h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Alas, lots of standing around being a "smuggler" for the next week! Oh well, at least Figaro is just round the corner. The recits are still a major hurdle though!
I remember there is some wonderful writing in The Merchant of Venice, particularly the Alchemical scene with the caskets and the question of choice. Profound stuff. (Have you come across my rambling conversation with an h2g2 researcher on the subject of Shakespeare? Try my home page if this interests you.)
When I came over to Australia last year my favourite champagne was from Yarra Burn, (fruity, biscuity, dry with a dash of Vanilla - Aarrgh). Also a desert wine from Yarra Burn, Semillon Botrytis (Heaven on Earth!). I've never tasted anything like it!
All the best for now. Web page should be up in a couple of days. Hope its not too dark and scary. Take Care. G.

I have to admit that the most I've really been doing with this site is talking to you. Mostly my conscience tells me to get back to work rather than really explore, as I'd like to. I don't have a computer at home so really work is it. Today however...I got in late, I'm going out for a work lunch and I have to go into town to sign my next contract this afternoon...no photos will be scanned and indexed today I think.

I went to sleep last night listening to Yvonne Kenny singing 'Oh Sleep, Why dost thou leave me?'. Possibly close to my favourite aria on the cd. Does it makes sense to say that her singing, and singing of that style, sounds effortlessly controlled? You hear that every note is a choice, but that doesn't sound laboured. Singing like that always reminds me of a red wine we drank at a friend's 21st a few years back. It was bought the year she was born - 21 year old Grange Hermitage (I don't know much about wine, but this is considered one of the top Australian wines). Smooth, rich, but not weighty, almost caramely. I think after that word I should probably stop writing.

I'll visit your home page here and if I have any profound, even slightyly profound thoughts, I'll add them. Hope Figaro is going well - are you doing it in English or (???) Italian? I saw a small production done in English. Very funny, but disconcerting to understand what was previously a mystery.

I hope you have an excellent weekend! Catriona

You have one up on me with the Grange Hermitage, as it costs about &40 (STERLING), which must be nearly &100 dollars! It should taste amazing!!!
You are quite right concerning the singing of Yvonne (first name terms darling, - only joking). It is rare to find a really Operatic singer who is comfortable in this style and able to convey a wide range of colours. There are pip-squeaks everywhere who sing this music, and they are at best faint in live performances, although fine with a microphone up their nose. The English in particular seem to enjoy Baroque music sung by voiceless wonders, and I recall singing a duet in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with a soprano who even I couldn't hear, and I was standing next to her! If you have a warm, sizeable voice, they think you are "inauthentic", which is nonsense as the Opear houses even in Handel's time were vast. Unfortunately, recordings sometimes set trends in a negative way, the flip side to having music readily available at your fingertips.
I'm learning Figaro in Italian at present - and there is a great deal of it! Despite missing the odd joke, the music sounds much better in Italian, as English is a devil of a language to get across an orchestra - due to all the dipthongs and soft word endings. If you hear a live Opera by Britten or Tippett, you hardly ever get a word, and if you do it is due to lighter orchestration or just piano. Then again at Semele the other night (and the Colliseum is vast!) the text was very clear, but this was written in English in bel-canto style.
Thanks for responding to my user page by the way, and you'll find yet another reply! I stay off the net at weekends because its so busy, so will communicate on Monday. Have a good weekend Catriona. All the best. Giles.

I have to admit that the Grange was probably slightly wasted on me at the time as I was only 21 myself and had only just realised that I liked wine. Even for an inexperience palate it was just lovely though. None of us could afford it ourselves, it was thanks to the foresight of my friend's father who bought it the year she was born for drinking at her 21st.

My good news of the weekend is that my cousin who studies voice in Brisbane is coming down to sing at my brother's wedding in July. My brother and his fiance asked me what I thought he should sing and I, naturally, suggested that Handel aria - arghh, the one sung to the same theme as the larghetto from Xerxes. Bruce, my cousin, does know the piece so it just depends on the organist. I haven't heard my cousin sing in a couple of years, but from all reports his voice is lovely. He's only 22 so he's got a way to go, but it just seemed too good an opportunity to waste - a classically trained singer in the family.

