I see that too much information is all too easy to do, so I’ll to try and keep it short(er)… but so much water under the bridge…
After a couple of hard weeks of re-entry as solo carer (tho’ with some good hill walking and the occasional dip in a beck when the sun came out), along came a whole lot of sweet relief, to wit: 4 days up in the highlands of Scotland, visiting friends, which included a night on Loch Tummel where no-one in the world knew where I was; some loch swimming (Loch Vaa and Loch Ba!); the annual Lairds v. Beaters shinty match at Cannich (a game only played north of Loch Ness, sort of like hockey but with no rules); a glorious 20 mile hike, mostly in the rain (from Glen Affric, in the heart of one of the last virgin forests of Scotland, west through the mountains to Loch Duich on the Atlantic); and an evening of splendid dancing of reels at a local village hall to the tune of fiddle and accordion – heaven….
And then two cultural bull’s eyes: the first at Glyndebourne, the original country house opera (tho’ now much grander than when I last went in the ’70s), courtesy of my librettist and best mate in London. A Ravel double bill – L’heure espagnole, which was delicious musically, fun but lightweight (all about fucking), and then after the long picnic break, L’Enfant Et Le Sortilège, which literally took my breath away – stunning in every way. Ravishing music, great singing, but the production – the playing with scale, the wit, the imagination, the magic – when it ended you just wanted them to start at the beginning and do it all over again. Truly amazing… And then a few days later, the final performance of Théâtre du Soleil at the Edinburgh Festival – Les Naufragés Du Fol Espoir (Aurores). Ariane Mnouchkine is a magician, and still going strong almost 30 years since I first saw them at the Olympic Arts Festival in LA when we were doing Comedy of Errors, and they were then already at their peak. The company has evolved, obviously (you need some young for such physical theater, along with the experience of the elders) but she’s still at the helm, along with her writer and composer – I had a brief chat with her afterwards, she was hanging out by the dressing rooms which were in full view of the public, albeit behind lace curtains – she reminded me they were also doing Shakespeare back then – it was Richard II I saw… Nuafragés was 4 hours of total magic that just flew by – I was tired going in, having driven nearly 4 hours to get there (and taken an hour-long hike along the way) but I came out feeling totally refreshed and wide awake – a similar experience to seeing Peter Brook’s Mahabharata at BAM after flying in the same day… both L’Enfant and Naufragés were imbued with a sense of the limitless nature of the imagination, but in different ways – both all about illusion, the one making your senses reel from playing with scale and the perfection of the illusion, the other hiding nothing, showing you all the strings, literally, but thereby drawing you into the world in all its messiness and excitement in a more human way… both totally inspiring… thank you…
On a more mundane note, sis is still in menorca (lucky so-and-so) and there is still no word from the hospital on the date for mum’s next slice-and-dice – she’s waiting patiently, ever valiant, but ever frailer and slightly more gone… I can’t believe it’s been a year since I first came over to deal…
btw, I forgot to mention that an amazing ship docked in Mahon harbour back in July – an exact replica of the Na Victoria, which made the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1519-1522, the only one of Magellan’s ships to survive the journey that proved the earth wasn’t flat. This replica, built in Spain, did the exact same journey a few years ago, and is now cruising the Mediterranean… the perfect pirate ship…
enough…