probably saved me 15 minutes just getting out of the building at the end. I met SM and we went for a drink in the Young Vic bar (he had been to see Yerma that evening) and I spent the money I saved by not buying a £12 programme on wine.
