3.11.68
Dear Mum, I
had intended to write on Friday, but what with one thing and another,
especially the very busy week we’ve had, I just didn’t get round to it. I
had originally planned a not very busy week after the exhausting Ella Gerber
period, but found in the end that I was out nearly every night. On
Tuesday, I had planned to go to The Italian Girl in Algiers at
the [Sadlers] Wells with Michael – Kingsley had already been on the
previous Saturday – but as things turned out I went with David Gorringe (think
I’ve mentioned him before, if not, he’s small, 25, from Canterbury, an
ex-furnishing business man, who’s very interested in the theatre) and Kevin,
who had come back from the South Coast to get a job. Apparently the work over
the winter period down there is considerably lessened and the hotel he’d been
at couldn’t keep him on. So anyway, he’s now going to be working in
London, near Hampton Court (as far West as we are East) from tomorrow.
When he’s going to see his fiancée, I don’t know, because he only has Thursday
– all day – and Sunday afternoon off! He’s still working as a barman,
incidentally. [I don’t know who this ‘fiancée’ was – I don’t think I
ever met her, or at least not more than once, and the engagement got broken off
in due course.]
So we four
went to the Italian Girl, and though it had some marvellously funny
bits, I think I enjoyed the Opera for All production that much more.
Besides, where we were sitting in the Coliseum (the new Sadler’s Wells) in the
Dress Circle we found that much of what was being sung on stage in the bigger
ensembles was completely lost. And they left out the funniest thing in
the whole show, by not repeating the never-ending septet at the end of the
first act, which I think I mentioned previously. But it was very
beautiful to look at, full of lovely luscious greens and blues, and with a
marvellous set consisting of three variously-shaped platforms that fitted together
sometimes, but other times would sort of float apart to form
different levels. It was produced by Wendy Toye who has
also made several films.
Prior to
this I had gone up to David’s place to have a snack tea – he lives near Great
Portland St, which is near Regent’s Park, Baker St, and Madame Tussaud’s, in a
very nice, centrally-heated penthouse which he shares with a bloke who’s
working on the Opera for All at the moment, but he only pays a quarter of the
full rent because the flat is actually also leased by another bloke who uses it
as a base for the business he partners with the other bloke (the OFA man – get
it?).
Next night
Michael and Lindsay Campbell (from Dunedin, an actor in his 50s whom Mike
shares a flat with – near Oxford Circus – I think I told you). Anyway I
was invited up to their place for tea before I went because I was getting them
in free (as I had the previous night – great isn’t it?) and we had a very nice
meal cooked by Lindsay, who then also shouted us a cab to the theatre, and
brought us a drink in the interval! He was very appreciative.
According to Mike, though he (LC) has lots of friends he doesn’t really have
many close ones and so it seems that he’s very happy to be taken somewhere so
to speak. [Lindsay Campbell had
been one of Dunedin’s top amateur actors before heading for London; he appeared
in a number of roles on TV from 1964 onwards and had a tiny part in A Clockwork
Orange a few years after this letter was written. He also claimed that
he’d suggested the theme music for The Onedin Line.]
Anyway we
went to La Belle Helene, by Offenbach and after I’d changed seats
after the first act – I was sitting behind Hazel, from the Centre, and she had
a lot of hair on! – I enjoyed it a lot. Denis Dowling [a
singer originally from Ranfurly, in Otago] was in it, by the way, and the
whole thing was a hilarious spoof on Classical Mythology. It was rather
like a Gilbert and Sullivan on a slightly different scale. It was
produced, originally (this particular performance is a kind of re-production)
by Basil Coleman who spoke at one of our lectures one day.
Oh, on the
Tuesday night I forgot to say, Kevin came out and stayed with us, and slept on
our divan which apparently he found quite comfortable. The only trouble was
that we sat up and talked after we’d got home till about one. Also forgot
to say that on Monday morning we’d been to see Madame Butterfly at the Garden, and
though the production, especially the lighting wasn’t always the best, it’s
always worth watching Puccini. And the singing was generally very
fine.
On Thursday
night, Mike and Kingsley and I went to the Festival Hall, only because it was
free, (I’d intended to stay home as I felt very tired) to see a gala concert –
seats at anything up to 20 guineas! – and quite honestly it was the most
disappointing concert I’ve attended. Andre Previn was conducting, and
Jacqueline du Pre was the cellist in two concertos. They
started off with a Weber Overture, which was interesting, and then Mrs Daniel
Barenboim (he’s a pianist and she’s du Pre in private life) [did I mean she
was du Pre in public life?] came out and played the Bloch: Schelomo
(whatever that is) for Cello and Orchestra. Bloch was a Jewish composer
and this comes through quite strongly. Unfortunately he’d never had to
contend with Miss DP, which we had to. She plays the cello as though she
wishes to tear its strings to pieces (authorities tell me one of her strings
was off pitch anyway) and constantly produces a grating sound as she hacks at
it, and then when she’s finished a section she turns and looks either at the
conductor or the first violinist in a way that suggests they’d better not
criticise or she’ll get up and belt them. She’s all elbows too, and has a
fierce look on her face throughout. Her finest achievement of the whole
evening was when she played down to the lowest notes on her cello, and instead
of letting it vibrate with her left hand, she let that go, and continued bowing
her right – I’m sure Mr Bloch never intended that ugly sound. This
overall effect was so off-putting that when she played her next, the Saint
Saens, I looked anywhere but at her, and the effect was much more pleasant,
although the SS is nothing to write home about. The orchestra finished up
with the Rachmaninov 3rd Symphony – which dragged on until
nearly the entire audience was asleep. Perhaps this was Mr Previn’s
fault, because people who said they knew the 3rd, said later perhaps
they didn’t! What really got me was that the papers gave the whole mess a
good write-up!! And I though the London papers were supposed to be
amongst the most fiercely critical in the world! [It doesn’t occur to
me that I may have been wrong about this concert; plainly something upset me in
terms of the playing or the music. For an opposite viewpoint on it, check out Hywel David’s article, which
says that the playing made him feel as though he was in ‘seventh heaven.’]
On Friday I
went to Mass in the evening, All Saints Day, and then went again yesterday
morning. I couldn’t remember if one or both or neither were Holy Days of
Obligation so I went both times to make sure! They didn’t announce
them as being anything special last Sunday, but however. [handwritten]
Have to stop apparently. LOTS of love, Mike.
[Handwritten
on the return address page] Kingsley sez thanks very much for the money for
the trunk – he didn’t have time to say it before he left.
