I have been remiss

oh well.

Today I had the wonderful experience of seeing Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. I was not really looking forward to this, I have never been to the ballet before and I did not really see what the big deal was- but I get it now! From the first scene opening with this very rich, colorful set and all these characters acting their own parts through body language and dance- it was really amazing.  I went with my friend, and on the other side of me when the man sat down, he put his hand on my thigh! He looked down when I started, and his face went white, to the degree I think that mine was red, and then he said, "Why I'm so sorry, I thought you were an armrest!" I just smiled and him and his date and said something like, " no worries" while my friend cracked up.

But the ballet- well it was beautiful, there was always about five different places I wented to focus my attention on the stage- except when the lead ballerina was on, she just stole the show completely, it was so breathtaking to watch her even just move her wrist, every motion was so graceful... and I especially loved when all her swan maidens were on the stage, it was an eyeful of white tulle and did I mention that the music was wonderful too? Haha I closed my eyes at one point to just listen... ok so my point is I am a convert.

Afterward walking around, it was like being in the presence of so much grace and ease lingered in the audience, I have never been so aware of myself, it's strange.

P.S. Spring is here, and I like it. Here's to spring.

Horace, Odes, Bk 4, no 7

Snow's gone away; green grass comes back to the meadows,

and green leaves

Back to the trees, as the earth

Suffers her springtime change. Now last month's torrents,

diminished,

Keept to their channels. The Grace

dares to unrobe and, the Nymphs and her two sweet sisters

attending,

Venture a dance in the woods.

Yet be warned: each year gone round, each day snatching

hour says

'Limit your hopes: you must die'

Frost gives way to the warm west winds, soon summer shall 

trample

Spring and be trodden in turn

Under the march of exuberant, fruit-spilling autumn, then

back comes

Winter to numb us again,

Moons make speed to repair their heavenly losses, but not so

We, who, when once we have gone

Downwards to join rich Tullus and Ancus and father Aeneas,

Crumble to shadow and dust.

Who knows whether the all-high gods intend an addition

Made to the sum of today?

Give to your own dear self: that gift is the only possession

Fingers of heirs cannot grasp.

Once you are dead, Torquatus, and Minos delivers his august

Verdict upon your affairs,

No blue blood, no good deeds done, no eloquent pleading

Ever shall conjure you back,

Great is the power of Diana and chaste was Hippolytus, yet

still

Prisoned in darkness he lies.

Passionate Theseus was, yet could not shatter the chains

Death

forged for his Pirithous.

London Theatre

I am taking a course called Modern Theatre, it's really great and this week we went to see Mrs. Affleck at the National Theatre, which has three stages, and ours was the smallest room, The Cottesloe. Mrs. Affleck is an adaptation of an Ibsen play called Little Eyolf, which was taken from Norway 1890's and put into England 1950's. The play was about a dissatisfied woman who wants her husband to in some way commit to her and her alone, but the problematic relationship they have with their son gets in the way. The son then dies, and the play takes an odd turn, but the actress playing Mrs. Affleck was wonderful, she was like Audrey Hepburn with a spine.

on Tuesday I went to see King Lear at the Young Vic Theatre- it was a modernized production, but the original Shakespeare text. Pete Postlethwaite from Romeo + Juliet annnd Jurassic Park. He spent the last two acts in a sundress holding a pink parasol, looking down at himself as he said, "I have been greatly abused." The end was very moving though.

I have also gone to the Old Vic to see Committed with Richard Dreyfuss, which was not great. The set up was cool- the stage floor was made into tens of tv screens, and the moral of the play was interesting, although sort of ambivalent in the end, but the actors were not really all that convincing, I never forgot I was watching a play.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the Taming of the Shrew at the Novello Theatre- it's the Royal Shakespeare Company, so I'm excited to see it.

Night, Chelsea