With 23 days to go until NaNoWriMo 2017 we've had the call to upload details of our new novels. Working title and working cover reveal in this post.
Del8th October 2017
The NaNoWriMo 2017 call to arms popped into my inbox this morning. Shall I? Shan’t I? Of course I shall ...
Del3rd October 2017
If outdoor opera is magical, then outdoor operetta lakeside is utterly enchanting. Der Vogelhändler (Carl Zeller) at Mörbisch – a cast of thousands, a spectacle extraordinaire, lavish costumes, lavish scenery and a plot so complicated that I’m not even going…
Del20th August 2017
Stone quarry, giant chandelier, stage-set, mostly red. Verdi’s Rigoletto. Breath-taking. There’s something magical about opera al fresco – unless, of course, it’s raining. Red symbolises “passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure” (colormatters.com). And Rigoletto has it all. But…
Del13th August 2017
I’m behind on my author confessions ... first of all, a holiday on a planet that didn’t have wifi (deepest joy), then zipping hither and thither with limited internet access (it is remarkable that so much of the UK still…
Del13th June 2017
First day of April, first day of the A to Z blog challenge and first day at Camp NaNoWriMo. Already there are shades of my long ago camping days with the Girl Guides – my part of the cabin looks…
Del1st April 2017
Today’s choice is a rather obvious one, for which I make no apology, as we need to finish the year on a high. For the ultimate New Year jollity, there is nothing to beat Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. As my one…
Del31st December 2016
A notable omission from the opera play-list, so far, is Gounod, but that’s being rectified as we speak with the addition of Maria Callas singing Je veux vivre dans ce rêvre qui m’enivre. The aria is from Romeo et Juliette.…
Del30th December 2016
Or at the side of the holy church, as temples didn’t feature on our morning perambulation, whereas a church is easy to find as you’re never far away from one in Vienna. Today’s choices are two magnificent pieces from La…
Del29th December 2016
Today we’re off to the underworld, which means we can add four tracks to the playlist thus filling in some of those gaps. Jacopo Peri (1581 – 1633) was an Italian, who wrote the first opera ever, so he definitely…
Del28th December 2016
An endlessly intoxicating night of ecstasy eh? The night is still young … I’ve chosen Nuit d’ivresse d'extase infinie for today’s track on the opera playlist because it is simply exquisite. This version sung by Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto…
Del27th December 2016
Boxing Day and that British tradition - the meet of the hunt. I have no idea where we are in terms of the legislation on this, as there are so many loopholes, exceptions and workarounds, as well as artificial trails…
Del26th December 2016
No, not me … but Maddalena. I’m dedicating today’s post to my Dad - we still miss him so much. His love of opera was instrumental in the acquisition of my own passion for the genre. When he lived in Vienna,…
Del25th December 2016
I realise that if I’m going to get the playlist finished by the end of the year, and if it’s going to be representative of opera through the ages, then I might need to start adding more than one track…
Del24th December 2016
Following on from yesterday’s post … The miserable Friedrich is going to punish anyone who participates in the carnival, all part of his plan to ban fun. And a bit of word association soon gets us from carnivals to masks…
Del23rd December 2016
Today’s track is from a little known opera by Wagner. The purists dismiss it as trivial, but being a trivial sort of person, I don’t mind admitting I like it; in fact, I like it a lot. The justification for…
Del22nd December 2016
As it is the shortest day, I had intended to add something from the shortest opera to the playlist. Research shows that the honour of writing the shortest opera belongs to Peter Reynolds and his four minute opera The Sands…
Del21st December 2016
I always feel terribly excited when I see the first fall of snow. I don’t know whether the excitement is rooted in childhood memories of sledging and snowmen or whether it’s just how different the world looks - there’s often…
Del20th December 2016