Richard III

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
Richard III, 5. 2

Serendipity

Janelle, Audrey, Susan, Tim and I decided to see the Lion King so we ditched the group and ran off to get tickets this morning. The Lyceum Theatre is in the theatre district near Covent Garden. On the way there we turned a corner and saw this.



This bridge is designed by Jim Eyre and connects the Royal School of Ballet to an existing window in the Royal Opera House, with little impact on the historic architecture. I read an article on it a year ago and swore that one day I would see it. I even have an image of it saved on my computer in an inspiration file. And today I just stumbled across it! It’s even more beautiful in person, and very unexpected on a small side street.

After picking up tickets we explored the shops at Covent Garden and ate fish and chips in a pub. Then we finally got around to what we are supposed to do today and headed over to the Churchill Museum.

I know quite a bit about Winston Churchill and WWII. I also know a bit about design. That made it absolutely impossible for me to experience this museum with objectivity. This is, simply, great design. The space is underground and meant to recreate Churchill’s bunker and war rooms during the war. You wind your way through a series of rooms recreating the war rooms, until you find yourself in a contemporary space presenting Churchill’s life. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because the exhibit is brilliant. The technology draws you in, the spaceplan is intriguing and chaotic, and text is used continuously and with power. The entire space is interactive and allows you to take part in each phase of his life. You create your own the experience here. We spent all afternoon here exploring, but I found that the design actually overpowered the message. I was so enthralled with the presentation that I lost the information, but as I said it is impossible for me to be objective here. When you exit the exhibit you are back in the bunker and wind your way through several more before you find the exit. The transition from the present, to the past, to an exhibit that is so contemporary that it transcends time, then back to the past, and into the present is powerful. I highly recommend this museum.

The next stop was the British Museum for a half an hour before it closed.



There was just enough time to pass the Rosetta stone and the Assyrian exhibit to find the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. I was enraptured to finally see them. I found myself engrossed by the details in the carvings.









I will come back soon and spend the day here.

There was just enough time at the flat to change before we were off to The Lion King. The tickets were expensive, but my seat was on the sixth row. The show is incredible, especially the costume and set design. It transcends the cartoon by expanding the story and adapting the music. The African heritage is much stronger and more poignant here.

Theatre

This summer I am going to be in London during the Utah Festival Opera's 2006 season. I'm so sad. This will be the first summer I have ever missed a production. Yes, that's right. I have seen everything they have ever performed - including Loralee's season - long before I knew her. I love opera and I especially love plays. What I don't love are musicals. I hate Andrew Lloyd Weber (don't even get me started on Phantom) and tolerate Gilbert and Sullivan only in small quantities. I will admit that there are few things better than an excellent production of the Mikado, but I refuse to see Pirates of Penzance ever again. Three times is two and a half times too many. There are many musicals I love, but I'm a writer. I refuse to sacrifice the plot for the music.

My very first opera was La Traviata when I was in high school. This is interesting to no one else but me, but here is a list of theatre productions I can prove that I have seen, by category. There have been more, but I have playbills or ticket stubs for the following. I remember them all.

Operas and Operettas
Barber of Seville
Carmen
Crucible
Desert Song
Die Fledermaus (twice)
Don Pasquale
Gianni Schicchi (twice)
Girl of the Golden West
Greenwillow
Impresario
I Pagliacci (my favorite ever!)
Julius Caesar
Kismet (twice)
La Cenerentola
La Traviata (three times)
Madama Butterfly (twice)
Magic Flute (twice)
Merry Widow
Mikado (twice)
Nabucco
Naughty Marietta (twice)
Porgy & Bess
Rigoletto
Student Prince
Tales of Hoffman
Tosca
Trial by Jury
Turandot
1776

Musicals
A Really Big Shew
Annie Get Your Gun
Anything Goes
Brigadoon (twice)
Camelot
Cardigans, The
Carousel (twice)
Cotton Patch Gospel
Diamond Studs
Fanny
Fiddler on the Roof
Forever Plaid (twice)
Footloose
Hello, Dolly!
How the West Was Won
I Do! I Do!
Into the Woods
Jane Eyre (with Loralee Burnett as Grace Poole)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (starring Donny Osmond)
King and I (twice)
Little Shop of Horrors (three times)
Man of LaMancha
Monkey Business
Nunsense
Oklahoma
Once Upon a Matress
Peter Pan
Secret Garden
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Scarlet Pimpernel (twice)
She Loves Me
Song of Singapore
Sound of Music
South Pacific (twice)
Sunday in the Park with George
Susannah
Taffetas
Two by Two
Phantom of the Opera (three different productions, Weber's twice)
Pirates of Penzance (three times)
Unforgettable
Unsinkable Molly Brown
Wizard of Oz

Plays
A Bedfull of Foreigners
A Midsummer Night's Dream (three times and a favorite)
A Murder is Announced
All For Mary
An Inspector Calls
And A Nightingale Sang
Antigone
A Winter's Tale
Beehive
Blithe Spirit
Blood Brothers
Cash on Delivery
Cherry Orchard
Christmas Carol (twice)
Diary of Anne Frank
Diviners, The
Dresser, The
Foreigner, The
Frogs, The
Goodnight Desdemona
Harvey
Helen
Heiress, The
Henry V
Henry VI
Holes
I Hate Hamlet
Importance of Being Earnest (twice)
Iphigenia in Tauris
Jungle Book
King Lear
Lettice and Lovage
Lend Me a Tenor
Lost in Yonkers
Merry Wives of Windsor
Miser
Miracle Worker
Mousetrap
Much Ado About Nothing (twice)
Night Watch
Noises Off (three times)
Our Town
Othello
Plaza Suite
Pool's Paradise
Rainmaker
Rumours
Servant of Two Masters, The (twice)
Sherlock's Last Case
Sunshine Boys
Twelveth Night
Unexpected Guest
Wait Until Dark
Winnie the Pooh
Woman in Black, The

I've also seen several ballets and many, many concerts. I love live theatre and see it more often than I see movies. The only glaring omission is Les Miserables and I must see it soon! This summer I will miss Marriage of Figaro, The Music Man, La Boheme and Man of LaMancha. I'll have to make up for it by seeing as much as I can in London.