At first I said I’d take the Stranger over the Swan, but now I think about it, von Rothbart is probably more to my tastes than either of them. Though Adele and I were entertaining some very naughty domme fantasies of kidnapping a beautiful ballet boy (we thought Albrecht from Giselle would do nicely) and doing evil wicked things to his gorgeous body. Forcing him to dance for us in an emptpy warehouse, then stringing him up to be flogged by a bigger, stronger man… OK, OK, I’ll stop now…

“Oh, I’m in love with a bird – but that’s OK, she’s female.”

Amy – ROTFL That last one’s a fun idea, actually. “Oh, sir… It’s feedback, like from a gun.”

And I don’t mean they therefore actually punch – you can get away with slapping. a)’cause it’s not as damaging or sore and b) ’cause it can be, er, quite nice (you see why I’m into opera now?!) but for punching I’d just ask that you look like you mean it and the person being hit reacts on the correct side/place that was being “punched”

‘Twould be like a girl being tawsed on the hands and reacting like she’d been hit on the arse. ;)

Glad you enjoyed going to Sadlers Wells.

Men portraying women? Sorry. No thanks. Saw Mark Morris’s company once. It was a complete turnoff for me. As a heterosexual male, what I enjoy is seeing gorgeous women moving beautifully, the men complementing them. Really enjoy Balanchine’s works (are you aware that he was Georgian?), also the Joffrey. Experimental “avant-garde” works generally leave me cold. One of the “hardships” of living on Maui is not going to the Royal Ballet & Sadlers Wells, one of my haunts as a teen. And I miss the Proms (used to have a season ticket, and go *at least* three times a week). Wigmore Hall and so on and so forth.

Spohr’s Nonet for string qtt & wind qtt on Public Radio as I write, a really nifty piece — Public Radio in the US makes Radio Three seem pretty shabby.

As far as opera is concerned, I only enjoy the Mozart Big Four (Cosi, Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni), Rossini’s most popular duo (Il Barbiero, Cenerentola) and Wagner’s “light” opera, Meistersinger.

Oh well, enough maundering. But I would enjoy spending a month or two in London during the season.

Oh well, off to the jacuzzi & pool.

Yrs in pervery, Adrian

Funnily enough, I was going through last week’s papers, and a review column in the Observer that discusses “La Fille du Regiment” coming up in ROH, is entitled “We love a girl in uniform”. Why, yes, it so happens, we do!

Just you wait till I get my hands on you. I’ll give you a damn good thra… oh. Hang on…

Opera’s getting better on half-naked men. And women.

Mind, I just watched Calixto Bieito’s Don Giovanni on DVD (the one that caused critics to foam at the mouth at the VERY IDEA that opera could be so vile) and that had half-naked blokes in it, Tarantino-esque blood,fellatio and torture in it. By “torture” I regret to say it involved tying some dude to a pool table and twisting his nipples. And in terms of violence there was a bit too much wimping out of decent stage punchs – to the extent of people being “hit” on one side and reacting to it on the other. And also the half-nakedness wasn’t supremely muscular, but then singers ain’t dancers. ;)

Selling it to you, aren’t I?

Though, I’ve got to say, opera isn’t usually big on beautiful half-naked men. The closest I’ve ever seen to a nice chiselled torso was one staging of Rigoletto. There the Duke, while singing “La donna e mobile”, stripped to the waist in front of a wash-stand and went on washing his armpits. 8-O

Hmm, opera with ballet in it… would that be – I dunno, something to do with Andrew Lloyd Weber? *ducks*

Unfortunately I tend to overlook ballet in favour of opera (obviously) – of course, ideally one wants an opera with ballet in it, of which there are a few…

Then one just needs either the money to go and see it, or the rather better fortune of being in it in the first place. ;)

Amy (who has phoned ENO twice today about tickets. Twice!!! And apparently their system is down until Thursday. *fumes*)

Swan 2 – Stranger 0 *g*