Drive & Live

To understand, “get”, the title you must pronounce “live” to rhyme with “jive” not “sieve”.  It’s the silliest idea since that opera performed in four helicopters that cropped up three years ago in A Flying Soloist. 

Osberto Parsley

It seems to me it’s unusual to have a surname that is a vegetable or herb. The Broccoli dynasty of Bond fame, of course, and the fictional Parsnip created by Evelyn Waugh to mock WH Auden in Put Out More Flags. So I’m pleased to add Parsley to my trug.

The Ring

There may be some elderly folk who can not, but most of us can remember every Ring cycle we have seen. We are talking about Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. I have never seen the operas consecutively but I remember the ones I didn’t get to. I had not heard of Fulham Opera when they staged it… Continue reading The Ring

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Dress to be Killed

My generation is divided into those who went to see Maureen Potter in panto at the Gaiety and those, like me, who went to see Jack Cruise at the Olympia. Miss Hickey, a spinster friend of Mrs McGinn, gave me an autograph book. She thoughtfully stood at the stage door to christen it with JC’s… Continue reading Dress to be Killed

Arms and the Man

Arma virumque cano  (of arms and the man I sing) as Virgil puts it so succinctly in the Aeneid. A reader tells me a schoolboy hazarded this translation: “I sing of arms, men and dogs, sir”. I cannot sing but I do want to flaunt my Arms. The late Sir Iain Moncreiffe in Simple Heraldry, Cheerfully… Continue reading Arms and the Man

Wagner Night

Wagner Night was a Proms tradition that was revived on Monday. Marc Albrecht conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He seemed an appropriate choice: Albrecht/Alberich.

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Bright Young Things

I’m not an expert on anything; sometimes I know a bit or can express myself lucidly. I deployed this as an oil futures broker. Yesterday a friend asked me how she should address formally (on the envelope) the divorced wife of a younger son of a marquess who has subsequently remarried.

Kirill Karabits

Kirill Karabits; now that’s a name to roll round your tongue; born in Kiev on St Stephen’s Day, 1976.

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An Old Hand

How long should one work? How long is a piece of string? Some people (including me) slip gratefully into early retirement, others like their jobs so much they never want to retire.

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Manon Lescaut

Opera Holland Park opened their season with Puccini’s Manon. OHP has come a long way in the last 25 years.

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