First stop London

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Dear Family and Friends

Having only recently been delighted to have finally edited and had bound my previous travel blog I really appreciate having details of accommodation, costs and of course perfomances attended for my own reference. So please forgive the details and what appears to be excessive name dropping. In addition, a few friends will want to know such things. Last time, leaving USA after 4 performances at the Met, two in Chicago and countless musicals I had to jettison my programs in order to close my suitcase. One always expects to remember details but I'm afraid I do not remember enough. So much of this is in the end for myself. But it is great to be able to share some of this adventure as it happens with those of you who are interested.

After flying straight through via Singapore I arrived at 5am on Friday. It had been 29 degrees in Sydney on Thursday afternoon when I left. Now it was 3 degrees and still dark at 7.30am.

I was lucky....the alternate accommodation that my travel agent had booked was equally as convenient as my preferred Strand Palace. This time Citadines Apartments in Northumberland St, running down from Trafalgar Square to the Thames at the Golden Jubilee Bridge. ( Well worth noting as it has a fully equipped kitchen and even a mini dishwasher and there are lots of mini supermarekts nearby to you could do all your own meals) When I arrived there was one room unoccupied so I was able to take it at 7am at no additional cost!

I had a shower and set out walking around to get moving after sitting still for so long in the plane. (One of my most active and physically fit friends just landed himself in hospital with DVT after returning from the UK). With tickets for the opera that night I first checked how long it would take to walk there...15 minutes. Fine. Still nothing open so I kept walking up to Marble Arch and then took the bus to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

After lunch at the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square I thought I had better have a nap for a couple of hours before the Opera. So..off I set at 5pm as I had booked to have dinner there. ( They have a great system whereby you can book your dinner, eat the first course before the overture and then return for dessert during the interval!)

Friday night was "Adriana Lecouvreur"...I got to hear the wonderful young German tenor, Jonas Kaufmann.Wow! I've never had a tenor on my shortlist of favourites before. (Actually that's not strictly true...watch this space on Thursday...I'm off to Cologne to hear a young Australian friend whose career I have been following for a few years). Unfortunately it was one of the two performances which Angela Gheorghiu was not singing. Instead Angeles Blancas Gulin. The role of the Princesse was magnificently sung by Olga Borodino.

It was a full and very appreciative house. A lot of French speakers in the audience. They must come over on the Eurostar for the relative bargains. To an Australian everything seems expensive. The people next to me in the orchestra stalls were just ordinary Poms..could have been my cousins. Much cheering and stamping and throwing of flowers. Very exciting.

When I picked up my ticket which I had booked online I asked about Saturday night's Tannhauser performance. Online tickets had been sold out but I was lucky....I scored a return in row C of the stalls for Saturday nights opening performance. So that saved me from having to queue at the box office on Saturday morning before 10am.

Just as well!!! What a tragic waste of one of my only two days in London! I fell asleep immediately after the opera at 11pm but awoke in a hot sweat from the central heating at 2am and couldn't go back to sleep. So I read a book till 7am and then went back to sleep. To my absolute astonishment I slept till 2.40pm! Oh no! I had intended to do a backstage tour of the ROH and then walk to Victoria to see the matinee of "Billy Elliot" before fronting up for the 6pm start of Tannhauser.

So by the time I had a shower and walked outside it was 3pm...I had 3 hours in which to walk around (still wary of DVT) and eat to sustain myself through the Wagner. Very difficult to know what to eat at 3pm....breakfast? lunch? dinner? Delighted to look southwards down the street out front and see the Golden Jubilee Bridge. So walked across to the Southbank and got a bite to eat at the British Film Institute Cafe. They have been running a 2 month Frank Capra festival! As I ate they were calling patrons in for a showing of "Little Shop Around the Corner"! Luckily it was sold out or I might have been distracted from the opera.

What a perfect way to begin my German sojourn! The opening bars of Tannhauser transported me! And what a magnificent performance. I guess it's the magic of Opera, that each new performance can inspire you with the feeling that even though you have had some wonderful experiences before this latest one is in a league of its own. Certainly, being lucky enough to attend the Met and ROH ....of particular note were Johan Botha (Tannhauser) and Christof Fischesser (Wolfram) not to mention Michaela Schuster as Venus and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Elisabeth. But there must have been well over a hundred in the cast.
It's a wonder the tickets are so cheap.

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Comments

[Maureen Stewart]

Hi Erica, Hope the weather is not making things too difficult for you. Wishing you good health and happiness in 2011. MAUREEN