The best opera, by the best composer, as a friend once described it. On now at the Proms. Just into Act II.
Florestan will soon be released and reunited with his wife Leonora, aka Fidelio, for it is a rescue opera and she, a trouser role.
People sometimes rumble on about various problems with it as a work, but the music and sentiments more than compensate, for me at least and put Beethoven in the list of good composers. After WW2, the first work performed in many German Opera Houses was Fidelio.
This in contrast with Wagner whose Die Walkure I have to teach as a set work next year. Sigh. Not my choice.
Looking back, I was very lucky to teach Fidelio and The Matthew Passion as set works.
Still, I have my new CUP Wagner Companion to entertain me til I go beck to work. I'm feeling work avoidance dusting and hoovering coming on...haven't cleaned those kitchen cupboards out since I moved either.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Plums Plums Plums 2
One of the best ever cooking ingredients is Ready Roll Puff Pastry.
Another interesting fact is (I hope,) that it contains no milk products.
Two of my immediate family have become lacto intolerant in the past few years, so this has to be factored in. Main courses are fine, but most dessert recipes start with butter.
This one does not.
Unroll your puff pastry onto a non-stick baking sheet or line it or whatever.
Then roll out marzipan and fit onto the pastry leaving 1/2" border all the way round.
(You can get ready roll marzipan too if you are feeling really decadent. Otherwise it's a rolling pin, icing sugar and a sticky work top.)
Cut up your fruit quite thin.
The original recipe said nectarines, but I have plums.
I guess you could experiment with other stuff. Have fun.
Arrange artistically.
Bake at 180C or Gas Mark 5/6, until the pastry is cooked and the fruit is soft.
Take round to your parent's for Sunday lunch.
The sort of pudding that works well for breakfast on Monday too. Cold. Mm.
Or taken round to your Mum's friend who has broken her wrist. what is it with wrists?
Another interesting fact is (I hope,) that it contains no milk products.
Two of my immediate family have become lacto intolerant in the past few years, so this has to be factored in. Main courses are fine, but most dessert recipes start with butter.
This one does not.
Unroll your puff pastry onto a non-stick baking sheet or line it or whatever.
Then roll out marzipan and fit onto the pastry leaving 1/2" border all the way round.
(You can get ready roll marzipan too if you are feeling really decadent. Otherwise it's a rolling pin, icing sugar and a sticky work top.)
Cut up your fruit quite thin.
The original recipe said nectarines, but I have plums.
I guess you could experiment with other stuff. Have fun.
Arrange artistically.
Bake at 180C or Gas Mark 5/6, until the pastry is cooked and the fruit is soft.
Take round to your parent's for Sunday lunch.
The sort of pudding that works well for breakfast on Monday too. Cold. Mm.
Or taken round to your Mum's friend who has broken her wrist. what is it with wrists?
My other trip to deapest Kent
Yesterday I was also down in Kent visiting my landlady and landlord from when I started teaching and meeting up with my friend from Austria who was a language assistant then.
Burgi (aka Notburga) is a pretty serious singer when not teaching English and Spanish and we got talking about what you have to do when you are not enjoying a performance. This was on the back of two performances she had just done of 'The Creation.' Even the stamps have Haydn on this year. Her Choir had hired a very famous soprano - so famous in fact that I have heard of her. I was very impressed to hear she was singing with such a top name. But it turned out that the lady in question had not been singing for about three months after an operation and her performances were dire. Terrible tone quality, unclear diction, out of tune and out of time. Oh and no phrasing either.
Burgi said that all the while she studied the faces of the orchestra and they betrayed nothing. She said there was almost an audible gasp from the choir whe she first sang. We decided that you have to focus on something else when either the soloist or indeed the music is not working the magic. You can just focus in on your own playing, or the mechanics of accompanying carefully or indeed any number of things that mean that you are actually engaged in the music and really trying to do it well. Tough stuff if the soprano soloist should really be indisposed and someone needs to be phoning round for a dep.
