Handel's Julius Caesar in Egypt

 In the past few years we have held opera evenings with a few friends - French and English - at home.  We are really lucky to have access to beautiful recordings of performances from Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, La Scala and elsewhere.

I've already enthused over Mozart, but some of Handel's operas excite us nearly as much.  We have just rewatched the Glyndebourne production of Giulio Cesare with Sarah Connolly in one of the ultimate trouser roles as The Man Himself and the stunning Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra.  How lucky Glyndebourne has been that she has become a family fixture.

In fact, it is a cast full of outstanding singers, most of them high voices - two excellent countertenors , Patricia Bardon in a surprising 'true alto'  role (how rare) as Cornelia and Angelika Kirschlager in another trouser role as her son Sesto.  We are so lucky to have such beautiful recordings to watch  again and again, and Glyndebourne excels itself in promoting period instgrument  performances of such qulity.  The aria duet which Caesar sings with solo horn obbligato Va tacito e nascosto is a marvel in these days of virtuoso natural horn playing, with Sarah Connolly striding the stage in suitably imperial fashion.

The countertenors, Rachid ben Aslam and and Christopher Maltman, are wonderful and the rare male voice in a conventional male register, Christopher Maltman, is suitably evil though converted to the side of goodness before the end of the opera.  

Musical life here, BBC Radio 3, Opera and Elizabeth Jacquet de a Guerre

 As you will have gathered, Mary is still active in playing the cello - normally one day a week mostly playing in groups based around the music school in Vauvert, about 15 km east of Lunel, plus of course a lot of practice.  The neew term has just started, and M has kept up her practice when hot weather allowed - easier now the temperatures have dropped to nearer English summer levels.  My musical life in mostly listening now, though I would like to play the recorder again when distractions allow.

We often listen to at the BBC broadcast, Composer of the Week and this summer we had a treat listening to a series of programmes about Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.  The last of the 5 programmes is here as I write.  Others of our friends will not be surprised, but for us the quality of this music and of the woman composer favourite in the court of Louis XIV was a real eye-opener to us.  So many surprises - a woman in a man's world, writing music of real appeal, and the only disappointment is that - perhaps this is where the expected undervaluing of women musicians applies - so little of her output survived.  I was also much impressed by the thoughtful presentation of the week's programmes by Kate Molleson, one of a number of women presenters on Radio 3 whose style and voice have sometimes grated with us.  Anyway, I should not carp - since there are noises off about cutting BBC music broadcasts to Europe we must be thankful for all we get.

We have a small  group of friends who get together here at home every month or two to watch an opera - so far, Mozart, Handel, and Britten have figured.  We are incredibly lucky to have access to wonderful productions from Glyndebourne, Covent Gerden, La Scala and more.  We  try to mimic the Glyndebourne format with two halves of opera and a meal in the middle (though not with the classy garden setting).  Our last evening was Britten's Peter Grimes, completely  new to us and very powerful.  Then we were back with Handel, Rinaldo from Glyndebourne.   I am constantly on the search for good sound quality, and pondering investing in new speakers, especially to play our still growing collection of CDs! 

The Proms have been a regular background on Radio 3 this summer as always.  Our taste for chamber and bacroque music is better served elsewhere - the Proms are built around larger orchestral works, but by all accounts the campaign to attract new listeners to Radio 3 is succeeding so we need to learn to put up with the sometimes trying self-promotion of some of the presenters to try and ensure that the channel remains up and running.