Dido
Dido was last night in Manchester Cathedral. I want to remember it forever. It is one of the best experiences I have ever, ever had. I am too tired to write properly, but it was just… Yeah. amazing.
Thank you to everyone who made it so special by being there, particularly S, E, and Auntie P and Uncle P, and anyone else reading this who was there.
You were fantastic. I particularly liked the subito-piano on the top note of your final (I think) “remember me”. There were many very clever ideas in the production and I admired almost all of the chorepgraphy. Your exit in the death scene was very cleverly and effectively managed, and you were totally focused on your role at all times, as indeed were the rest of the cast. The only things wrong with the production in my view were (1) the fact that it was performed at ground level - it needed rostra to raise everyone above the audience so that the audience could see the detail of what was happening; (2) the general poor diction - even you weren’t immune - you must ennunciate the ends of words in English; (3) the wind band for the Stravinsky was too loud for the soprano soloist (or more realistically, the soprano soloist wasn’t powerful enough to cope with the volume of the accompanists, though she did have a good tone.) The best diction was the tallest of the witches, but she didn’t have the technique to carry off the runs. Whose stupid idea was it to have the cast listed in the programme in alphabetical order of surname, so that the audience had little chance of working out which role was being sung by which person? Hugs. Uncle P. (I’m still waiting for the video.)
Comment by Leporello — June 2, 2008 @ 12:28 am
I love Dido!
tell us more about it after you rest ;-)
Comment by Zhu — June 2, 2008 @ 4:03 am
I wish I could have been there, but darn that pesky intervening ocean!
Comment by John — June 2, 2008 @ 5:17 am
Yay. It’s not one of my favourites by any stretch (Purcell’s not my taste), but I’m sure you were brill in the lead.
Comment by Brennig — June 2, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
Ooooh! Glad it went well!
As Jack Brymer was known to say (occasionally)… “that’s one I would have done for free!”
Comment by concertmaster — June 3, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
Hooray, well done sweetie. Fantastic. Hope you got plenty of rest.
Comment by Jo Beaufoix — June 4, 2008 @ 7:26 pm