Burgi (aka Notburga) is a pretty serious singer when not teaching English and Spanish and we got talking about what you have to do when you are not enjoying a performance. This was on the back of two performances she had just done of 'The Creation.' Even the stamps have Haydn on this year. Her Choir had hired a very famous soprano - so famous in fact that I have heard of her. I was very impressed to hear she was singing with such a top name. But it turned out that the lady in question had not been singing for about three months after an operation and her performances were dire. Terrible tone quality, unclear diction, out of tune and out of time. Oh and no phrasing either.
Burgi said that all the while she studied the faces of the orchestra and they betrayed nothing. She said there was almost an audible gasp from the choir whe she first sang. We decided that you have to focus on something else when either the soloist or indeed the music is not working the magic. You can just focus in on your own playing, or the mechanics of accompanying carefully or indeed any number of things that mean that you are actually engaged in the music and really trying to do it well. Tough stuff if the soprano soloist should really be indisposed and someone needs to be phoning round for a dep.
Scotney Castle with Fr Mildew
Down into the Garden of England, via oast houses, beautiful countryside and the A21, which retains the feel of motoring in yesteryear to Scotney Castle.
Met up with Ches ( who knew where everyone else was and what we were up to- always a great boon when you arrive on your own,) Fr Mildew, blog commentors Delia and Dilly Day Dream and several other friendly people. We 'did' the big new house (1837) and then repaired to the walled garden and a big picnic table where we laid out the spread. Thanks to Delia and Dilly Day Dream for lots of lovely food. In answer to the question, 'How similar are people in real life compared to on the interweb?' I'd say pretty similar. (Not sure how that pans out for me. Oh well.)
Fr Mildew entertained us with his commentary on the letters' page of the that publication we don't actually read. (At £2.50 a week, you could be doing lots of entertaining things with the extra £10 a month. Quite a good bottle of wine. That M&S Meal Deal. Give it to Charity...Buy your Mum some flowers....) Then he read us an account of the escape of Fr Blont from Scotney Castle, now a ruin. We viewed it from the hill, where Fr Mildew packed in more story and drew a small crowd of other visitors, as he pointed things out with his stick. Then it was down the hill to find the Priest Hole. We had two possible sites and Delia's torch was great, giving us all an extra view.
The weather was very good by now and Fr Mildew took us to a bridge over looking the Castle where we took some photos. After a walk around the grounds it was time for a cup of tea and more talk before the trip home.
Thanks to Fr Mildew for organising it all and for his very informative and entertaining story-telling.
Met up with Ches ( who knew where everyone else was and what we were up to- always a great boon when you arrive on your own,) Fr Mildew, blog commentors Delia and Dilly Day Dream and several other friendly people. We 'did' the big new house (1837) and then repaired to the walled garden and a big picnic table where we laid out the spread. Thanks to Delia and Dilly Day Dream for lots of lovely food. In answer to the question, 'How similar are people in real life compared to on the interweb?' I'd say pretty similar. (Not sure how that pans out for me. Oh well.)
Fr Mildew entertained us with his commentary on the letters' page of the that publication we don't actually read. (At £2.50 a week, you could be doing lots of entertaining things with the extra £10 a month. Quite a good bottle of wine. That M&S Meal Deal. Give it to Charity...Buy your Mum some flowers....) Then he read us an account of the escape of Fr Blont from Scotney Castle, now a ruin. We viewed it from the hill, where Fr Mildew packed in more story and drew a small crowd of other visitors, as he pointed things out with his stick. Then it was down the hill to find the Priest Hole. We had two possible sites and Delia's torch was great, giving us all an extra view.
The weather was very good by now and Fr Mildew took us to a bridge over looking the Castle where we took some photos. After a walk around the grounds it was time for a cup of tea and more talk before the trip home.
