There is something to be said for a day
when, just before the second lesson of the day a colleague presses a bar of
chocolate into your hands!
This offering was by way of an apology as
it represented the failure of a quest.
Some months ago I went into a supermarket that I do not usually support
and found an unlikely bar of white chocolate with rhubarb! It was so unexpected that I bought it, even
though I do not like white chocolate.
It was astonishingly delicious.
Ever since that time I have attempted to
find this fabulous (in both senses of the word) bar and have signally failed to
do so. One of my colleagues who is a
fanatic for chocolate offered to continue the Quest as if anyone could dedicate
time and effort to such a worthwhile cause, it was she.
The bar I have been given is white
chocolate with a hint of vanilla.
Failure, but the chocolate is by Lindt so, gracious failure.
A quick check on the Internet does not
reveal any white chocolate and rhubarb bar at all – the nearest is a white
chocolate and strawberry rhubarb melange which was certainly not what I found. The search goes on.
This evening when the teaching is finally
done there is the opera. I have re-read
the libretto such as it is – which may seem a little dismissive as the words are
by the Immortal Goethe, but in translation they appear, well, naff – and I am
not sure that I am fully sympathetic with the ending with its glorification of
the “Eternal Feminine” in quite that way that Goethe means it. But, there again, I am reading the libretto
in English which must take away something of the magic of the original.
After all my work on this particular piece
of Schumann I am looking forward to hearing the music even though I will be
half dead with exhaustion. It is not
really practical for me to go home and then trek out to the Liceu and trains
and busses become problematic at the time of night when I have to return, so I
park in the centre and try and steel myself not to pass out when I come back to
the car park and pay the astonishingly exorbitant charges for leaving my car
there.
The next piece of music to learn is
Ligetti’s “Le Grand Macabre” and I am hoping that the Liceu will have the CDs
in the theatre shop so that I don’t have to download them from the
Internet. I will, however check the
price of the downloadable versions to make sure that I am not being ripped off
by the Opera company! There is just so
much that I am prepared to pay for prettily printed discs and a thin, poorly
illustrated booklet!
I shall comfort myself by finding a decent
hotel and having a good meal and leisurely cup of tea or coffee to while away
the hours that I have before the music starts at 8.00 pm.
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