The huntsman drags the spool

A contemplative moment in Sue’s back yard, bluebells in the background. I had a migraine and Sue was tired after a hike on Friday, so we didn’t feel up to attending the protests this weekend. They weren’t as well-attended as those on April 5, but nobody knows what to do to stem the course of fascism. The news is terrible, but mostly we yielded to hysterical laughter.

We laughed and then kept bursting out in laughter the whole day and into the night because we went onto Youtube and listened to Dame Janet Baker singing Handel’s “Va Tacito” in English. She seemed to be singing, “The huntsman drags the spool,” which makes no sense, even for Handel. We pictured a huntsman dragging a huge wooden spool, “Coats & Clarks” burnt into the end of it, red thread unspooling over the forest floor. See if you can figure out what she’s saying. I swear you’ll hear what we heard. (Eventually we did a search and found out, but even then, it’s hilarious.)

She was gorgeous as Caesar in gold breastplate and boots. The opera really is ridiculous in English. We were listening to it because next weekend we’ll be in California with members of Sue’s family, driving into Berkeley to hear that very opera sung in Italian with not one, not two, but three countertenors. That should be fun, but not quite as entertaining (for us) as Dame Janet Baker as Caesar in gold breastplate invoking a spool.