Great idea Jonathan, you can always start such a discussion but I guarantee it would be hijacked within three hours and we would end up talking about bicycle chains or apple crumble or other diverse things..
Why not- I recently did a sort of seven day musical challenge with various far flung friends on Facebook. You send your choices, one day for seven days, like Desert Island Discs, and then they do the same and maybe the thing spreads. You learn some new music as well!
Careful, tempt an anthro with such an idea and there will be more branches of culture than anybody really wants. The ethnography of kippers, only to be found in blind alleys ;-) Perhaps we should get back on track.
Maybe I should start a separate discussion on the importance/connectivity of European culture.
Must admit that I only scanned the post and did not pick up it was opera focussed. If there is a Brexit I'm sure that we will be in for some operetta revivals, Gilbert and Sullivan, to keep the jingoistic theme going. One of my first LPs was Pinafore. My first actual opera was in Leningrad in 62. Regrettably my parents were totally unmusical and it took me decades to get into it. Luckily in London I was able to see a great deal at CG and also Glyndebourne. Britten gave me a signed photo but I lost it! The composer of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZpFKwxdzvs taught me musical appreciation
This man was a client of mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZpFKwxdzvs
and last a bit of real opera I know the soprano's family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyHbUMBNNgk
Point taken, but taste wins over all in the end and I confess to being a Wagnerian with a bit of a taste for Verdi but I also like modern operas by Adams, Glass, Schnittke or Stockhausen. Turn of the Screw is great though... As you see, light ones don't hit the spot for me. Just like Brexiting.
My point was merely about the word "naff". I would never try to argue that there is a huge body of good English opera, and (unless one claims Handel as a naturalised Brit) very little in the 18th and 19th centuries which are the high points for Italian and German opera. Most of the excellent composers referred to by David did not do opera, but the early ones were again very much part of European culture and not isolated from developments in Italy, France or Germany. Peter Grimes is in fact one of the most played 20th century operas throughout Europe, and over the last few years the excellent Capitole in Toulouse has been doing a series of Britten that has included such comparative rarities as Albert Herring, Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave and The Little Sweep.
David Rosemont
Please give me a link to the Bojo web site you are referring to.
Thanks
Peter S
Yes, how could they possibly replace complete prats and nonentities. I mean to say how could somebody like Grayling whose name is even made to match be replaced? They would have to cross the house to pick up new ministers who are a) alive and b) the right kind of Tories. Labout has them and since most of them don't want to be with JC... Westminster looks more and more like a re-enactment of the deckchair attendant on the Titanic putting the seats out to see the nice iceberg!
I assume you meant " If the Brexit vote was to stay, would it be possible to expect the Cabinet Ministers who voted 'out' to do the 'honorable thing' as well?" If in the affirmative the answer has to be certainly but honour doesn't come into it much these days. Cameron will not stay for another election anyway so that means a Tory successor would have to be found a good time before the next GE. OMG it's bad enough already- please let us not go there yet. If JC is still in charge (sic) on the opposition benches then I think you really are looking down a tunnel with a train coming the other way. Global warming, nuclear attacks or germ warfare may indeed be preferable.
Thanks! There's so much being written in both the UK and FR press it's not clear who is speaking sense.
I have, however, received two marriage proposals from single French men as a back up plan LOL (although that is one route I would never take!)
That's reassuring - despite my being a new business, I assume that having been here over 5 years I have automatic right to a carte de sejour?
Quite correct in all senses Brian!
Calm down BM, remember the old ticker !
You mean 'stay' in the latter I think. Oh please, please, what a sweet way to see IDS fall on his sword. As if, since there is absolutely no trace of honour. If he has the courage, then Dave could sack them. Courage? Another laughing fit coming on...
Thanks for this treatise. Makes me miss my husband who would have made similar contributions.
He was my constant tutor and mentor.
I will use this as a seed for my own investigation, but I am willing to rely on your advise, Brian.
All right, I give in - you mentioned in passing, Hungarian. Well it was my five years in that country that gave me my grounding in Opera appreciation. How could it not when a ticket to one of the finest Opera Houses in the world cost a mere $US5? Programmes changes each week so this was the highlight of ours, plus the start of my now pretty comprehensive CD collections.
Yet there is only ONE complete libretto I ever bought and that was the stunning Hungarian opera 'Bank Ban' by Ferencz Erkel. In Budapest there is also a modern Opera House, with far better accoustics, and much better seats (essential but usually absent in most other places), named after him.We all have favorite singers, and my all-time favorite Soprano is Sylvia Gesty.
Now back to the plot;
If the Brexit vote were to leave, one would expect Cameron to resign, Yes?
If the Brexit vote was to leave, would it be possible to expect the Cabinet Ministers who voted 'out' to do the 'honorable thing' as well?
C'mon - stop laughing!
I'm not a great opera fan but I have to say 'The Rape of Lucretia' doesn't really do much to attract me to Britten !! Probably for that reason i've never been tempted go give it a listen..
An evening with George Galloway? Second prize a whole day with George Galloway. I think one of my school lines went along "Alaric the bold invaded Rome in the year 410"- change it to "Hordes of Roumanian plumbers invaded the UK in the year 2016"
That's the problem, I can't leave you lot for five minutes without anarchy breaking out!
Go into the corner and write out 'I must learn to love Iain Duncan Smith' 500 times
(I can't think of a harsher punishment at this time)