Dante night by night

A new project: to read a canto a night from Dante's Divine Comedy. The edition: Robert Durling's OUP three volume, dual language version with end notes that inform rather than patronise. Best read sotto voce I find rather than silently. Letting the images created by Dante, augmented by Botticelli's, merge in the hypnogogic slide into the unconscious. Then see what happens......

This week's Thursday lunchtime concert in Leicester

One of Leicester's better kept secrets is the cycle of fortnightly Thursday lunchtime concerts held between October and April. The setting, a gallery in the New Walk Museum, is an ideal size and acoustic for small scale musical performances. The concerts are put together by Nicholas Daniel and he talent spots some of the best young musicians, nationally and internationally, who are clearly going to be the stars of the future. The audience is large, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Increasingly, there is a queue for returns. The draw backs? To fit in the audience the seats are cramped and I find the paintings on the room's walls are a distraction. 

Mike Wheeler writes the excellent programme notes and Mike Baker introduces the musicians precisely on time with geniality and great warmth. The whole is a joy to have on our doorsteps. Next concert, tomorrow:

Thursday 1 December 2011 1.00pm – 2.00pm

Priya Mitchell (violin)

Natalie Clein (cello)

Katya Apekisheva (piano)

Tchaikovsky: Trio in A minor, Op.50

Piazzolla: 4 Seasons piano trio

http://www.leicesterinternationalmusicfestival.org.uk/

Sapori Italian Restaurant in Anstey

Just north of Leicester, Anstey stands between the city and the posh villages in Charnwood such as Rothley, Newtown Linford and the rest. A former working men's club, the modernist interior of Sapori gives a feeling of being somewhere rather more sophisticated. The welcome was warm at lunchtime as we arrived, the first there - always a worrying sign. Service throughout was fine but not rushed.

The food was good and simple. The bill was not expensive. Certainly worth a detour.

http://www.sapori-restaurant.co.uk/menu/

Booking necessary in the evenings.

Lyle's Golden Syrup

From the University of Nottingham Department of Theology ......

Hockey print

This Hockney print came earlier in the year from Goldmark Galleries in Uppingham, They framed it well with a plain black edged frame. The image is one illustrating a volume of poems by C P Cavafy. Anyone interested in owning it please let me know.

The Rainbow and Dove

The events at the Rainbow and Dove some weeks ago were tragic, almost fatal. Someone went in and allegedly threw a combustible liquid at two of the customers. One is still in hospital but is now reported to be conscious. At first the Rainbow and Dove was named as a gay bar. Then, the the police and the media appeared to stop calling it a gay bar. It was reported quite soon after the event that the police thought it unlikely that the crime was 'homophobic'. In the absence of evidence, of course, it is hard to know one way or the other. 'Intentions' are always problematic.

A number of people seem to have been questioned but no one, so far, has been charged. I wonder why the Rainbow and Dove is no longer called 'a gay bar'? If the attack had been on any other minority social space I am pretty certain it would have been so named. Why not in this case?

Some cultural highlights

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.