Mozart, Hergé, Casanova, Tiersen and Stoppard

Sunday bloggin' babblin' ..

Now, the Right Honourable Reader might be thinking why on Earth this blogger of yours has failed so utterly in his duty to feed his blog at a respectable pace? Some of us have our addictions, we might agree.. You would need the fix of my next post, honey? ...That's quite a compliment..

Truth is, I'm absofuckingly lazy.. Better go for a photo quickly extracted from my virus-prone Picassa database.. And, wham!.. A quickie night or day cybershot shoots away.. Itching fingers and guilty artistic integrity feelings just melts away.. Another day of reprieve...…

But surely, the Right Honourable Reader might insist, there is much to blog about in these recent times? … Honeymooning included, for Goodness' Sake?.. The charms and spasms of a cinquentanero lurking.. The mermaid chants of a possible New Why future ("N" "Y", very clever) .. The lifelong fantasy of dressing up as the Chevalier de Seingalt.. Come on, bloody blogger, move your ass.. Write us something..

Indeed, Sir, I will ..

What blogtexts are queuing up in now dry formerly wet paper notes that stand by the wash basin where I scribble post-showers ideas?.. Right:

Mozart, Wolfgang - Because I read in "The Guardian" that the best way to commemorate the 250th anniversary is to go and see "Apollo and Hyacinthus" which he composed at the age of 11.. A little short opera where the DNA of portentous things to come is there for all to see..

When my children, the three of them, first went to visit their diplomatic-exiled father in Moscovy I tried to concoct an unforgetable program..… From the Durov Animal Theater, the oldest animal circus in the theatrical world (awful stench of adolescent hippopotamus) to Red Arrow night train to Petrograd..

From Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with babushkas hopping from place to place with careless indifference to rows and seats.. To the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg with minus ten clear sunlight obfuscating the white and gold State Rooms..

And what about Opera?.. Surely their age and their presence in the city with most opera performances going on at every given night demanded some opera? But to take an hyperactive child to more than one Act of ever present Piotr Illitch's works?.. To ask pre-teenagers for the attention span of a Bolshoi regular?. So, in the end, I took the small tribe to the Helikon Theatre, in Bolshaya Nikitskaya, to see "Apollo and Hyacinthus"

(www.openweb.ru/helikon/appollon.htm )

.. Quod erat demonstrandum..

Hergé - Because while enjoying some rare snow-filled tourist-free Loire-castling, Mayamalinkarusskaya and this blogger of yours paid a visit to the Chateau de Cheverny.. The central corpus of the Chateau is Moulinsart, the beautiful palace that King Louis XV granted on July 15th 1695 to his loyal servant the Chevalier de Haddock, captain of the Unicorn, and ancestor of Captain Haddock. (In the English version of Hergé's Tintin saga, the "Chateau de Moulinsart" becomes Marlinspike Hall.. Tintin, Haddock, Nestor and Abdullah keep their names but Milou becomes Snowy.. and Prof. Tournesol becomes Professor Calculus..).

On the grounds of Cheverny all those nostalgic of their Tintin-reading youth can have a field day.. One can see there the scale model of the Unicorn, the one first spotted in Paris' Marché aux Puces which triggered the diptych "The Secret de La Licorne/ Le Trésor de Rackam Le Rouge".. The actual hand-written diaries of the Chevalier de Haddock.. The three scrolls which when hold together against a light would give the latitude and longitude of the exact spot where the Unicorn sank.. One can see the office of Professor Tournesol/Calculus with the green felt bowler hat, some scientific devices and a framed photo of Madame Castafiore, with dedicatory .. One can see the original LP with the recording of the Jewel Song (Air des Bijoux) from Gounod's "Faust" that immortalized the Milanese Nightingale, Bianca Castafiore, in the role of Marguerite.. Would this blogger of yours need to say more?.. Any serious scholar of Tintinology has to visit Cheverny...…

The original vynil LP which triggered Ms Castafiore's star status..

Casanova, Giacomo - Oh no, not again! - the Right Honourable Reader might shout, with understandable horror.. But what can one do, when Carnival and fancy dress parties were approaching?.. This blogger of yours fulfilled his fantasy to dress up as the Chevalier de Seingalt.. Did I say dress up?.. No, rather impersonating or.. how should I put it?.. "Being" Giacomo in the twilightish zone sense of the numerous escapades of Mr Presley, Elvis from his Memphis resting place.. What was not on the cards was the heavy snowstorm that made getting a taxi an impossibility.. This blogger of yours had to walk, in high-heeled buckled shoes, silk socks and XVIII century velvet and lace outfit, under severe weather conditions, to get, 3 km away, the rescuing SUV. Madrid in the snow on Mardi-Gras night.. A Casanova keeping a brisk walking pace among other dressed up revellers.. Blogable stuff, wouldn't you say?

Tiersen, Yann - A live concert from the Parisian author of "Amélie" 's soundtrack is worth a mass, surely? Two birds caught in one shot: Tiersen music live itself and a chance to be in "La Riviera", the legendary gigs place in the Ciudad. (The madrilène equivalent of the Apollo Hammersmith, or the Fillmore East, or the Coliseu dos Recreios).. ~

Very impressive neo-jazzy "valse musette" stuff.. with guitar and organ crescendos like musical panzers sweeping through mittleuropa flatland.. Despite anxious cries of "Amélie!" from his fans, Mr Tiersen remained unimpressed throughout.. He stuck to his new album music and ignored the nostalgic public.. It was bloody cold everywhere, and a couple of honest gin tonics couldn't be of any help..

Yann Tiersen in concert at the "La Riviera"..

Stoppard, Tom - Just a quick reminder for those who believe this blogger of yours when he says Sir Tom is in the recently nobelized Harold Pinter league, just so much better.. Next June you just have to travel to the Royal Court Theatre, in Sloane Square, to attend a performance of his latest play ("Rock 'n' Roll") dealing with pre-democratic Chech Republic .. Brian Cox, Sinead Cusack and Rufus Sewell have ben cast.. Better book tickets well in advance, mind you.. I've just bought two seats for July 15th and I intend to be there, no matter the size of my family by then...…