Thanks to Fr Mildew for organising it all and for his very informative and entertaining story-telling.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
The Assumption
After a Missa Cantata and Benediction, (what better way to spend Saturday morning?) it was someone's birthday, 19th in fact and she had baked and created an exciting cake in the form of a train, on Match Makers (orange flavour) track, each carriage decorated in a different way. Much more attractive than the Ffestiniog Railway and a great deal more tasty.
Which reminds me, that I was gently chided for not mentioning the lovely BBQ I went to last Sun. Often on Sunday a Mother with a line of beautifully behaved little boys sits at the front. I had mentally named her, 'pretty Mum with lovely sons,' but now I find she has a real name too. Last Sunday she was there with her five older sons and new baby son. Always happy to be gathered in, (not to mention extremely grateful,)the Mother of the large family round the corner - BCF (Big Catholic Family,), invited everyone over for a BBQ. The children all had a great time in their lovely garden - paddling pool out, table tennis... and all played wonderfully together whilst being entranced by the baby and being fed delicious food. (Almost a Boglesque rhapsody on a summer afternoon in England? Plums dropping from the tree as we ate, at one point into the potato salad! All true.)
Which reminds me, that I was gently chided for not mentioning the lovely BBQ I went to last Sun. Often on Sunday a Mother with a line of beautifully behaved little boys sits at the front. I had mentally named her, 'pretty Mum with lovely sons,' but now I find she has a real name too. Last Sunday she was there with her five older sons and new baby son. Always happy to be gathered in, (not to mention extremely grateful,)the Mother of the large family round the corner - BCF (Big Catholic Family,), invited everyone over for a BBQ. The children all had a great time in their lovely garden - paddling pool out, table tennis... and all played wonderfully together whilst being entranced by the baby and being fed delicious food. (Almost a Boglesque rhapsody on a summer afternoon in England? Plums dropping from the tree as we ate, at one point into the potato salad! All true.)
Thursday, 13 August 2009
The old, the new and the old again
Tomorrow my friend M the organist is coming round. She is a retired primary school music specialist and had things been different would have gone to Music College. Instead, she got herself harmony and counterpoint lessons, joined the London Philharmonic Choir and sang under Adrian Boult and generally set about doing as much music as time would allow. She is an excellent pianist. When we go to concerts she produces her own programme notes and is not afraid to disagree with the printed ones. She takes music seriously.
She was chuffed to get a postcard from Solesmes and it turns out that she sang in the nuns' choir when she was at school as well as then teaching plainchant and is bringing her LU round tomorrow. She's also re-introducing plainchant at her Church, bit by bit.
She was chuffed to get a postcard from Solesmes and it turns out that she sang in the nuns' choir when she was at school as well as then teaching plainchant and is bringing her LU round tomorrow. She's also re-introducing plainchant at her Church, bit by bit.
Multi-tasking
OK, so now for the serious stuff. During the course of my pizza evening with old school friend, I learned the amazing fact that she has given her bread machine away to a gluten free friend and now kneeds her dough whilst surfing the net.
She explained, right hand mouse, left hand in bowl with dough. I nearly snorted quattro formaggio pizza in a most unladylike fashion.
Doing more than one thing at a time. Any takers?
This reminds me of a car journey game I used to play with my much younger (and now married) brother. It consisted of putting unlikely names with animals.
Darren the lion.
Wilfred the zebra.
Doris the tiger.
Emily the python.
Gerald the cheetah.
That sort of thing.
.
She explained, right hand mouse, left hand in bowl with dough. I nearly snorted quattro formaggio pizza in a most unladylike fashion.
Doing more than one thing at a time. Any takers?
This reminds me of a car journey game I used to play with my much younger (and now married) brother. It consisted of putting unlikely names with animals.
Darren the lion.
Wilfred the zebra.
Doris the tiger.
Emily the python.
Gerald the cheetah.
That sort of thing.
.
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