Sung with Patricia Racette in the title role, this opera was made all the sexier with the very popular tenor Roberto Alagna playing a superb Cavaradossi. 
After-work kids having their cocktails at The Library.
At the small Lighthouse Cinema I was the only man in an audience of six, comfortable in our armchairs for this three and a half hour Napoleonic melodrama with Art, love, jealousy, murder and suicide on the agenda, all stuff of High Opera. I thoroughly enjoyed the High Definition production with Renee Fleming being our more than gracious and knowledgeable host, talking us through the plot and introducing us to the stars. What better way to see a world class opera, and for a quarter the cost, than in the most comfy atmosphere of one's own hometown.
Feeling the need to digest the lavish production I have decided to take a hot lemon honey drink at my local bar The Library, today served not by a Farrah, but by a very young Alain Delon, a heavily French accented young waiter. Again at five pm I am the first here, which I like, and the quiet background music is always to my taste. It's funny how retro the kids are in Wellington, they really know my taste. Last week it was Adele, as well one of my very favourites.
At five-thirty and the bar is fast filling with young people, it is Friday afternoon after all, and the Christmas season is nearly here, although there are sadly few decorations in the streets of Wellington, something which is a bit disappointing as there is a great opportunity to deck these lovely streets with some fabulous lights, like in Paris. Oh well, one day I'll just have to get on the city council!
Above flowers and tragedy at the Cuba Lighthouse
Last night was my last appearance with the Glamaphones, a final rehearsal for the Christmas Carols for Sunday, a gig which I just discovered I can't do as I double booked an unmissable ECK event. So be it, I can always sing next year. The rehearsal was at the regional Porirua Art Gallery/ Museum, called Pataka, and I went early with one of the altos who offered me a lift. We checked out the Art and I discovered my friend's photos in one of the exhibitions. Three degrees of separation in Wellington, some say only two!
I decide to have a second honey drink, and my French waiter confesses he is Italian, oh well, I think Delon was half Italian anyway! The place is now suddenly full and buzzing with chirpy conversation. The weather is good, tomorrow is Saturday so all is happy in this little paradise.
A few words on my alto singer friend, who tells me on the way home she has a daughter in Auckland, given to her, a little unwillingly I felt, by a black Jamaican during her fifteen years OE (overseas experience) when she lived and worked in New York, strangely the same time that I was there in 1969. I hazard a thought that our experiences there were a tad different although we did have the Jamaican in common! She's been back a while in NZ and finds it hard now she's nearing retirement age to find a good place to live. I told her not to sweat the small stuff, she worries too much. I think she took it on board, but I thought her experience might echo a few of local talented lassies trying to make in the big OS. After all, we are all a bit naive, in the Antipodes!
After-work kids having their cocktails at The Library.
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