Mary Shelley

28 April 2012: We had dinner with the Harms and went on to the Nottingham Playhouse for the play Mary Shelley, by Helen Edmundson. Very powerful and moving, and urged me to read up on the true story. Mary Shelley is famous as the writer of Frankenstein (at the age of 18). People with such powerful and creative minds always seem destined to suffer tragedy. On the face of it, Shelley seems to be in the wrong, seducing and eloping with an infatuated teenager... but without it, some great literature might never have been created. Its possible to find the entire text of Frankenstein on line, and the other books if you look a bit harder.

Find out more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley

http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/shelleybio.html

Here's the site from the theatre company Shared Experience, about their production of Mary Shelley.

Tall Building Students visit

3 April 2012: The term has ended, and we took the earliest opportunity to have a social gathering. Most of the Tall Building studio made it over to our house in West Bridgford for an extended lunch. As usual, everybody brought a little something to eat, so there was plenty to go around. Some of the students are looking forward to a New York field trip. Everybody is relieved to have got past the end of term crit. There are a few weeks now to recharge batteries, think about dissertation, and reflect on ways to advance the design project.

 Veronica, Phil, Sayali, Rishika, Zuzar, Udayan

DNC, Wezha, Ronssi, Noura, Deepika, Pelin and Alejandro

Norma by Opera North

25 Feb 2012: We went to the Theatre Royal to see the opera Norma by Bellini.

Picture of Norma from Opera North website

I have a mixed reaction to it. The music is wonderful, I am told it's a fine example of Bel Canto (very elaborate singing) and it was certainly that - it was amazing to hear the sounds that Norma was able to produce, and I recommend anybody to do some research on YouTube to see examples of Callas or Sutherland performing Casta Diva, the greatest song of the opera.
  We felt that the story was lousy, or perhaps it didn't come across well to us in the production. The idea that the high priestess would have had a long love affair with the Roman pro-consul and have two boy children and nobody would know of this secret (while she is busy declaring war on the Romans) seemed absurd. The entire plot hinge on the fact that the roman was a serial seducer who should have had his arse kicked very early on. Of course, without plots like these, opera would not exist, I have often felt this about opera - Rigoletto is another example of lousy plots. I suppose it was thought in late 18th and early 19th century that you could fall in love with a mere glance, but the idea that this could lead to such major tragedy just annoys modern people.
  Still.... wonderful music!
 The soprano, Annemarie Kremer, in the Opera North production was quite brilliant, but for the ultimate, see the video on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs
See some clips of the opera North production with an interview with Annemarie. She is Dutch, and the whole opera is sung in the original Italian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1A1OojEcqc
Looking at these clips, I appreciate it more, and enjoy the acting and music and worry less about the story!

Fringford meeting

15 Jan 2012: Fringford in Oxfordshire is better known as Candleford in the Larkrise to Candleford books and TV series, although I confess to never having watched it, and didn't know this when we booked a lunch at the Butchers Arms in Fringford. It is halfway between Nottingham and Southampton. We didn't meet Henry and Carol over Xmas due to distance and things, so this was a late Xmas dinner, hence the red hat.
  I would recommend it in future, a fine carvery meal, with nice veggies too, easy to find, ample parking and a good atmosphere.
  There was the most unbelievable percentage of houses in Fringford with solar photovoltaic panels, either up or currently being put up (scaffolding still up). Apparently, a housing association owns several of the houses, so this is a combined effort - although they seem to have missed the December 2011 deadline for the higher tariff.

Cole family visit

29 Dec 2011: Thursday, we took a trip over to Moseley to visit Desmond and Kathy Cole, picking up Daphne, who stayed overnight in Nottingham.

Christmas in Norwich

24-26 Dec 2011: Daughter Sophie was our host for Christmas again, having a 'social Sunday' in Norwich. There were 11 of us at lunch, a mixture of Sophie's friends from Uni and the York tavern, and us. Will cooked a venison casserole!

Tuck in folks!

It's all so delicious that Will finds the casserole emptied

Skyping with Henry and Carol

Getting our just desserts

Lucy and Tom arrive for the evening fun

Thankyou to Sophie and Will for organising this - it's a new paradigm of Christmas celebration (sorry Charles Dickens....) 

Tall Buildings Party

11 Dec 2011: We invited the members of the Tall Buildings design studio to a Sunday-lunch party at our house in West Bridgford, everybody bringing a little bit of food. SN-C made some fine desserts. It was rainy, so we didn't have the hoped-for walk on the hill south of the house, but anyway, a good time was had by all. It is certainly a very international grouping, with students from various parts of India and of China, and a few besides (Vietnam, Turkey and..... err.... England!).