Have to say I do prefer hearing Italian sung rather than English. When the School of Music did Cosi Fan Tutte they sang in English and had really good subtitles on this screen overhead. I can't remember all the details of the production as it was a few years ago now, but I remeber thinking that it fit really well with the production and didn't jar at all. It was so funny too. And they had a real, honest to God bass, the first time I'd heard one sing live. What a sound! I used to be a tenor junkie, but nowadays I'm really drawn to deeper voices. Something I've often wondered - why *does* the tenor almost get the girl.

Talk to you later, Catriona.

Actually, the tenor (HAPPILY) doesn't always get the girl. Speaking as a Baritone, I've been kissed in a cart, on a sofa, by three furies, and fondled Dorabella in Act 2 of "Cosi". The downside of "Figaro" is that you get slapped around by Susanna all evening, and while I'm sure that some people would pay good money for this, you finish the evening with a sore back and a raw face!!! You then ask yourself why you spend your life doing these insane things for a living! Just off to another Carmen rehearsal (SERIOUS chorus problems, like there are only half a dozen of them and they don't know it - HELP!) all the best, Giles. (How do you do that funky face thing - its really cute.)

My only experience as a performer lead me to have serious doubts about all choruses and I was one of them! True this was only the school musical (high school), but the vast majority of 'em never turned up to rehearsal and I ended up with a speaking part by default. This classic of the theatre was called "Dracula Spectacular". (Shudder) We had one unaccompanied song to do (a small group of us) and apparently one of the audience members was overheard as saying "Isn't is clever how they make it sound so bad". My sister declared she could hear me out of a chorus of 10. Possible the only worse theatre experience there could be is really bad Gilbert and Sullivan.

The smiley faces seem to appear whenever you put in the emoticon for a smiley face, that is semicolon, hyphen, end brackets. It looks like a smiley on its side and obvious the clever little programmers have worked out a way of registering that. Oh dear, I know what emoticons are...I HAVE spent too much time on the Net.

Woke up to Michala Petrie playing the recorder this morning and have a distinctly "not of this world" feeling. And now the're having an early music hour and Emma Kirkby is singing Handel. Sigh.

Hope the chorus was slightly less disastrous.

Tried the face thing to no avail! Oh well. We apparently have 20 in the chorus but we don't meet them until two days before the show! I've been given this evening off which means I can spend the day on Figaro Recits - and I need to!
The more I work on Carmen, the more I realise it is absolute Piffle!
All the best, Giles.

I'm sorry to say that the classical radio station I listen to played the Smuggler's theme from Carmen and I completely failed to notice it. I only know it was played because I heard it back announced. Would have liked to listen to what you will be singing...but...you get that. Sometimes I do actually concentrate on my job. Last week they played that Schubert string quintet you recommended - a live performance of an Australian group whose name escapes me. It was lovely.

The best opera I've seen on tv ever - Don Carlos. The French production that starred Robert Alagna. We sat down to watch it one Sunday evening, meaning to go to bed after a little while, and the damn production kept us up and interested all the way to the end. Not to mention I thought the music was captivating. Have you ever seen/sung in it? And can you describe what it is like to actually make this kind of music? Probably an impossible question. Sorry.

That Don Carlos was a remarkable show, largely due to such a fantastic cast, Karita Mattila, Alagna, Thomas Hampson and Jose van Dam - you can't argue with that. Along with Simon Boccanegra and Falstaff, it is also one of Verdi's finest scores. It will be some time before I sing this music, as we Baritones and Basses tackle it later in our careers, as it is demanding and requires a lifetime of stamina and technique. Something to look forward to though! Performing it is like skating on ice - and the artists you watched were working incredibly hard, even if they disguised the fact! A big Operatic role is literally a workout!

That's really what makes performing artists, especially ballet dancers, in some ways better athletes than athletes. You're working so very hard and making it look and seem effortless. I'm full of admiration for it. Actually, some tennis players can do that as well. Pete Sampras at his best, Pat Rafter's backhand smash, Martina Hingis most of the time...

Probably by the time you're singing in Don Carlos I'll be able to afford a trip to London, or wherever to see/hear you in it. But then again, knowing my ability to save I'll probably be seeing my 22-year-old baritone cousin in it here first!

