A week at the opera

Longborough Opera House

I have been spending a week in Worcestershire with my old friend Angela.

The reason for my visit this time is that we are going together to the Ring Cycle at Longborough Opera in nearby Gloucestershire.  Invitations to accompany us, extended to both husbands, were for some reason politely declined.

For a lover of opera the experience of sitting through all 16 hours of the Cycle is not unlike undertaking a trip to Mecca...a lifetime's ambition for which one has to save up!

I suppose the absolutely right place to 'do' The Ring is Bayreuth in Germany, where the opera house was specially designed by the composer and is still run by members of his family.   Longborough, which although small, shares a number of the German house's features, is said by some to come a close second.   It is the only place in the UK where all four operas are being performed in sequence this year, the two hundredth anniversary of Wagner's birth.

Gloucestershire countryside

Reviews of the productions have been good, and they have, so far, definitely lived up to expectations.  Also, Brunnhilde, the Valkyrie, is quite slim and good looking, which is unusual.  She, and her faithful horse, will leap onto her funeral pyre this evening in Gotterdamerung, the final lap of the marathon sing.

Teas served by wishmaidens here.

Back to earth, and Suffolk, tomorrow.

Angela's magic flower garden