Rigoletto and St Marys Church, Paddington

Up and off to Royal Opera House today to see Rigoletto..  But before that we were visiting St. Mary Magdelene church, in Paddington and it was fascinating. The church was open as part of the Open Houses in London scheme... so glad Pete was aware of this!

We crossed the canal in 'Little Venice' en route from station to church - it was grey and dull and we'd left in a thunderstorm!

The interior is beautiful.

Visiting the crypt is by a guided tour only - and our lady tour guide was very informative and enthusiastic.  We were the only two so...  The Crypt itself is an area which forms an architectural element to the construction of the church itself.  It's never been used for bodies.

However, a chapel was built at a later date and very beautiful it is.  Unfortuately it suffers considerably with damp as the surrounding grounds outside are quite high... but all this is about to be restored shortly

And so to Royal Opera House... Quacks came with us and here he is waiting patiently for the performance to start....

Amazing performance (synopsis here)  and Alexsandra Kurzak as Gilda, and Sio Keenlyside as Rigoletto were amazing.  The final scene was very emotional !!

Wonderful day out :)

La Traviata - in a word - excellent

La Traviata today so, having met Pete, we wandered off to the Royal Opera House across the River.   There was a tube strike today which made the journeys.. a little different.

Always enjoy seeing the horse-drawn drays of Young & Co carrying the beer supply :)

Perhaps overworked as a result of tube strike!

A shop was being refurbished and this was the window screening... took me back to my childhood!

Keen-eyed Pete noticed this moth fly in.. I THINK it's an Angle Shades?

A (James) Bond exhibition was taking place... this was our view from the doorway..

And after, a lovely lunch at Delaunay's Counter (a much happier occasion than our last visit when I discovered my purse had been nicked!!) we had a short wander around Convent Garden before the opera

Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata - the typical love story with a sad ending was amazing. A brief synopsis of the story can be found here.

The scenery and stage setting were some of the best I've seen.  Beautifully costumed and orchestrated on stage; at the end of one scene, the curtains came and across and re-opened to show a beautiful tableau of the end scene.. no-one on stage moved a flicker... fantastic.

And the singers - well!! Diane Damrau - on stage for about 80% of the production was superb.. even in the closing scene where her character (Violetta) is dying, she managed to convey such emotion whilst acting wonderfully as her character was dying...  Her voice is beautiful and captivated me completely.  Francesco Demuro gave an excellent performance as Alfredo Germont, (especially the Brindisi -  or more well know as the "song)W" but, for me, he was a little overshadowed by the performance of Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his father, Giorgio Germont - the passion and emotion he portrayed was quite moving.  Damrau and Hvorostovky together made a pretty formidable team!!

And the music played by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House could only add the enjoyment of the production overall.

So in summary, an amazing production and a thoroughly enjoyable 3 and a quarter hours... could watch this again quite easily!!

Slight downside, was the 'idiot' a few rows in front of us, whose mobile phone rang during the performance which necessitated a member of the ROH staff having to have a word!!  And later on, yet another mobile phone went off!!

And the weather was warm and sunny which made the walk to the station along The Mall even more enjoyeable - resisted the temptation to nip into one of the parks as passing  Buckingham Palace was hard, but it was getting late for trains