Hope your weekend is full of good wine, good music and good company. I have to admit I'm seeing the Star Wars movie tomorrow AND I'M NOT ASHAMED!!

Good for you! Sheer unadulterated escapism is never a bad thing, even if it's a dodgy prequal! Let me know if its any good, as my cinema time is limited at present.
Our Carmen is on Sunday, so spare us a thought. I feel a bit of a jerk as I'm stomping around the stage with a shotgun which is bigger than I am! (I'm 5"8') LOTS of standing around feeling eggy, but that's just the piece I guess. I had never thought of smugglers standing about singing for hours - the joys of Opera.
Anyway, I start Figaro rehearsals next week which should be great fun, as a good friend of mine is singing the Count. (Possible corpsing dangers!) My "net" time will be limited over the next few weeks, but I'll log on as much as possible!
Have plentiful wine, tennis, music and films. Love, Giles.

Well i'm just in from seeing Star Wars - 9.00am on a Saturday morning, who knew I was that keen? But it really was the only time to see it to avoid the cues/crowds etc etc. Now I'm supposed to be doing two hours work to build up some flex time. HA HA. Anyway - I loved Star Wars. It really is pure escapism - I'm a big sci-fi fan so it was no surprise to me how much I enjoyed it. I also have a thing for Ewan Macgregor, and he was suitably lovely. It's left me feeling really buzzed. If you liked the other Star Wars movies go see it, and definitely see it on a big screen, but if you want to maximise your cinema time and are a bit luke-warm about sci-fi...you can guarantee that it'll be re-screened at some point in the future. You could decide to be one of the few who never see it. Still - i thought it was well worth my money and I am a sucker for a John Williams soundtrack (which I duly purchased, succoming shamefully to the marketing!).

I'll think of you tomorrow in Carmen carrying a VBG (very big gun). I'm sure you'll be suitably threatening (and I'm really not taking the piss!). Good luck with Figaro too. I'm in this job for another three weeks and then who knows? Hopefully there is some way to log in remotely to our home pages here because even if I am still an employee of the ACT Library Service after June 30, I won't be at the computer. If necessary I'll just have to turn up in another incarnation.

Bye for now, Catriona.

I'm not sure we looked particularly threatening as we had silly hats!
The audience seemed to like it (lots of cheering and Bravos - which is always nice!)
As we seem to have created a remarkably long conversation, perhaps e-mail is a better idea?
Pleased you enjoyed Star Wars, and here's a name drop for you: my best friend recently worked on a film directed by Ewan McGregor, and he's apparently a really good bloke! There you go.
As you like Sci-fi, have you read much Philip K Dick? I think he is one of the most ingenious writers of the twentieth century (despite his trashy 60's writing style) - and I love the way he combines futurism, conspiracy and drama with philosophy, theosophy and religion, not to mention music and art. If you haven't, you must read Valis - fabulous stuff. Bye for now, love G.

I have to say that it is really nice to hear that Ewan Macgregor is actually a "good bloke" to get Aussie on you. My friend Helen and I have desperate crushes on him. We decided that we'd be devastated if he and his wife separated. We haven't yet recovered from Keneth Branagh's break up with Emma Thompson. Yes, I am an unreconstructed romantic. But I do think Ewan is good at his job too. If he wasn't, well, just wouldn't see his films. But you're right, email would be more time efficient.

Glad Carmen was a success.

and what is wrong with kylie - music is music whatever your taste

I do have a tendency towards being a bit of a music Nazi. And this is an argument I often have with friends. Quality is in the ear of the listener and isn't some objective high-wire everything must reach before being considered "good". But...surely time, if nothing else, can be considered something of a bench-mark. There is a reason Beethoven, Mozart, Monteverdi, etc etc are still listened to, while the Kylie's of this world come and go in months and/or years. Time could prove me wrong and if in 20 or 30 years time Kylie, The Spice Girls and their ilk are lauded as geniuses then I'll eat my words. I don't think it's going to happen though.

However, it doesn't really matter. We like what we like and I'm the last person to beg others for appologies for liking things I don't. I, after all, was an Aha fan about 10 years ago...

Well Aha, then, all now are equal.

But they, at least, DIDN'T need to apply to the Stock, Aitken and Waterman school of pop schlock. And that's all I can say about the matter.