English National Opera has a long history of presenting Handel but the decision to do Castor and Pollux by his contemporary Rameau promised much. The reviews were not good. Indeed they were so poor that expectations were very low. In the event it was fun evening of good music, good singing and mostly ok production. A minimalist set allowed for much dancing. Pity the chorus seemed to get pulled into this. They looked stiff compared with the professional, non singing, actors and dancers. The nudity sciences were about average for ENO.
The orchestra was almost at the same level as the singers - so they were very much part of the action. C and P was written in 1737 and seemed to my ears more advanced than Handel's operas as they are dominated by static ABA arias. C and P was a written through score and the chorus were much more of the action and the psychology than in Handel. Good night out.
Two other cultural highlights: the Alan Turing play/documentary on Channel 4 was splendid. Catch it on catch up TV if you can. I thought the device of having some of the sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr Greenbaum, helpful way of looking into some aspects of the story. The world looked very different for gay men in those days, well at least in the UK.
Mongrels BBC 3 is unmissable. You will not look at dogs and foxes in the same way again.
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