I return from camp! I come avec escalated nasty cold (three weeks, ya? Not fun!) but having had a marvellous time! I cannot upload any more photos at present due to Picasa being meanies again, but here are a few. There were so many wonderful moments!
Dance night:
CBC came up to see me (he couldn't come to camp this year because of Olympic committments) when we had Dance Night and we had a wonderful time swinging away to Big Band music and laughing with friends. The barn was already beginning to be decked out with decorations for 'A midsummer night's dream' so it was beautiful. I missed him!
A midsummer night's dream
As you may have remembered in a previous post, I said I had been asked to direct A midsummernight's dream which we were playing. We did a heavily-cut version of the play interspersed with Mendelsohn's score (including the famous wedding March). It was simply magical and an evening to remember. All the actors were brilliant, it was hilarious and the set, organised by an amazing lady called Ceilia, was beautiful. The whole barn was strung with garlands of greenery and followers. Titania's bower was decked in flowers, drapes, another arch to the side, the moon on a pulley system, logs and tree stumps and flowers everywhere. The orchestra acted as the forest, so a lot of the action actually took place amongst them. We asked them to decorate their music-stands and themselves with foliage which they did with alacrity! The whole set up was literally other-wordly!
Many people asked me, 'So, have you found your new niche as a director?'. Well, though I enjoyed the new experience, whilst I wont refuse the job, I will not actively seek to direct. I really missed acting and felt a little leftout in the performance, being one of the only people, not involved-actively in the performance. I don't get to act very often and so I crave those opportunities that do arise. The chance to act in Shakespeare in an amateur-setting doesn't come round too often and since the last time MND was done at camp was 25 years ago, I think I'll be a little too old to play Puck, Titania, Hermia or Helena in 25 years hence!
Mathis der Maler
I finally got to play Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony, playing 1st flute which was an utter dream! He really is an underrated composer! My flute playing in this was described by someone I really really respect (he being a super flautist himself) as Radiant and my tone as ' beautifully light but with gravitas' and suitably loud when needed, which means the world to me to hear this from him, and "Bloody marvellous!" by a French-horn player.
Muddy walks:
On the afternoon we were supposed to have a picnic and cricketmatch, I decided to stay behind at camp and it bucketed it down with rain, so I was most fortunate. However, I enjoyed a lovely muddy walk through the woods (with wellies and coat) with 2 new friends which was very exciting and fitting after MND)
A child of our time
We played a performance of Tippett's 'A child of our time' a choral and orchestral work based on the events of 1933 in which a Nazi prisonguard was killed by a young Jewish boy and the awful events that followed. It follows the oratorio form like other choral works but 'chorales are replaced by spirituals like Deep river) Again in which I played 1st, which was so moving that I and the male 2nd flautist were in tears at the end. I cannot express the feeling you get of playing music sometimes which holds in it, so much meaning, poignance, power and memory.
Present and singing in the choir were 2 people- one of whom was one of the children who was brought to England in the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) in 1938. (This was an informal name of several rescue efforts to bring many thousands of refugee Jewish children to the UK from Nazi Germany from 1938-1940. This followed horrifically violent pogroms known as Kristallnacht unleashed by the Nazi authorities following the death of a prisonguard by the hand of a young Jewish boy) . Anyway, this man, now in his 80's, who had incidentally celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary that same day, told of how he his life had changed under the Nazis and how when he escaped on the Kindertransport, he was the only one from his class and all the rest, plus his parents had been massacred by the Nazis. He said, we must forgive, but not forget). If this wasn't poignant enough, at the end of the performance, when I was already in tears, a second man stood up and said that his mother was one of those who welcomed the kindertransport refugees to London which he'd only found out about 2 years ago, having no idea of what his mother had done until a newpaper managed to track her down and had a photo of her standing on the platform.
Impromptu ceilidh
To celebrate the diamond wedding anniversary, a hasty ceilidh was organised after the performance, where a variety of recorders and violins gathered round the piano to play Scottish reels whilst the rest of us, danced manic Scottish dances. This was so much fun and actually, a bit of vigorous exercise did my illfeelings the world of good! The Gay Gordons was a bit crazy as I was completely and utterly dizzy and I only didn't fall over because I kept spinning!
Diamond cakes!
The celebrations included a wonderfully sunny tea-party in the courtyard where we enjoyed cakes, scones, and more delicacies! Wine and nibbles on the table in the evening before dinner, and the delight in seeing this obviously still very much in love couple. 2 days later, we celebrated a 40th wedding anniversary in a similar way!
Food:
The food was absolutely marvellous! We had a new head cook who just concocted some amazing dishes for us to eat for each and every meal, varied and amazing. 10 days worth of food, 3 meals a day, 2 courses per meal, cake and tea at 11 and 4, cocoa and biccies at 10.30pm plus music hire etc for 100 pounds- bargain, I say!
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| Dance night swinging with CBC |
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| Beautiful cloud-formations |
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| The barn roof decorated for Midsummer night's dream |
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| The path beside the barn |
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| We ate fairy-cakes after the performance! |
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| Just a little view of the barn with its decoration |
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| Diamond wedding anniversary cakes |
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| Diamond wedding scones |
