Vercors winter hike
Col de la Tour, from col de Bergu, 801 m. A brilliant view of the Montagne du Glandasse in the Vercors, rewarding a winter afternoon's long hike up from Die on the banks of the river Drôme plus some rather arcane train and bus connections.
Eagles found me having my picnic and circled above. The rest of the Vercors plateau was clear of mist and dramatic enough but monochromatic without direct sunshine. Interesting and different to see the col de Rousset from afar rather than on a motorbike. And great to spend time with my friends in the Drôme département.
Circus in the Vieux Port, Marseille
Circus artists rehearsing for tonight’s show around the Vieux Port in Marseille, part of La Biennale Internationale des Arts du Cirque. As well as trapeze artistes and jugglers, there looks to be going to be a high wire cyclist performing high above the port end of the Canebière. And there are searchlights set up to illuminate a high wire stretched between cranes on either side of the port. Although there will be a thin crescent moon and a Mistral to keep the skies clear, unfortunately it’s likely to be a cold night both for the performers and the crowds.
Footnote: the event was cancelled due to the weather
Apexes on the Col de l'Espigoulier
New white leathers, new boots, new crash hat and a couple of fine days to practice skills on the Col de l’Espigoulier (723 m. altitude), It’s less than half an hour from Marseille and as tortuous as its name suggests.
South side was pretty much dry and the surface is in good condition, apart from burnt rubber tracks from cars. Clear blue sky means Mistral wind here but not a problem on the south side of the mountain. So ran the route a couple of times to practice yesterday and also today and found various other motorbikers to have chats with, this being Friday afternoon.
Marseille St. Charles
Marseille from the main railway station: Gare St. Charles. The Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde in the far distance, crowned by the golden statue of the Virgin Mary by Lequesne. Usually this view is against the strong sunlight which so dominates and overwhelms the traveller on arrival from the north that the sunshine and blue Mediterranean sky becomes the view. The sky today is loaded with rain clouds which the strong and clear Mediterranean light somehow manages to penetrate, revealing the architecture and reminding how Marseille is a fascinating mixture of a Provence village and a modern French town.
Un ballo in maschera - The Royal Opera
Fresh vibrant production with fluid and dramatic performances of Verdi’s melodrama Un ballo in maschera. Royal Opera’s new production is about reclaiming the drama as well as the big singing. The leading ladies, Liudmyla Monastyrska (Amelia) and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Renato), gave committed and satisfying musical performances; Marianne Cornetti gave a particularly spooky interpretation of Ulrica, the fortune teller. But for me it was Joseph Calleja (Riccardo) who commanded the stage musically, dramatically and with an athleticism that showed his enthusiasm for this role. Though I wasn’t convinced by Liudmyla Monastyrska as Amelia that he would be so much fallen in love as the plot requires.
This is an apparently straightforward setting but unusually is based in Austro-Hungarian Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, within which the production design holds consistent with a lot of detail and depth. The main benefits of this setting appear to be an opportunity for some tasty uniforms and sumptuous frocks. It sort of works as fitting preconceived ideas about how a grand opera should look though actually the staging is for an era fifty years after the premiere. The staging and lighting are complex but come over as straightforward, helping to build the melodrama without distracting from the music.
Snowdrops & orchids at Kew
Kew botanic gardens still puts on a refreshing and colourful show in winter. It’s not an obvious place to visit in January; the Palm House and the many rooms in the Princess of Wales conservatory were showing fine cacti and orchids, the latter flowering well. Snowdrops flowering in the stark winter sunshine outside. The admission ticket is £5 cheaper for January but the Temperate House was closed and the cafes were seriously overloaded.
Eastbourne
Eastbourne on the “Sussex Sunshine Coast” is pleasant for a promenade even at the beginning of January. But still mounds of shingle burying the stairs to the beaches, despite protection from the west by Beachy Head and the chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters. Eastbourne’s elegant Victorian pier is still open whilst being restored after last year’s fire. But very poor effort on Christmas decorations in the shopping streets.
Viennese Gala Concert - Brighton Philharmonic
New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala Concert - Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra - Brighton Dome
A sparkling and stylish New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala Concert in the historic but refurbished Brighton Dome; Stephen Bell conducting the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra in music of the Strauss family plus twentieth century Viennese music of Emmerich Kálmán and Franz Lehár.
Brighton thinks of itself partly as London-on-the-Sea, in the same way the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra draws on a pool of players from the nearby metropolis and thus delivers concerts of unexpected quality for a city of the size of Brighton and Hove. Now restructured after a couple of difficult years, the orchestra is in fine form and today’s concert was well supported by an enthusiastic and attentive audience.
Constructing Worlds - Barbican - November 2014
Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age
Barbican Art Gallery
A comprehensive survey of photographs of buildings starting with a selection of Berenice Abbott’s dramatic photographs of a dynamic New York City and moving through to near-contemporary photographs of construction in China and destruction in Iraq; finally, celebratory, hopeful pictures of humans living despite architecture in Caracas, Venezuela.
These are largely the photographs the architects want us to see, photographs which communicate the vision. So we see Le Corbusier's work through the lens of his preferred photographer, Lucien Hervé. Viewed as a group from afar, these high contrast prints are reduced to records of the implementation of the design concept rather than dwelling places for real people.
