I've been listening again to bits of Mascagni's 'Zanetto', a short, very moving opera that has largely been passed over in consideration of his canon. Come to think about it, anything beyond 'Cavalleria' tends to be given a swerve. Not at OHP of course where he continues to be something of a popular star: we produce 'L'amico Fritz' for the second time in ten years in 2011. 'Zanetto' might just make it into 2012 and we harbour ambitions to bring 'Ratcliff' and 'isabeau' (another of those late, highly ornamental operas that drew on Wagnerian and Straussian palettes) to the OHP stage. In this regard we are getting back into full stride with Catalani's 'La Wally' finally making it to W8 next year too. Very soon we will announce the full 2011 season (there are protocols to observe).
The rain continues to beat down incessantly but when Chile is shaken to shreds we ought not to complain too much (we finally had a call in the middle of the night from Sally's sister who lives in Santiago confirming they were all OK). The rain keeps me from a cafe seat this morning.
My day with Fiora ended badly and in gallons of vomit that she began to emit dramatically and without warning as she sat on my knee watching family home videos - she loves watching herself perform. After the first eruption covered my keyboard I spun around towards the living room; two further columns of the stuff, travelling horizontally, issued forth and for a moment we danced around ensuring that the entire place was anointed as I looked in vain for somewhere safe to catch the spew. Suffice to say there is no such place in my lounge. I will spare you the drama of the clean-up. This morning she is emitting a slow constant whine that rises to a crescendo of wailing the further Sally moves from her. The whine only stops when she is clamped limpit like to her mother. She certainly has a suitably operatic streak of melodrama in her.
Monday is the first day of March and ten days from now our roof arrives. Perhaps the sun will have risen high enough to shift once and for all the uber winter weather system that has been parked over the UK for two months. I have a lot of cafes to explore.
