-
sleeping with more cats
The continuing saga of the cats who have owned me. Earlier episode here One of the things about Hattie, (we rarely called her Harriet) was that she had a ritual of staring out of the window every morning, which we attributed to her ‘checking outside was still there’. It turned out we were right. When…
-
sleeping with cats
I was going to call this dancing with cats, but decided it was derivative, and inaccurate! Spurred by the sad demise of my next-door-cat Cundy, a cat of great age and fortitude, who will be much missed by her family, and generations of schoolchildren and commuters who have been indelibly marked by her engaging manner…
-
Eugene Onegin – final performance 17th July 2011
I am in a really bad mood when we arrive at the Halls, seriously grumpy, even another review isn’t enough to cheer me up. But by the time I’ve got into my costume for act I, been re-introduced to the man who taught me maths when I was 12, and helped wrap a dozen bottles…
-
Roaming Round Romsey
I’ve been trying to create a montage of the glorious stone cats of Romsey Abbey, but no matter what I do with it, I can only get half of them into the featured image at the top of the page, so here they are in their full glory. They leave me wondering whether the stone mason(s) working…
-
Eugene Onegin – 1st Production Rehearsal
Our first production rehearsal is six hours long. Nick is stuck on a delayed Eurostar, so Duncan is conducting from the piano, Bryony is poised with measuring tape to review costumes, Tom has collected flower pots, (which he later walks into and sends in all directions) baskets, cushions and a watering can, and the floor is marked…
-
NOT Eugene Onegin 5th Rehearsal- RtR go wild
I’m sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and a very happy cat who is glad I’m home from a weekend away. We’ve been playing truant from the opera! Green fields and pastures new, we’ve been on an organic smallholding in …Swindon … for a weekend of singing with a small selection of the…
-
Me and My Pianos
I’ve been decorating the living room, and the piano was really getting in my way – too heavy to move! Solved that, (thanks Muireann) with a bit of lateral thinking and a long pole. So my imaginary blog reader is now asking themselves: Why is she on about pianos? Can she even play the piano? Naah… I can pick…
-
Requiem First Night!
Well we’ve done the first performance, and we remembered when to sing quietly and went at it full throttle when it was required- at one point we were so loud I couldn’t hear what I was singing myself. From the depths of the choir you don’t get a clear picture of what the audience is…
-
Requiem First Night Approaches
A friend of mine describes the Verdi Requiem as religion as high opera, and it certainly is full of drama and glorious tunes. You can watch a video of some of us singing the Dies Irae in protest at threatened cuts to the funding of our beloved Blackheath Halls here, and I promise we will…
-
Early Music part 2
Early music is a passion I share with my partner A, and a chance discovery led to the inspiration for an historical novel, The Cold Time. Sometime in 1993 , arriving early for a film at the Odeon at Marble Arch, we headed into HMV to browse, and I picked up a new release in…
Cherry Potts, Writer 