Boxer Shorts, maybe responsible for the erosion of the Ozone layer.
yes but can you imagine sitting next to such characters in drawing room soirees??
erhm RJ or can I call you Jack now ? - just a point for devotees - which city opera were performing ? - Swansea; NY city opera; Opera Holland; Opera Australia or Opera de Montreal to name but a few and as you are a seasoned traveller then you could have been anywhere!! -know what I mean nod nod wink wink! “tales of travel with nurse vivian”
I must highlight though the pure tones and power of Madalina Barbu in the role of Lakmé her voice soared transcendently achieving unbelievable peaks effortlessly
lovely - well not to take anything away from the lovely Madaline but how would you rate her compared to Joan Sutherland??
Excepting those rumbles previously “touching cloth”
Not one to NAMEDROP below is a piece I wrote about my mother and Ken Russell the famous film director.
My Mother & Ken Russell.
Researched by Robert G
I knew that Olive, my mother knew the man but I had no idea she kept so many letters & cards from the great man, L’enfant terrible of the cinematic world.
Ken’s family came from the Trinity district of old Southampton , now St Mary’s. His father was a cobbler by trade & coincidentally lived for a time in Craven street, where my father was born in 1920. The Russell family were mostly known as money lenders. Olive came into their world in about 1940 by which time they had moved to a large detached house in Winchester road . Mrs Russell made quite an impression on young Olive, employed as a house maid & sometime baby sitter to young Ken, barely 2 years younger than her. Mum refers to the lady in one of her letters to Ken.
Ken kept in touch diligently especially in her retirement years, writing from all over the world in his own handwriting, visiting her and receiving her and dad onto his film sets.
footnote
I wasn’t going to keep the boxfile containing these letters cards & cuttings but I quickly changed my mind when I eventually sat down & read the entire collection, realising what a treasure-trove is contained here. Light is shed on the life & character of both of them. An interesting read.
PS,
the family kept Mr Russell informed when she was very ill, aged 86.
By an astounding act of fate we had no reason to inform him of her death on November 11th 2011, because he died the same day.
Quote from Ken Russells obit
He gave the impression that he cared not a damn. Those who knew him better, however, knew that he did. Underneath all the showbiz bluster, he was an old softie. Or, perhaps as accurately, a talented boy who never quite grew up.
Your mothers letters prove this to be a true description
I will return when the air has cleared
“I will return when the air has cleared”
Don’t blame you Solo, I’ll have to see Azz about getting an extractor fan in.
A grand bit of reading there folks, warms the cockles of me heart to see yis all in good form.
All I can say about opera RJ is that it takes a clever man to figure out what’s happening on the stage, good for you and delighted you enjoy it. I’m more of a murder mystery/ comedy man when I go to the plays here in Dublin.
As an apprentice many years ago I worked for a West Indian bloke called Clarence Hudson, previous to that the only other Clarence I knew was the cross eyed lion on TV. Clarence was one of the top diamond mounters in these isles, he used to have “By appointment only” and “Late of Hatton Garden” on his brass plate outside his workshop and only the creme de la creme could afford his work.
When we practiced making ring mounts in silver we would take it in to Clarence and hand it over for inspection then wait for the sermon on the mount, as we called it, but he was an excellent teacher and pointed out where you went wrong and how to avoid going wrong again.
Anyway Clarence loved the films, especially westerns, and would regularly give me half a dollar to go and see a film he thought he might like to see himself when he was free, I was to watch every frame and come back and report it all to him in his office, it was a shilling into the cinema (Only the best seats I was to sit in, usually half a crown seats but a shilling to under 16’s) and the other one and six was to spend at my own discretion, popcorn and smokes usually. More times than not he would go to see the film himself that night with his beautiful wife Sonia.
I had to hold in the laughing at the way he used to say ‘Film’, he would say “Well tell me now little Timmy, was the Flem any good?”
He eventually ended up living in Paris where I heard he died some years ago at the ripe old age of 92, a very unforgettable and kind gentleman he was too.
Don’t only the Good die Young?
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
boo hoo to you RR
As I was going to widdicombe fair
I met this gay boy with long fur hur
He asked me which did I prefer?
And I replied”don’t really care”
Chorus – insert own chorus if you dare!
We walked along to Widdicombe fair
Hand in hand without a care
Folly me? Folly me
Will I be me when we get there?
Then suddenly I became quite queer
Folly Di folly di
Oh this is surely one big folly
But I’m in too deep – fallen off me trolley
But the sun still shone and his hair was golden
And I knew right then my heart he’d stolen
And when we got to Widdicombe fair
He saw dear Ralph standing over there
And said goodbye without a care
I’d been stood down at Widdicombe fair
Folly me folly me
Yes I know it just don’t seem to fair
But silly old me without a care
Wandered at will and will waved back
Was this yet another folly as I looked back?
© author unknown!
Been better sticking to the Follyfoot Ethos if you ask me.
I am hav… a littl… tr…le wit m ink s…ppply
bbl
Jem I saw on a telly programme ‘How it is made’ that the jewelry trade are having trouble getting apprentices these days, and some parts of the old craft are not being passed on so will be lost.
Some people from the past do tend to dwell in your mind for whatever reason be it good or bad. Nice when it is for a good reason. Not so nice when it’s the other.
RobertJnr. Nice summing up there of an evening at the Opera I am sure that the poor lady on finding her seat collapsing must have hit a high C similar to the talented Mado Robin.
I am a bit sniffy with opera and have my likes and dislikes, y’now the type that mutters, “don’t like her, but like him. too low, too high” and so on.
Over the years I have brought it down to the kind of hearing I have, so as Soprano sits comfortably in my sensitive lug holes I mainly listen to that and can get quite carried away at times and have even been known to lip synch Zerbinetta in my bath with a technical mastery that would amaze you
Neither Maria Callas nor Joan Sutherland ever quite conjured in me up the adored adulation they received from others. Not sure why but it was no doubt their timbre, although in Callas it was more the women herself.
Solo,
thanks for that link, verifying my nfo.
I mention so many interesting people that i have known that I sometimes wonder if it all really happened
BTW
One afternoon I joined them for afternoon tea & we discussed the operas e has directed. My favourite was and is the staging of “Cav & Pag” which he told me he had directed more than once
see 4924
Nothing lacking in this performance in my humble opinion. All credit to the Theatre Royal & City Opera for staging this rather neglected work. Lakmé by Léo Delibes has suffered in the same way as all the other misunderstood gems branded a one tune Opera. The flower song in this case. Cruelly when you think of Cav & Pag forever staged jointly & known mainly for the Intermezzo in Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, and Vesti la giubba from I Pagliacci by Ruggierio Leoncavallo.
The trouble is when telling of past experiences at our age you are sometimes looked at in disbelief.and that look of ‘You actually had a life’ comes on some faces. 
Many did not know of Ken Russells involvement in Opera. quote from him - see link below
Opera is just like the musicals, only the music is better, and if they’re produced properly, they’re much more exciting. I’ve always tried to make opera a human story so that people feel emotionally involved. It mustn’t be unbelievable because people need to relate to the characters. Ken Russell, 1987.
link
I know exactly what you mean…exactly
Anything conversation involving my DOB & I get looked at with frown of disbelief, akin to obituaries that highlight the impression of many that…
“I thought (e.g.Kirk Douglas) died years ago”
according to WIKI KD iis still alive at 103 oooopps
sweetie pie has PM’d me saying she is finding it difficult to follow a theme here - strange - I always thought this thread was one of the original theme parks??
Now theme parks, I can add to that.
