Opera: Rinaldo

Tonight, I was thinking film again - but just a couple of days ago, London Baroque Music Lovers advertised a Handel event at the Heath Street Baptist Church. It was a performance of his opera, Rinaldo, as part of their Baroquestock Festival. I do love a bit of baroque, hadn't heard any in ages - and it was, as usual, months since I was last with this group! so I plumped for this.

Thinking about where to eat beforehand, I considered Gaucho, just down the road from it - but they were filling up fast, and I couldn't get a booking for the time I needed. So, given that I was to catch the bus right around the corner.. I went to The Lucas Arms again. Where I was also lucky to get a seat - there were a few tables left, but they filled pretty fast: and the poor serving staff were so frazzled, they gave me a second fork instead of a knife! And they had a long night ahead - I don't envy them.

The bus, when it came, confusingly had a destination of "Paddington" - but that was correct. It's one of those that travel in a loop. I just needed it to take me north to Hampstead - and Lordy, was I glad of having an engine to take the strain, rather than climb all those hills myself! I had enough of a climb, just going up Heath Street..

I was pleased to see they offered wine - it hadn't been mentioned in the event ad. So I decided to have a glass as I went in. Unfortunately, the poor bloke taking names was the only person on hand to serve me, so he had a tough time double-jobbing.. but he was very obliging. The wine was a decent pinot grigio - and all the nicer for costing only £3 (they also had red wine, and Brewdog beer - all for the same price). I took it in, and took a seat up front. To the side, though - I didn't fancy being right in front of the artists!

The inscription on the lid of the harpsichord, BTW, is "dum vixi tacui, mortua dulce cano", which is Latin for "while I lived I was silent - dead, I sing sweetly".

As I remarked to someone, how lovely it is to be so close to performers - and a church has the acoustics. And oh, it was gorgeous music, beautifully performed.. with a nice, relaxed staging. A white sheet had been pinned up behind the "stage" area, onto which images were projected - not that I could see much of them from where I was sat, with the pulpit in the way. I did better with the little props that kept popping up in the pulpit:

I also loved how they had a storyteller at the interval, telling the original tale (abbreviated) on which this was based. As he said, might confuse us more than anything, but also v handy if you weren't following the Italian! (There were no subtitles.)

It's a lovely venue to see things in, in general, with a great, informal feel - and one of those where the artists mingle afterwards in the lobby, where they kept selling drinks - and apparently excellent focaccia - until the stock was exhausted. And there we stayed to drink, and chat. Another lovely London venue - I'm delighted to know about it! Baroquestock runs here until the 14th, and I highly recommend checking it out. And thsi opera is showing again tomorrow. And handily, I managed to shop on the way back to the bus..

No confusion over what I'm doing tomorrow - back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners again! This walk is Clerkenwell: A Village of Contrasts - not so far from me. How fortunate am I, to be living close to so much history..

On Sunday, I got a free ticket for David McSavage's new show, Lazy Bastard, at the Top Secret Comedy Club. Still available, still free, if you're interested.. I see he's also on tomorrow, slightly earlier.

On Monday - well, there's a ton of stuff on Meetup! I finally decided that the most attractive thing was the Vintage Soho guided walk with Barrie, again with the 45+s (it's a bank holiday, you see). As with so many of his walks, however, tickets are also available with TAC - and even though I still have to pay him £5 cash on the day, it represents a saving!

On Tuesday, I was thinking film again - but another late listing has the World Music Meetup (WMM) advertising Sounds of Sudan, at St. Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. At a time when Sudan is in the news for all the wrong reasons, this sounds a lovely concert by Sudanese artist Mo Sarrar. So now I'm going to that.

On Wednesday, again, loads of stuff on Meetup - but two of my groups are running events that would interest me, but are sold out. The Horror Book Club, meantime, is reading The Yellow Wallpaper - a novella that I found on Kindle, and downloaded a free sample for. Mind you, it came as part of a collection.. and is so short that its entirety was included in the free sample! so I read the whole thing in half an hour. How different from our last assignment.. I wasn't that keen on it - although the ending is good. So I'll probably head to yet another film that night. That blasted film listings site still has, as of now, partial listings up for it. So - subject to change, as so many films are listed with the caveat "no information available at the moment" - Wednesday's film is looking like How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the fictional account of climate activists attacking a pipeline in Texas. Showing in my local cinema - not that the listings site let me in on that secret, but from experience, I tried the cinema website myself directly..

On Thursday, I booked a livestream from the Crick Crack Club, from the Story Museum Oxford. This is King Lear Retold. However, these tend to be available for a week after - so I've taken the opportunity, also, to book another concert with the WMM! This is La Chinganera, in the Finnish Church - and the concerts organised by Eleanor Salter Thorn of TunedIn London are always good!

Then back to Ireland for the coronation weekend..