Rheingold

Another BUSY day! There seem to be a lot of those recently!

After dropping the Wonderspouse at the bus I finished my maths assignment - finally completed at 7.34 a.m. Then I cleaned out the boys, set the video recorders, did some emergency accounts (following last night's vet bill), jumped in the car, drove a mile down the road, turned round, checked I'd locked the door (OCD surfacing), jumped back in the car, and headed off to Scharwenka's house!

Scharwenka & I drove Mrs Scharwenka into town, picked up some stuff from the lab, drove to my tutor's house & posted my assignment, went to Lidl, went to Screwfix, did some work on my new (well, secondhand from Scharwenka's next-door neighbour) printer, baked some bread, had lunch, and did a few other bits.

The Wonderspouse arrived at Scharwenka's house and we then drove to Birmingham, where we spent a pleasant afternoon browsing the market and a few shops, drinking hot chocolate (see the blipfoto extras album - link on my "about this journal" bit), eating Double Cheeseburgers, and then finally landed at Symphony Hall for the evening's entertainment.

After the very pleasant surprise of bumping into @5357311 and his Dad, we took our seats for Opera North's semi-staged production of Das Rheingold. I LOVED it! I forget just how much I adore The Ring (I must do, I spent a month's food money on the Solti CD box set when I was a student and then had to rely on the generosity of my then boyfriend, events with free food, and value beans for a month), and this production was no exception. Great singing, I liked the semi-staging and the way the outfits were concert dress, but with a few little extras - the rhinemaidens wore blue elbow-length gloves and Fasolt & Fafner had red ties and handkerchiefs, the video background shown on the 3 large screens added atmosphere, and it was nice to have surtitles on the TV screens (even though they were a bit distant for us).

The orchestra was MAGNIFICENT! Six onstage harps, and one offstage! Wagner tubas, excellent viola section, and ANVILS! Can't beat a piece with 12 anvils in it! I love the descent into Nibelheim! AWESOME!

I was certainly tired by the end, and I'm certain the route we took out of Birmingham wasn't the most direct, but we did eventually get home! I drank some wine to counteract the effects of the energy drinks we'd been quaffing to stay awake, bathed, then fell asleep to the closing few minutes of the night's Glastonbury coverage!

Excellent day!