I read a Good News story recently. The restriction on taking liquids in excess of 100 ml in hand luggage should be lifted soon. I well remember when it was introduced.
I had been in Pesaro for the Rossini festival in August 2006. We stayed for a few years in a modern hotel on the beach that had some advantages: wine and prosecco was free until about 6.00 pm, there were two pools, the rooms had big terraces for sitting out and there were bicycles to borrow to get to the operas. The disadvantage was a policy shift making the minimum stay seven nights. A friend investigated and found Villa Cattani Stuart. It was most agreeable and we went back a few times.
The operas? Torvaldo e Dorliska, Die Schuldigkeit, La Cambiale, L’Italiana in Algeri. Three are seldom performed and one is not by Rossini – I forget why it was put on in 2006; the music is Mozart’s. The Italian in Algiers is a sure-fire hit but Pesaro thought they would put some extra icing on Rossini’s perfect confection. They got Nobel prize winner, Dario Fo to direct. Here’s what Amazon reviewer David Garrett thought about the DVD:
Dario Fo’s production is completely manic. I suppose it could be called “traditional” in that it seems to be set more-or-less in-period, and the storyline is not messed with. However the stage is constantly filled with all sorts of supernumeraries doing all sorts of stuff. In the first act there is a zooful of animals coming and going. In the second act there is a series of circus acts happening around the main action. There are no helpful interviews or booklet notes to explain what it’s all supposed to be about. Sometimes it’s totally brilliant – such as Lindoro’s dance with a dummy early in Act 2. Most of the time it’s just a bit distracting. My only real complaint is the noise that it all sometimes makes. I’m sure that there is a knack of moving a crowd around a stage without making it sound like a herd of stampeding elephants, but these people clearly don’t have it!
I think he is being generous to Dario. I stood up and booed when he pranced onto the stage for his directorial curtain call. Anyway, all good things must come to an end and I had a flight out of Ancona on Thursday 10th August 2006. That was the day all flights were grounded and the liquid restrictions imposed. Now they may be lifted … but the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I have been accustomed to carrying a telescopic walking pole as hand luggage. Yesterday I had to check it in as new restrictions have been imposed. I reckon if it had been extended and I limped I might have got away with it.